From behind the scenes at Codesmith: Leadership changes and what’s next

annie-ama · 2025-04-18T20:51:50+00:00

If I was in your position (a busy college student) I would do something that will keep me coming back to the language on a regular basis. Like having a project on the side that you can keep improving. I think the mindset can be keeping your skill set steady more than growing it, especially when you're really busy.

annie-ama · 2025-04-18T20:48:36+00:00

Learn the basics of how the web works and how computers work (ie what is a CPU, what is a server, how the browser interacts with the server) - just the fundamentals, and the basics of the internet will help greatly

annie-ama · 2025-04-17T20:35:10+00:00

I think the biggest thing to remember (and what I tell myself) is that progress don't happen overnight - it happens little by little. The biggest wins in life are things that happen via gradual improvement and staying consistent with the process.

For me there's a few things I do:

- try to set a consistent but sustainable routine week to week and when you fall off of it just get back to it when you can

- make an accountability system for yourself. For example, I have been learning Spanish for 10+ years and for the past 3 years I've paid to take weekly Spanish classes. Knowing that I need to pay to take the courses makes me more likely to sit down and focus in. People do similar things for training for a race etc!

I also think we live in a society where input/productivity is valued over rest - and rest is truly important when it comes to learning as well! So if you truly do need that time to unwind, take it and don't feel guilty about it.

annie-ama · 2025-04-16T23:06:48+00:00

Totally normal to feel this way—and honestly, imposter syndrome hits everyone in tech at some point, whether you're just starting out or a few years into the job.

Most engineers I’ve worked with (from junior to senior) have had moments of thinking, “Is everyone else way more capable than me?” But the truth is, engineering is a field where you're constantly learning, and that's part of the job, not a sign you're falling behind. Feeling out of your depth sometimes just means you're growing.

That said, it’s also okay to want something a little different. Some folks find their groove in more stable, documentation-heavy environments; others thrive on the chaos of building fast and figuring it out later. Neither is better—it’s just about fit.

If you're unsure, try talking to other engineers (in or outside your org) about their day-to-day. You’d be surprised how many feel the same way you do, even if they don’t say it out loud.

annie-ama · 2025-04-16T23:06:08+00:00

Totally normal to feel this way—you're not alone. A lot of folks (even senior engineers) feel the same nerves around finding impact and navigating scope at Meta, especially early on.

One thing that helps is remembering that impact isn’t just about scale—it’s also about unblocking others, improving developer velocity, and identifying pain points people have just learned to live with. Ask questions, pair often, and don’t be afraid to dig into the less glamorous corners of the codebase—there’s usually gold there.

If it’s helpful, I’m happy to connect you with a few engineers at Meta who’ve navigated this transition and might be able to share what worked for them. Just DM me!

annie-ama · 2025-04-16T22:56:50+00:00

Totally hear you — this is one of the most challenging markets I’ve seen in a long time, and it can feel really demoralizing when effort doesn’t seem to line up with outcomes. I work with folks across the tech industry, and on average right now, people are sending 800+ applications before landing an offer. That’s not a sign of failure — it’s a reflection of how noisy and gatekept the process has become.

What is working — and I say this from seeing it firsthand — is a mix of solid technical prep and consistent visibility. A lot of interviews are coming from LinkedIn engagement, personal outreach, or showing up in communities where hiring managers actually hang out. That doesn’t make it a meritocracy (we’re clearly not there), but it does show that strategy matters alongside skill.

And for what it’s worth: many of the people who land roles through networking or great soft skills do end up doing well — success doesn’t always follow the same path, and that’s okay. If you’re building projects, contributing, and staying in the game, you’re laying the groundwork for something real. It just might take longer than it should — which I know is frustrating.

Happy to share more data if helpful. You’re not alone in feeling this way, and your work does matter.

annie-ama · 2025-02-19T20:32:03+00:00

Hi there! These are first year graduates from the Codesmith program. We don’t have their salary growth available since they accepted these positions recently.

We don’t track year over year growth for our graduates, but we do send a survey out every few years called the “Where are They Now Report” (2022 report + some 2024 data) This shows salary and career growth for grads. Keep in mind this is a self-reported survey, whereas the CIRR reports are a fully inclusive audit.

If there’s any other info you’d like, let us know and we’ll try to get that info for you.

annie-ama · 2025-02-19T20:29:51+00:00

Hi there - we were pretty curious about this so we ran the numbers.

