Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools • Hacker News Board

Re: Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

#41

Post by WhitneyLand » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 12:39 AM UTC

There seem to be only two benefits to coding schools:

1). It's structured. You plan to meet people to learn at certain times, so it's easier than going it alone and being tempted to slack off.

2). You need some mentoring/personal guidance along the journey to make sure you're on the right track.

These are helpful, but I don't see why you need to pay $10,000.

Organize a like minded group via meetup.com. Ask experienced people to volunteer to help plan curriculum, to provide once a week mentoring sessions (people will help for free).

And there you go, same thing but no debt.

Important: Be honest, do you really have some natural interest/drive to do this? Really tough if you don't. Also it will take a lot of hours but if you persevere you'll make it.

Also important: There is almost never snobbery about education or "in crowds". Maybe what the author meant is that you will lose repect quickly if you're not prepared. If you are prepared and a hard worker you'll be welcome even with a GED.

Re: Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

#42

Post by erroneousfunk » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 3:50 AM UTC

1812Overture wrote: post #38

erroneousfunk wrote: post #36

"Tuition averages over $11,000 at non-degree granting programs that generally last around three months, but it can go as high as $21,000." For comparison, I received a master's in software engineering from a reputable school with actual professors and a well-tested curriculum for ~$7,500/semester. Of course, it was an academic graduate degree, so I already needed to know a large amount of engineering and programming…

On the other hand I know plenty of people with Computer Science degrees from real universities who can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

I'm not talking about a CS degree, or "computer science" classes, but something more along the lines of engineering/software engineering.

Also, I think we can agree that there are people from all sorts of degrees, bootcamps, certificate programs, and other assorted methods of education, who can't code their way out of a wet paper bag.

Re: Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

#43

Post by burger_moon » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 4:49 AM UTC

carc wrote: post #11

burger_moon wrote: post #8

I went to one and now a couple years in I'm working at one of the "big 4" companies. It worked out for me but I still wouldn't recommend them to other people. It only worked for me because it helped lay the groundwork but I put in countless hours every night studying and getting better while working as well. Too many of my former classmates graduated and expected that to be the end of the hard work, like they were no…

Funny, I have almost the exact same experience. Quit my job as a CPA at a big firm to go to a coding bootcamp, made myself put in the same number of hours coding/learning as I was working my old job (70+/week) until I found a job... got a job at a startup first and 2 years later got a job at one of the "big 4". I also don't list my bootcamp anywhere mostly because I'm worried about assumptions people will make about…

Ya same feeling. I wasn't sure if I got that across in my original post but you summed up what I was trying to say.

Re: Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

#44

Post by fnord123 » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 10:10 PM UTC

jc_811 wrote: post #15

said one reason he chose the school was it said its instruction included a software language called PHP. Halfway through the course, when he asked when they would start learning PHP, he said he was told the school had scrapped plans to teach it This right here I think is the biggest problem with coding bootcamps. Many novices go in thinking that they need to learn a cool/new/useful language - and then they will find…

>However, when a company has to decide between someone from a 3 month javascript bootcamp, or someone with a CS degree

That really depends. Often, CS graduates know computer science and that's it. Often having some programming skills as well as domain knowledge can be as useful or even more useful depending on the maturity and positioning of the projects in the team's portfolio.

To use a shitty analogy: you don't need (or even want) a team of Yngwies busting out face melters. Sometimes the project just calls for three chords.

But yea, I'm with you in the sense that when I'm hiring for my team, I'm hiring deeply technical people to shovel bits into the engines. But I recognize that not all projects require it.

Re: Want a Job in Silicon Valley? Keep Away from Coding Schools

#45

Post by rexreed » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

chinathrow wrote: post #31

kimsk112 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious who are those "big 4" companies?

FB, Google, Amazon, Microsoft.

Incorrect. The Big 4 are the big 4 accounting firms with big IT consultancies: Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. You can't get a job at Google out of a code academy, but you can get a project job at Deloitte.