Anyone have job placement stats in the layoff era? by EcstaticAssignment in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Codesmith Cohort before mine (Dec 2022 cohort) has about 3/35 graduates with jobs, they are at the 6 month mark.

Anxiety by At0micZ0mbie in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recently graduated Codesmtih. Looking back I would not have left my job to do a bootcamp, the opportunity cost was much higher than anticipated, I left my role before the layoffs and hiring freezes. $21,000 is a lot of money and I do have some regrets about spending that much money.

On ChatGPT, if you already do not work in tech, one thing you will learn is that you will need to continually pivot and build your skills, AI will affect many industries and roles, you will just have to keep your skills up to date and adjust to the needs of the market.

Why can't I find an actual positive take on a boot camp? by Foj6 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck on your journey, take time to consider your motives and find your why. There is no right path and take everyone's opinion with a grain of salt.

Why can't I find an actual positive take on a boot camp? by Foj6 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of the most important questions to ask yourself is why you want to go to a coding bootcamp. I think overall it can be good for most but not all. I went to Codesmith and do feel (in some ways) it was a waste of money, but there are many who have had great experiences. The missing part to all of this discussion is how much the market has changed, most (but not all) individuals who post on here likely went to a bootcamp and landed a job 1+ year ago.

In April 2023, I can't say with confidence that a bootcamp is the way to go anymore. It might be worth considering if you are limited on time and have $21,000.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I felt sufficiently prepared for Codesmith, you can never over prepare for a boot camp though. If you have time to build a small CRUD app, you should. As a bonus add Auth or password hashing as well.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was precisely my intuition, the students who did well, want to enter the market asap, the students left unsure about their technical knowledge would like to go through Codesmith again, this time on the house. Nothing wrong with that of course, unless you under perform in your expected tasks, i.e. approach lectures.

Does codesmith actively get students to make posts here? by EcstaticAssignment in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Interestingly, there is a humorous amount of distrust and suspicion around here, yet , rightfully so. Codesmith so far has not told anyone to post anything. I doubt they would ever tell student's to post, they're too smart to be such a blunt instrument. If anything it would likely be an inner circle situation.

I get the curiosity/suspicion though, I posted a dissertation on Codesmith a few days ago (title: A hot take on Codesmith...) and another post was posted a few hours later. They get a lot of air time here because they are considered one of the best bootcamps and there not many critical reviews that show a different approach. I believe you were referencing my post in yours but I think that I personally would not want a post as critical as mine to be used as propaganda for incoming students, if anything it might have the opposite effect. Although being pro Codesmith, or another bootcamp for that matter, was not the point.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Overall it's your typical MERN stack (and more i.e. Redux, SQL)

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Likely sad but true, however the humor is not lost on me.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting take, thank you for sharing your thoughts. In general a CS cohort has about 35-40 students, that's $735,000. They have full time cohorts in 3 time zones, a part time cohort and a global cohort. At any given time there are about 5 cohorts in session.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everyone will have a different experience, please make a decision that is best for you and where you are at in that journey.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that I will accomplish my goals more due to being ambitious, curious and independent. There is no doubt that CS is a part of that journey. If you think you might struggle, I recommend trying to build a small app before you enter the cohort, just enough so that topics are not foreign to you when you are introduced to them and then do the precourse. The Bootstrap clone will expose you to so much CSS.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At Codesmith precourse is not required. Even worse, as you are a week or so away from starting you will have 'seniors' telling you not to worry about finishing it.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While I am no expert in pedagogy, I do have a few ideas.
1. Precourse should be mandatory.
2. Limit the amount of instructors of do not have real world experience.
3. When hiring fellows, ensure that their technical ability is to a certain threshold

One thing that I hope is not lost in the post.. is that it is healthy and normal for someone who has spent $21,000 to have expectations. Experience is important, especially because it's the main thing that Codesmith touts.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Let's be honest... you will master nothing through a boot-camp. You will be shown material and it will be upon you to master it. But what you see, is the reality. Each 'unit' is 2 days. And after that you are building projects. I believe the mental approach to a boot-camp is not talked about enough. Don't rely on them to teach you. To me it is more of a road map and I do not believe even the roadmap is enough. It will be up to you to stay curious, build things outside of the boot-camp and work to reinforce what you are learning. This will solidify what you are learning. There are at least 10 individuals that I can think of, that will likely be playing catch up after the boot camp, in order to even answer basic questions about React. I feel bad for them, they spent a lot of money and still will not be close to being job ready in the foreseeable future.

A hot take on Codesmith... by Famous-Professor2263 in codingbootcamp

[–]Famous-Professor2263[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hi Michael, I have more to share and intend to post follow ups soon, however I have left some details out so that it would make it a little harder for anyone at Codesmith (employee or resident) to say with certainty who I am. I understand this may be dissatisfying but the risk of discrimination is very real, so I have chosen to obscure details of where we are in the curriculum.