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The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

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Re: The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

#31

I am not going to hire anybody from a free coding bootcamp or a coding bootcamp for that matter. Seems like they turn out people who know how to hack things together based on shallow knowledge.

I hired someone from a bootcamp who was making a career change and it was easily one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Took a little while to ramp up, but that process helped me be a better manager and helped the rest of the team feel comfortable mentoring someone.

It’s not for everyone that’s for sure. But saying you’ll never hire anyone means you’re missing out on some great candidates. Take a look at people making career changes, and where you can use that domain knowledge to broaden the team in a way someone with CS degree necessarily might not.

Re: The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know CompSci majors who graduated only knowing Java and who were totally lost if they had to replace a ram chip in a computer. The rest of your post notwithstanding, I don't see why a CompSci major should need to know how to replace a stick of ram.

They should know it all: where the cpu and ram is, how the motherboard look like and etc. Nobody expects them to go out there and start fixing computers, however if someone spends 4 years studying the subject and can't even be asked to look inside the box,well then there's not much hope... A couple of weeks ago I was on the sales floor and was about to change RAM on a couple of PCs( it's not my job,just wanted to do…

> They should know it all: where the cpu and ram is, how the motherboard look like and etc.

Why? That's not Computer Science. Computer science is the science of computation, not the science of computers.

> Nobody expects them to go out there and start fixing computers, however if someone spends 4 years studying the subject and can't even be asked to look inside the box,well then there's not much hope...

Hope for what?

> A couple of weeks ago I was on the sales floor and was about to change RAM on a couple of PCs( it's not my job,just wanted to do it). The sales rep pulled the PC from underneath the desk, took the side cover off, removed the old ram and put the new one in.If sales can do it, I'm confident anyone in CompSci should be able to do so as well.

Why? It's about as related to CompSci as doing field-expedient surgery is to Psychology.

Re: The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

#33
post #3

The attempt to portray income share agreements as bad is very large stretch: > These ISAs are the bedrock of Lambda’s program. They allow the school to market itself as an “accessible” computer science education. But critics, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), have warned that ISAs carry many of the pitfalls of traditional private student loans, “with the added danger of deceptive rhetoric and marketing that obscure…

> Yeah, except for one massive pitfall that student loans have and ISAs don't: With ISAs you only start to pay once you actually start making money

That's not that different from federal student loans, since those all have income-contingent repayment plans (as well as pay as you earn, revised pay as you earn, and income-based, which are generally similar but have different repayment formulas) available. It mainly differs in the reduced flexibility with the ISA.

> If the graduates of the Lambda school don't land jobs then the school doesn't get paid.

ISAs are marketable assets and can be sold even while the student is still in the program, and the school gets paid by selling the asset. The new holder of the asset doesn't get paid if the student doesn't make money.

Re: The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

#35
post #2

30k?! You are honestly better off taking two yeas of night courses at a community college, and it will probably cost you half of that for more classroom time. Bootcamp programs are really crap. Even in a traditional classroom setting, you only get out of it what you put in. I know CompSci majors who graduated only knowing Java and who were totally lost if they had to replace a ram chip in a computer. I knew others wh…

Lambda School is 9 months full-time (40+ hours/week) and 18 months part-time (20+ hours/week).

20 hours for PT? Schedule only has PT down for 15 hours, 3 hour blocks x 5 nights, which is why FT has advantage over PT. Also the 5 extra hours are not explained at the start that we have to do on our own. Makes planning ahead a bit of a hassle. Another reason a lot of PT tell new people to do FT, it is more organized and better program.

Re: The high cost of a free coding bootcamp

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should know it all: where the cpu and ram is, how the motherboard look like and etc. Nobody expects them to go out there and start fixing computers, however if someone spends 4 years studying the subject and can't even be asked to look inside the box,well then there's not much hope... A couple of weeks ago I was on the sales floor and was about to change RAM on a couple of PCs( it's not my job,just wanted to do…

> They should know it all: where the cpu and ram is, how the motherboard look like and etc. Why? That's not Computer Science. Computer science is the science of computation, not the science of computers. > Nobody expects them to go out there and start fixing computers, however if someone spends 4 years studying the subject and can't even be asked to look inside the box,well then there's not much hope... Hope for what…

> In the seven decades he was at M.I.T., Professor Forrester retained an engineer’s curiosity about how things work, and occasionally voiced dismay that his students were not always so inclined.

> He recalled in 2011 that he once asked students in an engineering class if they understood how the feedback mechanism in a toilet’s water tank maintained the water level.

> “I asked them, ‘How many of you have ever taken the lid off a toilet tank to see how it works?’” he recalled. “None of them had. How do you get to M.I.T. without having ever looked inside a toilet tank?”

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