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Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

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Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#361

Post by nexus2045 »

dikeledi wrote: post #97

I got drawn into Lambda School at the peak of their hype early last year and considered myself extremely fortunate when I got admitted into one of their pilot EU classes. Suffice it to say that the reality was...significantly poorer than advertised. Not only because of the much-discussed reasons which are true, but most importantly for me because they lied about having hiring partners in Europe when they didn't, and…

> Suffice it to say that the reality was...significantly poorer than advertised.

So like, the Fyre of coding bootcamps. But still better than Siraj Raval?

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#362

Post by meheleventyone »

jacobion wrote: post #251
meheleventyone wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we need to look at apprenticeships through a lens that is quite out of date. For example you can look at the apprenticeship schemes in the UK: https://www.apprenticeships.gov.uk/

Do you think that apprenticeships in the UK have been successful in motivating training for shortage jobs with highly technical skills? I don't think they have. I've seen reports which claim they are mostly used as a subsidy to training which was already taking place, as a workaround to pay workers less, and generally in low-skilled jobs. Like the grandparent post, the UK model is guilty of assuming that the word "ap…

I’m just bringing it up to show that we don’t need to just consider one model and in particular one so out of date.

In general I also think a lot of the praise for apprenticeships is misplaced and viewed through rose tinted lenses.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#363

Post by bird_monster »

I think these code schools are clearly defining the need for vocational programs to get into tech. I don't know why these vocational programs have to be fundamentally different from the vocational programs that exist for other industries. Code schools seem to be extreme, "4-8 hours a day commitment, 5 days a week", in my experience, which obviously means most students can't really have another job.

I wish there was a 1-2 hour a night, 2-3 nights a week program that took a year and output a reasonable junior candidate for most software companies. Meaning, not FAANG, not SF, not unicorn startup. A program to take a person with no background and make them capable of being entry level employees for local mid-sized insurance companies or banks.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#364

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

sireat wrote: post #315
austenallred wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey airdwea, I’m sorry you were frustrated by the GCA assessment. We don’t use assessments as a means of harming students, but we do genuinely want to make sure that you are ready to move onto the next level before doing so. I understand this can be frustrating. This particular assessment, you’re correct, is not a direct map to the previous couple weeks of content, but rather a summative general assessment that cover…

Just read this: https://support.codesignal.com/hc/en-us/articles/36005196013... - if you so much as sneeze you get disqualified.. What's the point of doing this privacy invasive test? The cynic in me wants to think it is to prepare students for the future when they will be similarly tested by their employers. PS I am a lector at a University (Europe) and teach at various bootcamps where I would never think of asking…

Oh. It uses some kind of proctoring service. Those are bloody awful.

I'm a PhD student at Imperial College London. Last exams season was entirely replaced with "timed open book coursework", carried out via Blackgoard and Wiseflow. I'm not sure about the privacy record of the orgs behind these two pieces of software, but there was no proctoring of any sort and we graduates were spared from invigilator duties, that we'd normally have to perform.

Indeed, the College relied on the students' honour to avoid cheating:

A reminder about cheating and collusion

Students who are identified to have colluded will face disciplinary action.

You must not confer with fellow students or any other individuals during the exam. We trust you. However, if there is a concern that you have not followed the code of conduct expected, the College has a range of options at its disposal. The College reserves its right to impose additional forms of assessment including individual student vivas, if required. These may also be used to assist the examiners and the Boards of Examiners in assuring that the assessment process has been conducted fairly and in accordance with the agreed marking schemes. You are reminded that if we become aware of proposed or evidenced actions for collusion that such allegations will be reported and investigated in accordance with the College’s Academic Misconduct Procedure.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/electrical-engineering/internal/c...

Right? "We trust you". I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if that works for Imperial, it should work for a bootcamp.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#366

Post by fakedang »

pc86 wrote: post #141
TeMPOraL wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I consider startups a Faustian bargain. You get easy access to capital, in exchange for your company's soul. And the devil always comes to collect. The problems start where this deal causes collateral damage on the market - harming customers directly, or indirectly by preventing competitors who aren't looking for an exit from existing.

> indirectly by preventing competitors who aren't looking for an exit from existing. This is huge, and definitely hurts in the short term, but could it actually be good in the long term? Let's say the break-even price for Service A is $x/mo/user. Nobody really knows the technical problems underlying A, but startups #1-3 get venture funding and start offering Service A for .75x, for a couple years each, burning a few…

Imo, bootstrapped startups can only exist feasibly in the B2B space. And definitely not in the B2C space. Would Uber have succeeded if it were bootstrapped (with higher pricing), or would it have spawned enough copycats during its slow growth phase who would soon make it infeasible to scale up and hire the kind of engineers that a venture like ridesharing would need?

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#367

Post by cat199 »

ryanSrich wrote: post #290
cat199 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a founder trying to disrupt an industry. a founder should be 'trying to' make a quality product that fits a need, not 'disrupt an industry' - 'industry disruption' is a consequence, not a goal - if one is seeking the latter without focusing on the former, ones priorities are skewed, and likely for reasons of promoting one's own self-importance.

Semantics. Founders building potentially billion dollar businesses (not $10m lifestyle companies) need to have a psychotic drive to achieve that goal. That often creates tough work environments in the early stages of the company. To many people, failing to build that billion dollar company is the same as outright failing completely. They’ll do whatever it takes to get there. I’ve worked with engineers and designers t…

this entire thread is about the 'semantics' of work effort - what constitutes 'heroics' and if they are needed / not needed, and what that indicates/does not indicate about the goals/motivation of the person involved -

Irrespective of whether one is building a potentially billion dollar business or 'only' a 10m lifestyle company, the goal and focus should still be on the usefulness of the product and fitting market need, and not 'disrupting an industry' with the product as a side goal - if it's the latter, it indicates the priorities are skewed; from experience, usually when 'heroics' are involved or priorities are skewed, it's ego to blame and not some external requirement.

Further, 'heroics' are context-dependent - if the external requirement actually requires what would be 'heroics' in a normal situation, 'heroics' are simply 'duty' in that case, and there exists a 'that case heroics' that would still be 'heroics' (and therefore indicative of likely-ego-driven skewed priorities)

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#369

Post by trefoiled »

crumbshot wrote: post #95

> After I was a few Units in (3) and thus financially obligated to pay the ISA, they removed core components of the program. > Where a mentor was paid to mentor you, you are now forced to mentor other students and vice versa. So Lambda School is essentially an bait-and-switch pyramid scheme purporting to be an educational institution? For-profit schools are scams in general, but this one sounds particularly scammy an…

And it's even worse than that, because they offer the ISAs to investors to purchase. Meaning they're bait and switching both the student and investors.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#370

Post by jacobion »

meheleventyone wrote: post #362
jacobion wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that apprenticeships in the UK have been successful in motivating training for shortage jobs with highly technical skills? I don't think they have. I've seen reports which claim they are mostly used as a subsidy to training which was already taking place, as a workaround to pay workers less, and generally in low-skilled jobs. Like the grandparent post, the UK model is guilty of assuming that the word "ap…

I’m just bringing it up to show that we don’t need to just consider one model and in particular one so out of date. In general I also think a lot of the praise for apprenticeships is misplaced and viewed through rose tinted lenses.

I brought up the past model to show that apprenticeships in the past worked for a specific reason. Various models of apprenticeship/training/education fail today, because we have rejected what made them work in the past. We don't want / can't have a system where young people are completely under the control of an apprentice master for several years, unable to change jobs or live where they want. This is probably a good thing. But without it, the idea of apprenticeships makes little sense.
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