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Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

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Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#31

Post by m_ke »

null_ptr wrote: post #26
Ologn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took an AI class and also a computer graphics class at a CUNY school in the fall of 2013. Among CS-major seniors who are in the top half of the class, none that I talked to knew what software version control was, what git or Perforce or cvs etc. were. The faculty is good. Almost all of them knew their stuff, and a few were very good at explaining things clearly. The kids just didn't seem to have much interest in do…

They're there because they heard they'll get a big salary they don't deserve at the end of those 4 years, not because they have any interest in the field or want to contribute anything to the world. It's probably been like this since the dot-com era and the mediocrity has only snowballed since. The state of the software industry and the educational institutions around it is an embarrassment. If the curriculum was any…

I really don't think that's the case. Plenty of CS majors at CUNYs have no idea how much programmers make. Most come in not knowing what to major in, end up taking an intro programming class to meet some basic requirement and end up liking it enough to continue learning it. They go through the program doing well enough to pass and hope that what they learn in class will help them get a job once they're done. None of them read hackernews, so they have no idea that living and breathing computers is prereq for becoming an employable programmer.

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#32

Post by wsxcde »

patio11 wrote: post #2

Awesome, though it might take a bit of air out of the tech-as-a-solution-to-jobs when one hears the qualifier "BTW, they're university-educated CS majors." (At a university with an absolutely terrible career services department, even by the low standards of career services departments.)

> BTW, they're university-educated CS majors

Not true, see jukay's comment downthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7631440

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#34

Post by tptacek »

jukay wrote: post #30
kapkapkap wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your quote in the articles says -- "We saw lots of people in the City University of New York system who graduated as computer science majors but weren't going into the tech industry" --- You can't graduate as a CS major without writing any code...So this quote has nothing to do with the people actually in your program?

That quote was part of a longer conversation, it was asking why we saw the need for this. The idea of even students studying CS not having access and opportunities point out the opportunity to open this up to other people in these communities

I'm confused. Are the people in this story university CS graduates or not? I think you're saying they are NOT, right?

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#35

Post by ForHackernews »

gcb0 wrote: post #14
petsounds wrote: post #8

Just to be clear, these are people with either a BS or a BA in Computer Science, right?

Nope, this is like everyone doing websites in the 90's during the dotcom bubble. All small business trying to find honest people ended up hiring someone's 12yr old cousin (trhu a spiffy LLC front) and ended up with worst-than-useless websites full of security holes and zero accessibility. Hope those projects are all games and fart apps and not mission critical stuff. and since i have a very hard time thinking of miss…

As somebody's formerly 12 year old cousin: screw you, my broken PHP was STATE OF THE ART for web dev.

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#36

Post by Bahamut »

kapkapkap wrote: post #19
jukay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I'm the founder of the organization. 85% of the class had never written a line of code before. We believe that there are people in Queens and other underserved communities who can learn to code and also pursue tech entrepreneurship.

Your quote in the articles says -- "We saw lots of people in the City University of New York system who graduated as computer science majors but weren't going into the tech industry" --- You can't graduate as a CS major without writing any code...So this quote has nothing to do with the people actually in your program?

I know a former CS PhD student at a top 5 program who never coded before going into industry oddly enough - it's probably possible to focus more on the abstract side, although extremely rare.

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#37

Post by vishaldpatel »

null_ptr wrote: post #27
vishaldpatel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they have a name-brand degree going for them.

> And they have a name-brand degree going for them. And you can bet your ass they know what "version control" is and can pick up some flavor of the month framework without someone needing to hold their hands.

I could, but I wouldn't. You'll be surprised by how many brand name grads can't pass fizz buzz.

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#38

Post by pabb »

m_ke wrote: post #31
null_ptr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're there because they heard they'll get a big salary they don't deserve at the end of those 4 years, not because they have any interest in the field or want to contribute anything to the world. It's probably been like this since the dot-com era and the mediocrity has only snowballed since. The state of the software industry and the educational institutions around it is an embarrassment. If the curriculum was any…

I really don't think that's the case. Plenty of CS majors at CUNYs have no idea how much programmers make. Most come in not knowing what to major in, end up taking an intro programming class to meet some basic requirement and end up liking it enough to continue learning it. They go through the program doing well enough to pass and hope that what they learn in class will help them get a job once they're done. None of…

"None of them read hackernews, so they have no idea that living and breathing computers is prereq for becoming an employable programmer."

I know, right? I forgot that we who check HN habitually are the ones destined for developer Valhalla. Go us!

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#39

Post by sopooneo »

null_ptr wrote: post #27
vishaldpatel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they have a name-brand degree going for them.

> And they have a name-brand degree going for them. And you can bet your ass they know what "version control" is and can pick up some flavor of the month framework without someone needing to hold their hands.

I hear you. But I don't think that's a given. Even from somewhere like MIT.

Re: Nonprofit in Queens taught people to write apps, incomes rose from $15k to $72k

#40

Post by dfc » 

  > There's a booming tech scene in New York City with over 70,000 open
  > jobs, but it's always been somewhat insulated from the city itself
What is this sentence trying to convey? The part that I do not understand is the "insulated from the city" bit.
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