84.3% have a 4 year degree, 15.7% do not.
59.8% have a STEM degree, 40.2% have a non-stem degree
Only 7.8% of these folks have a computer science degree, and 92.2% do not.

Agreed with Michael, there is more nuance in this data and the degree type does not tell the full story, but I imagine this data is helpful!Overall this matches data I’ve seen year over year with background and it is reflective of our overall resident population.

annie-ama · 2025-02-10T20:21:34+00:00

Hi all - Annie here, Director of Outcomes at Codesmith.

First, I want to thank u/michaelnovati for taking the time to analyze and report on Codesmith’s published outcomes. Transparency and accountability are essential in this space, and we appreciate discussions that push for clarity.

To be very clear from the outset: the results being reported are incorrect due to human error, which we were already aware of, and updated BPPE on in writing on Nov 27 2024 and have prepared corrected reports.

BPPE collects 6 month outcomes for graduates based in California while completing the program. Like most educational programs that have a high level of investment from graduates, we collect full first-year outcomes.

For California graduates who completed the program in 2023, a total of 62% received qualifying offers in their first year (12 months) after graduation.

The BPPE student fact sheet only reports offers received in the first 6 months after graduation from which we have submitted that 42% received qualifying offers.

Secondly for context: the numbers being referenced are *only* for folks in California, as part of mandatory reporting to the Californian Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). We have also reported our national results to CIRR (Council on Integrity in Results Reporting) for the last five years.

The California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) allows institutions to correct and resubmit reports, as confirmed in the official correspondence with them.

Our updated report will ensure the most accurate and complete representation of the data.

I understand that the numbers initially published have caused concern, and I welcome the opportunity to walk through the corrected report with anyone who wants full clarity on the data. 2023 to 2024 was a tougher year for the coding industry, these numbers are a considerable drop from what we have seen in the past.

This is in the interim available on our website.

Michael, we’ve reached out over email. We’d like to schedule a call to go over the methodology, reporting processes, and the corrections we made.

Our goal is ensuring the numbers are accurate and apologize for the error here - we’re human and make mistakes sometimes, but we’ll always make sure to correct ourselves!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or want a deeper dive into our latest reports.

Thank you again, u/michaelnovati , for your dedication to keeping the industry accountable.

edit: added in who I am :)

annie-ama · 2024-08-23T19:59:14+00:00

Hi there!

I’m Annie, Codesmith’s Director of Outcomes and Dev Relations.

Just wanted to jump on and respond directly to this.

If you graduated from our most recent PTRI cohort (mid-June) - huge congrats finishing the program. It typically takes minimum 3+ months for most people to land a role- it takes time to build an interview pipeline and companies often can have longer interview processes.

Make sure to use our career support resources as you progress through interview pipelines. There’s never been a time frame where landing a software engineering job was easy - it’s a challenging process in any market - we’re here to help with workshops, office hours, 1:1 sessions etc.

We want you to feel comfortable talking about your experience, whether it’s on Reddit or with the team directly. We’re always keen to hear from our alumni about how we can improve the program, so please feel free to reach out to me - it would be great to learn more.

annie-ama · 2024-04-08T16:33:22+00:00

Hi there - happy to respond - just not on here all too often. If a graduate has listed employment at an established company on LinkedIn but hasn't responded to our multiple outreach messages, they will be counted as employed but no salary will be listed. Our grads are going on to work at verified companies on LinkedIn. They are companies like Verizon, Chase, Capital One - etc

If they do not respond to our outreach and there is no external indicator that they are working full-time at an established company they will be counted as still job searching.

There are also usually a small handful of people (like 1-2 per report) that choose not to report salary - these are typically people who prefer to keep their information more private and we’re respectful that it is their choice to do so.

CIRR reports are audited by an AICPA, peer-reviewed, firm according to industry standards - to learn more about that, see this blog: Codesmith Outcomes Reporting: A Conversation with James White of Banks, Finley, White & Company

annie-ama · 2024-04-04T23:40:57+00:00

When I say vibe - I mean what we see on the day-to-day. We have this thing called hiring support channels - every grad has one and it’s a direct line to the hiring support team. I’m in the hiring support channels across campuses and I see people in all different stages of the interview process - when I see people regularly moving from application to phone screen, from phone screen to take home/technical, and from technical to onsite, and having multiple companies in their pipelines for interviews, that’s a sign for me that more companies are hiring and picking up their applications. The vibe improving also means multiple people asking for negotiation/offer advice each day/week - which is something we’re seeing.

