They should have been really excelling during the 2020 year of covid, I wonder where things went wrong. Anyone know?
I have also observed that lots of code school grads move away from coding immediately on graduation. Lots of QA/PM types come from them (at least here). This is not necessarily a negative.
Code schools are actually pretty gross. The idea is fine, but reality and greed kind of ruin them.
I'm aware that many other bootcamps and programs have done this, and it is obviously extremely misleading.
I have not heard that Lambda has specifically done this; are you claiming that they are as well? Your comment kind of implies it, without outright saying it.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecond...
Congratulations by the way!
I have made an effort to reach out to potential mentees, but the interaction falls apart when it becomes very clear that all they really need is for someone to give them a job or introduce them to someone who will give them a job.
> I joined right before they made a ton of terrible changes to the program
What were these?
I'd take a look at the subreddit r/LambdaSchool to read more about the changes (note that Austen the CEO is the only mod there and removes posts). One example is the removal of the Team Lead program (which kind of sucked in the first place because they didn't vet anyone) and replaced it with an auto-graded system so everyone was just on their own. There are students who went through the entire curriculum and didn't have a single person review their code. Ever. This is just one example of how chaotic it is.
I haven't had contact with anyone from the school since they exiled all the alumni last year. But before that I'd say at least 80% of my cohort got hired by 4 months out. Sad to hear how far it's fallen.
Out of curiosity what was your cohort size?
He gave me an email address and then didn’t reply to some very specific examples I gave of obvious mistakes that are not based in cost or labor saving.
Anyway, why should he listen to me. Except that these are just elementary learning mistakes, and the whole thing appears to be run in a chaotic and unprofessional manner.
My friend will almost certainly quit. It is just so unfortunate because the premise is great.
But there are companies that have been successful with it. (General Assembly, App Academy is having some success, Hack Reactor is growing, Flatiron School, Thinkful, Spring Board)
Next generation of bootcamps will be much higher quality instruction based on technology. (See Fullstack Academy)
And they will be partnered with big FAANGs, or built in-house by FAANGs. (Again, Lambda pioneering)
Not all degrees are 100k. Lots of STEM degrees pay themselves off. The real issue is the time commitment. Most code school students (IME) are career changers that can't afford to spend 2-4 years changing skillsets. Also, Lambda School caps ISA at 30k, which I would argue is insane for a 6 month fulltime program. To your 100k example, college is actually cheaper.
You can cherry pick, but with most random programs the value prop is much less obvious. And there are hundreds of them for every stand out program. In CS particularly you are probably ok right now, but it doesn’t generalize well, like your example.
[edit] if not clear, I’m not arguing post-secondary isn’t worthwhile, just picking a program like Waterloo isn’t good evidence.
Going to a mediocre state school for CS will pay itself off quickly, regardless of which school.
Traditionally, you’d expect technology companies to have a pipeline to identify and cultivate junior talent (an apprenticeship). Instead, they rather pass the buck to leetcode and bootcamps. Quality engineers are expensive, so you have to operate your bootcamp similar to the traditional higher education TA model (low paid teaching the paying). Are ISAs predatory? Hard to say, depending on what you think of equity, free will, determinism, and “someone has to take the chance and pay for this.”
They do. It's called internships.