Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment got me interested, so I dived deeper into the report [0]. Learners are divided into three groups: graduated (59%), still enrolled (5%), and withdrawn (36%). Graduated learners are further divided into two groups: job seeking (63%: ~37% of all learners) and non-job seeking (37%: ~22% of all learners). Here's the definition of “non-job seeking”: “A BloomTech graduate who has been unresponsive to outreach,…
We should do a better job of getting more granular on that piece, because it really does matter, but the above isn't the right way to do that math to answer the question prospective students have, and is misleading in the opposite direction. The outcomes report is directed at prospective students who want to understand what will happen to them if they attend the school and look for a job. You have to remember that (f…
BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
321–330 of 333 posts
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
The overpriced part is the problem, not college itself. 40 years ago anyone could complete a 4-year degree at nearly any college with grants and a part-time minimum wage job working 10/hrs a week. Today you could only do the same if that job paid $70/hr. The reason? Reagan and his racist republicans hated that college was a leveling playing field. They wanted to put a financial gate in front of college that only whit…
I disagree here. Unified courses work for only a percentage of people, a lot of (most?) people find it boring. These are the people we are failing. We teach math, history you name it in such a mundane way that even I (who is obsessed with math and history) did poorly in the day to day (but passed because I’m a good test taker.)
I wasn’t arguing about curriculum though if I were I’d suggest the reason college starts with basic skills is to allow students to learn how to manage themselves.
Once they garner that foundation, learning new skills has a known pattern.
But as importantly, the entire experience of a four year college helps our children grow into responsible adults, learn about peers they weren’t forced to go to school with, and learn to think on their own.
If our kids fail at any given step, there are plenty of adjustments to be made in this process. And that too is a critical life lesson.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not aware of that but he always seemed like the kind of CEO who would benefit from a lot less time on social media trying to be a thought leader and a lot more time working on the company.
Hmm, perhaps. I actually don't spend as much time on social as it would seem. It takes very little time to dash off a tweet. It's almost like a background process that runs in my mind, and it helps me think through things and shave the edges off of my thinking. There's also probably a dopamine hit that I get from it that I'm not as aware of being a driving indicator, but I don't believe it negatively impacts my abili…
Dude, bragging about how little thought you put into your social media posts is really not a good look.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#324Has anyone had success hiring bootcamp grads? I’ve interviewed dozens and their resume will say something like “Fellow at [bootcamp]” or “Instructor at [bootcamp]”, and it turns out they made a simple programming 101 app and taught a 1hr intro to JavaScript class. None have ever passed an initial screening by me for mid level dev jobs, but I’m curious if anyone else has hired a bootcamp grad for a junior role and had…
I've met some people with physics and accounting degrees who took boot camps and had success, but the people I've seen succeed were already problem solvers and math-aware. They just needed to know the language and routines. On the other hand, I dropped out of school and have been programming for a majority of my life. I was never accused of being incompetent or underperforming, but there was a point in my career wher…
I'd be interested to hear more about this, as someone potentially in a similar position. What kinds of problems did you come up against where you felt your math skills were a limiting factor? What branches of math did you focus on learning?
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where _would_ you encourage people to go for similar purpose with higher quality? Are there any particular bootcamps/online schools you think are good? Some of my friends and family are eager (and IMO perfectly capable) to learn CS and enter the Software Engineering field, so I'm curious what would be a good way for them to do so (without spending 4 years on college again).
Launch School is an incredible option: https://launchschool.com/ It's a self-paced online curriculum that generally takes 1.5 - 2 years to get through, with an optional 4-month "Capstone" intensive after graduating the core curriculum. Progressing out of each course in the curriculum involves having to pass rigorous, easily failable, assessments; you just can't progress until you've cleared a pretty high bar of knowl…
The thing about self paced programs is that a lot of people will not do anything unless they're poked/pressured into making progress (e.g. via deadlines). Now you shouldn't have to be heldback by non-self-motivated persons, but of course the success rate will be higher because it filters out those people.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. They were taking what they learned and applying it. Is this a knock on Lambda School, though? You can go to MIT but if you never apply your learnings you won't be a good engineer.
Going through the motions of a CS degree is probably sufficient to land a decent job if you're getting good grades, not cheating, and you get an internship (or similar). At least from what I've heard of bootcamps, you need to really go above and beyond to have similar chances with that route.
Well there are many many students at schools with CS programs who never get internships (because they don't apply or have an empty resume).
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you observed any other path for new want-to-be developers other than boot camps that tends to yield better outcomes ?
Activity is the signal. Self taught but goes to a ton of meetups. Enrolled in one of the legit online master's programs, etc. Ofttimes bootcamps can appear on these resumes. Someone did a bootcamp, realized it wasn't enough and kept growing in a manner. People who treat the bootcamp as the terminal level of knowledge plateau.
Can't the same be said for University? I know lots of classmates who didn't do anything outside of what's mandatory. They wouldn't have a GitHub account if they weren't forced to in a class for example.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If I were evaluating who I was then as a potential hire today, I’d probably consider me a risky hire with unknown potential You would be wrong. The most important indicator the hiring manager saw in you is that you worked in academia. Hiring someone who worked in academia and also learned to code on the side is a lot different than hiring a middle aged soccer mom whose MLM scheme didn't work out. Both may have a 3…
That specific example seems sorta yikes opinion for somebody with hiring power. Aren't people who get targeted by MLMs victims? More importantly, what does that say about how hard they work? Or being a mom?
It‘s a stereotype for the sake of a stereotype. I don‘t think anyone identifies with such a narrow unrealistic stereotype, so there is no point in arguing for an entirely hypothetical marginalized group.
By the way, hiring is all about judging people‘s past work, and I‘m sorry to pop your bubble if you think past MLM work or having large gaps in your employment history doesn‘t reflect bad on anyone.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#329No post body was provided.
Re: BloomTech, previously Lambda School, cuts half of staff
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact that we changed our name because of a trademark lawsuit is a matter of public record https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/4:2019cv...
Quoted post unavailable.
You can't attack others like this here, regardless of whom you're attacking. We ban accounts that do it, so please don't do it again.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
To answer the obvious rejoinder: no, we don't do this because someone is a YC founder—it's actually the opposite. We moderate less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is in the story: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu....
But "less" doesn't mean "not", and if we allow "you're such a scumbag liar" then we might as well not have any guidelines at all. Please don't post like this again.