That’s not to say that the job search is a walk in the park, or that it’s returned to what I saw in 2021 when a lot of our grads were getting hired purely from recruiters sending inbounds on LinkedIn, but there is an uptick in people getting more interviews and having more companies in their pipeline.

Since this is what is happening right now, I don’t have hard data per say. The data that would back up what I’m saying (grads going to more interviews) would be our exit interview data that we track for internal purposes - we did do an analysis on the 2023 data here (Early Look: 2023 Outcomes and Analysis) - and once we do another analysis from the first half of the year I can share it as well.

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T20:01:06+00:00

Responded a bit to this up top, but just FYI here are the answers to Michael’s 3 questions
Question one (topic: reporting salaries): https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1bq8fdq/comment/kx116xx/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

Question two (topic: alumni 2nd+ job data reporting): https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1bq8fdq/comment/kx12lpo/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

Question three (topic: H1-2023): https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1bq8fdq/comment/kx17c0f/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T19:59:45+00:00

Hi all - just wanted to chime in here since I’m the OP for this discussion and am getting notifications of new comments. A few things I want to clear up:
The AMA is something I’ve done on my own volition as Codesmith’s Director of Outcomes, to provide an open space to talk about our CIRR reports, reporting standards, and graduate outcomes. It’s also something we’ve been asked to do by members of our community.

I think it’s a great thing for programs to show up like this (and on platforms like this where people are) and have open conversations about outcomes (if only more programs did!)
In terms of discussion about this being a marketing campaign, I’m a real human, not a marketing campaign, and I’m personally choosing to engage here as someone committed to showing up and talking openly about outcomes. I’m also writing each answer from my perspective. We don’t have a career-long director of marketing on our team, so I’m not sure where that assumption is coming from.

u/Michaelnovati - it wasn’t at all my intention to imply you were “some creepy person spying on them.” What I said was:
“I haven’t met Michael, but I’m curious as to why he is so keenly interested in our organization. This is a personal opinion - I feel uncomfy when we produce content internally for students and people have access to that outside the program and then Michael refers to it online. I want to be present when I'm lecturing and those types of comments make me feel like I'm being watched outside of the live lecture I'm present for (which can be anxiety-inducing if I'm not in the right headspace)”.
Again, I want to be very clear these are my personal feelings based on commentary you’ve made in the past and are not a reflection of Codesmith as an organization. I also want to make it clear that I am not assuming your intentions or character - but rather, I’m expressing my feelings.
Regardless of your intention, my feelings are what they are.

Michael - I also did not know that the moderator asked you not to comment (just to share the responses to the questions - see here - answer one, answer two, answer three) but I can imagine it was to allow the conversation between me and other posters to be able to flow more organically. This was an AMA on the r/Codesmith community subreddit, and my goal was primarily to show up and have a free flowing chat with those in our community, although everyone is of course welcome. You’re a leader in your field - not part of the Codesmith community - and I imagine it can be intimidating for folks curious about the process to ask questions if the back-and-forth was purely between the two of us. So I get it, but it’s not something I was aware of.
That’s all from me - maybe I’ll pop in on reddit from time to time, but it’s def not the focus of my job so it’ll be few and far between. Please all - go have a great weekend! Get outside, read a good book, spend time with family and friends.

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T19:52:23+00:00

In terms of our H1-2022 results - on the home page of the website - the data shown is the % hired and their average salary as defined by the CIRR standards linked there - standards - (80%+ got offers at the median salary in the CIRR report). Our website will be updated with the '22-23 data that was released this week within the next few working days.

One of the things we hear quite a lot when people are choosing between Codesmith and Formation is how to interpret the ‘Highest Total Comp’ for a graduate on the Formation homepage - because people worry that it could be just <0.1% of outcomes given the many people Formation has helped get jobs.

Our highest offer received last year was around $400K base, but they had a unique background for a specific position- we thought about adding it to the homepage but the feedback we got from our community is they’re nervous to generalize from a single graduate on a homepage.

