Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lambda School lays off 65 employees

lambdaschool.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 275 posts

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#261

Post by confidantlake »

fridif wrote: post #259
confidantlake wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of software jobs do not need performance artist skills. Most of the pressure is deadline pressure, not "stage" pressure.

Say that you own an auto repair facility. You have 10 mechanics who have applied, and all ten have previous experience on their resume. How would you interview them, so as to choose the best candidate the first time?

I won't have a great answer since I have no experience in the area. But I would probably ask them to repair something, leave them alone and come back in 2 hours. Pick the mechanic that repaired it the best. I would not stare over their shoulder while they worked.

For the music teacher I would have them record the piece, and send in the best take. I wouldn't demand they get on stage and play the piece.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#262

Post by aidaman »

NoblePublius wrote: post #166
sandofsky wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assign precourse work that rejects 98% of applicants. That helps select students with existing experience, sometimes even STEM degrees. According to the example contract on their site, their income share agreements last up to seven years. Even if they fail to teach a student anything, the student can spend years studying on their own (or even get a degree), and still owe money.

Exactly this. The only Bootcamp grass I know that were successful in their post grad jobs were already developers but with a different skill set. The entire concept of turning non technical people into developers is a farce.

you have no idea what you are talking about.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#263

Post by aidaman »

whiddershins wrote: post #198
lifer555 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a recent LS graduate. The program is a total shit show. I was able to get a job but I would never recommend it to anyone. They are just very good at marketing. Great idea, terrible execution.

I’ve been watching a housemate try the program, and it is so obviously terrible, I reached out to Austen on Twitter and offered to help. He gave me an email address and then didn’t reply to some very specific examples I gave of obvious mistakes that are not based in cost or labor saving. Anyway, why should he listen to me. Except that these are just elementary learning mistakes, and the whole thing appears to be run…

There are solid programs that offer ISAs now. e.g. Hack Reactor. I appreciate what Lambda School has done for the industry (pioneering the ISA), but the execution has been a total disaster. Trying to scale a business that relies on services, and basically zero technology, is a very, very bad time.

But there are companies that have been successful with it. (General Assembly, App Academy is having some success, Hack Reactor is growing, Flatiron School, Thinkful, Spring Board)

Next generation of bootcamps will be much higher quality instruction based on technology. (See Fullstack Academy)

And they will be partnered with big FAANGs, or built in-house by FAANGs. (Again, Lambda pioneering)

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#264

Post by aidaman »

tetrahedr0n wrote: post #161
joshxyz wrote: post #134

You know I like how it's a fast paced learning track that's better than 4 year degrees - no argument on that if. But this Austin Allred guy is one sketchy motherfucker. And seeing PG not reacting about the shitty reviews LambdaSchool is getting is the most hypocrytic thing I've seen at all. Aged like fucking milk.

Lol, absolutely. Austin may have been the right guy to start the company, but IMHO, he should've handed it off to someone with a background in education a long time ago.

No. Coding bootcamps should be run by software engineers. Which is the farthest from what Austen is.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#265

Post by aidaman »

NoblePublius wrote: post #163
malwarebytess wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication being bootcamp grads can't into software engineering?

The implication is that good developers don’t need bootcamps as much as potential product managers need them for crash courses on development fundamentals. I’ve lived this personally as an actual founder of a non profit dev bootcamp.

How do you manage anyone with that level of lack of self awareness? Yea, of course prospective product managers will go to bootcamps to learn the technicals.

And why would "good developers" go to a bootcamp? That would defeat the entire purpose.

Think smarter.

And if you actually think coding bootcamps don't work, just take a fking look at the alumni...

https://www.linkedin.com/school/hack-reactor/people/

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#267

Post by mathattack »

legerdemain wrote: post #219
akanet wrote: post #63

Any former employees interested in speaking to a motivated reporter about their experience, please feel free to contact me. My contact information is on my account bio. I am happy to speak to you completely off the record, in any manner that makes you comfortable. I have never lost a source.

I'm kind of curious about what's making you follow up on the Lambda story a year since your initial reporting. Are you working on a longer story on the topic (a book?), or trying to build up a journalistic brand for yourself, or something else?

I don’t know who the author is but generally once a reporter becomes an expert in a controversial subject they follow it to the end. Look at Theranos and Enron.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#268

Post by elteto »

medvezhenok wrote: post #251
elteto wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply can't take 12-16 classes a semester, the day doesn't have enough hours for that. They _might_ have gotten permission from the professors to skip classes and just show up to the exams, which is _not_ learning.

Not sure why that's not learning - if they understand the material at the time of the exams, who cares if they show up to class? Most people forget most of the stuff they "learned" in college 10 years out anyway - most of the economic worth is in the credentialing / signaling versus the actual education (since getting into the school is the hardest part)

I meant that it is not learning in the context of the discussion, which was whether people can assimilate that amount of information in a semester. If you show up to the exam and pass then you did all the learning prior to that.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#269

Post by mathattack »

5revive wrote: post #109
azuriten wrote: post #52

> In fact, many things at Lambda School are working very well, and we believe we're on the path to proving this model successful and sustainable. While that may be true (doubt it), I work at a startup with about 150 employees and if we lost 32% of our employees I'd be polishing my CV and wondering when I'll be cut loose. That's not to mention all the negative stories coming out of Lambda School.

especially when you consider that at this point they raised 100 million in funding. For such a relatively small team thats a ton of money they are burning through.

Is that money being spent on people, or covering investors on ISAs or the CA settlement?
Post reply on HN