Startups Court Dev Bootcamp’s Ruby Grads, 88% Have Offers At Average Of $79K
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
With less than month before the next cohort begins, the incoming students are already prepping themselves, going to study groups, going to meetups together if they're in the area, asking questions through a facebook group. And the mentors are already helping in any way they can. I love learning but the level of camaraderie and community I feel truly gets me excited for my 10 weeks there. This is teaching done right.
First, I only had 200 applicants, and they were all a result of this post about 6 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3267133
Second, the article seems to give me and dev bootcamp all the credit. In truth, the spring cohort was a collection of some INCREDIBLY motivated people. I had all these ideas about how I was going to keep people motivated, and by day 3 it was clear that I wouldn't need any of them. Instead, I started worrying about how I can get them to go home and get some sleep every now and then.
I am committed to making any and all of our numbers public. Ask me anything and you'll get the straight facts (as long as it doesn't violate any of my students' privacy).
And, like Andrew said, I put a lot of weight into students' attitude.
Nice work Shereef.
While we're at it, if anybody can't come to SF for dev bootcamp, and/or can't afford it, I highly recommend Jared's http://www.bloc.io/
So the prospective employers can be fairly certain after all of this that the student can code, and that's what makes it so attractive to them. For the student, I'd imagine just making it into the course itself is quite hard but if you do get in then you've got a good chance of success.
No, they had 400 applicants, chose the 20 (5%) that could most likely succeed, and then 17 of those got jobs. This is great, but they should stop making it seem like they're training total newbies with no ability in 10 weeks. They're training people who could probably succeed despite any of the training methods. For example, there's a commenter in this thread who has a mechanical engineering degree. Chances are anyone with a mechanical engineering degree with the money could pass nearly any kind of course.
This cohort was also 8 weeks.
But yes, you're right. These are highly dedicated people. Many came straight out of college, one (myself) came straight out of high school. But I wouldn't go and assume that all 20 of us were mechanical engineering grads. All just highly motivated people.
But I still haven't gotten job offers yet.
(For those in the program who think I told them otherwise: that was not a job offer, but an invitation to a two week assessment with a tiny stipend in a place far from San Francisco, but was still probably counted in the "got jobs" figures.)
First, I had zero programing experience entering class on day one of the session. I graduated knowing how to build web applications. Second, what's wrong with picking students that are most likely to succeed. There's an argument to be made that being part of a group dynamic of motivated, successful people fosters and promotes better learning - I learned more in my AP English, Math, Chemistry and History classes in high school because the other students were also motivated and had the capacity to learn.
Third, why wouldn't you want to select candidates that are interested in getting a job and starting a career in web engineering; it doesn't make sense to select people that want to eventually be hotel managers. Group motivation was critical in the learning process. We as a class took the adventure together; it only makes sense that we all shared the same destination.
I never went to college; it wasn't the path I wanted to take. So to say that the fact that a student had a mechanical engineering degree ensured their passing of the course is like saying that because I grew up on the beach in southern California, I can be a professional surfer.
The fact of the matter here is that DevBootcamp worked. It worked well. As it was Shereef's first session, there was a lot of things that I'm sure he is changing for the next rounds. I'm confident that after the Summer session, the numbers coming from the graduates will be even more impressive.
You can read my HN profile -- hopefully it's credible enough that you don't think I'm in the business of blowing smoke.
These "code schools" are great for one thing. Wasting money. These classes cannot replace the rigor of my education; especially when working 25 hours a week and going to school full-time, taking classes that require minimum 15 hours each of homework outside of class. Soon these companies will see how they have wasted money on recruiting the top "code monkeys" instead of recruiting real Computer Scientists. #end rant
At DBC we're not just a bunch of opportunists trying to make a quick buck. We're people with advanced degrees in CS and educators who believe that education can be done better, at least when it comes to engineering, and we aim to prove it. We choose students who are eager to make a career switch and who have the right attitude for growth. Zed's right--these people would be successful on their own, but we're giving them a leg up by helping them to make it happen in a few weeks instead of a few years. We're not just training a bunch of script monkeys. We're ramping passionate people up on the tools commonly used in a modern web-based company, as well as giving them the mental resources to solve messy problems and to continue their education once they leave. Not to mention a strong sense of the community they are joining and where they can contribute. They won't be experts, by any means, but they'll be ready to carry their weight as entry-level engineers.
And then recruiters just return to traditional schools for their first-round of screening.
What DBC is doing is building a brand and a reputation for having really smart people in their program. That's defensible and scalable. There are a lot of high-caliber people being involved with DBC now, it's no longer just Shereef (who is awesome).
I'm helping DBC. It's the real deal. Email me at jesse@devbootcamp.com if you want more info.
What percent of new grads work at Facebook/Google, do you reckon?
On the plus side: someone who is both a) a productive engineer and b) not as abominably terrible at negotiating as the typical engineer will, two years out of this program, be able to lateral into an intermediate engineer position at their next company for a compensation package worth north of $150k.
(P.S. Folks who think purewater or I are grossly off the mark for current conditions in Silicon Valley may wish to take a few people on coffee dates. What you learn will buy an awful lot of lattes.)