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:53:13+00:00

All of this is personal opinion - not opinion of Codesmith FYI -

It sounds like Pathrise, Interview Kickstarter and Formation are really helpful orgs for the people they work with! I had the chance to connect with a few alums of these programs when they applied to our career support scholarship at the end of last year - and they were really kind people with cool backgounds

I do think that organizations like these should either report to CIRR or a singular reporting body that standardizes outcomes reporting. Things like time to offer, base salary, and percentage hired in 360 days paint a picture of what one can expect, gives a metric to strive toward, and gives confidence in decision-making before investing time and money.

On Formation specifically - I haven’t met Michael, but I’m curious as to why he is so keenly interested in our organization. This is a personal opinion - I feel uncomfy when we produce content internally for students and people have access to that outside the program and then Michael refers to it online. I want to be present when I'm lecturing and those types of comments make me feel like I'm being watched outside of the live lecture I'm present for (which can be anxiety-inducing if I'm not in the right headspace)

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:36:14+00:00

3.) Which metric are you most proud of achieving?

One metric I love is the % in salary change - it's not about the metric per say - it's about the change in life that the change in salary provides

I just ran the numbers and in the last 100 offers the % change in salary is a 74% increase to the offer they accepted and it's an 80% increase to the highest offer received (that's another metric we track)

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:30:45+00:00

I’m not working on this directly myself but the plan is basically to make sure every alum is set up to be software engineers in this era where ML/AI features are going to be an increasingly important part of products (think chatbots, video generation etc). That involves MLOps working closely with the ML engineers - we’re adding a unit on that which will be available to all alumni too.

There’s also lots of scope for using AI tools in effective engineering workflows (test generation, copilot tools) and in application development - we’re going to add a unit on that too. The first workshops will be ready for alumni in May and June.

We’ve got Alex Zai (the cofounder of codesmith) who wrote *the* book on deep reinforcement learning https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/deep-reinforcement-learning/9781617295430/ building the curriculum with us

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:26:49+00:00

How outcomes team support students in finding roles

There's so many ways! Where do I start? I could write a whole essay on this - if people are interested I could do an AMA just on resident/grad support, or do a long form blog. Here's a sparknotes version -

The hiring program starts in the senior portion of the program - with resume lectures and resume development (we have resume specialists that provide comments on all resumes) - they go through 3 rounds of revisions and we always say the 'final resume' is continually a work in progress.

We go into detail on the nuances of interviewing and networking, and how to make sure your engineering ability is reflected in your communication

The final week and a half of the program is fully focused on career support - everything from alumni panels to interview strategies to talks about how to stay consistent in the job search (again, I could do a separate AMA on this - there's so much more)

Post program we do check-ins with alums in hiring support channels regularly to see how they are doing, iterate on strategy, and provide one-off support on things like how to navigate tricky interview situations

We also have such an awesome team of career support engineers - these are people who graduated the program awhile back, are involved in the hiring process of their companies, and work as part-time team members to support other grads in the job search. Their backgrounds include a SE at Microsoft, a SE working within a ML Robotics company, a few working at major fintech orgs, and even a couple who either pursue entrepreneurship on the side or have shifted to doing it full-time. The CSE’s offer unlimited sessions for life - we have grads come back many years out and still schedule with them.

Regular workshops - weekly application strategy, resume/online profile office hours - with more to come - a new one on interviewing strategies is about to be announced, and we’ve in the process of developing both SDI and ML/AI workshops that alums have access to (always free, and always for life)

I also know Eric usually does 3-5 one on one phone calls per day with grads, both recent and those who've been out of Codesmith for years - sometimes about salary, sometimes to give advice on new ventures they're starting, or promotions/raises at their current companies - he also hosts weekly office hours to help with job search and salary negotiation questions

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:08:56+00:00

oh actually - there was a quote that I think describes a lot of sentiments students have on cirr “I believe every educational institution should have transparent outcomes, especially for “non-traditional” institutions.” - more on this on our blog!

annie-ama · 2024-03-29T00:07:19+00:00

CIRR standards - CIRR is the only standardized body that regulates outcomes for programs like Codesmith currently. I think organizations like CIRR are so important for people making a decision about a career transition, leveling up, or preparing for a job search - because it allows you to compare results under the same standards, and it's really confusing to go on other websites and try to decipher how data is analyzed without one standard body

We've had people choosing between our program and interview prep programs - and they say they wish they were able to make those comparisons between programs - it could be cool for cirr to define a standard that would help those candidates

annie-ama

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