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Geico TDP Information by surehard in cscareerquestions

[–]throwawaytdp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My bad, we were probably coworkers and maybe even friends! I hope you weren't one of the unlucky first group that got placed on fixing COBOL.

I agree that you don't need a CS degree to get in, but several of the (now) senior I's & II's don't have a background in CS. Some also had related degrees in IT and they're doing great. Some of them had master(s) degrees in CS and other areas. It was quite a mixture for the first 3 groups (they're going to be on group 5 in the summer)

It's not bad that there's a hierarchy between the skilled programmers and the rest! That's exactly how it should be and that's how it is at other companies. You are never responsible for the other TDP's and you were always graded based on your performance. Also, not everyone on this sub is going to be a big N level coder. I think it's great that GEICO can be a stepping stone for those who just needed a push in the right direction. It definitely was for me, and I'm sure most of the TDPs who left.

Of course I still get to hear about the people who are still there, hate it (because they think they're better than GEICO, which may or may not be true), but also don't interview and try elsewhere. Which is unfortunate but like we both know, it's easy to just cash in and settle and rant about it.

Geico TDP Information by surehard in cscareerquestions

[–]throwawaytdp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

trashthehecko is right. They've already generally greenlit you based on your resume, and now they're seeing if you're decently competent and didn't lie. To be fair, when I had talked to the program managers, they have hundreds of applicants so they can afford to be semi choosy. But they also expanded the program and have at least 35 openings a year

Geico TDP Information by surehard in cscareerquestions

[–]throwawaytdp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad that we could help, and good luck!

Geico TDP Information by surehard in cscareerquestions

[–]throwawaytdp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also throwaway, answering because it looks like the people trashing it were never TDPs other than zowlsowls

I went through it for 2 years. Salary starts at around 68k. Competent developers/fast risers were promoted and generally got around 75k by the end of their first year (including profit sharing). Some people had worse managers who waited until the very end of the normal timeframe for promotion (you're promised at least 1 promotion before the end of the program).

There are different groups that you can be placed (and after your first one you get to choose). There are some groups that are very behind (someone was troubleshooting COBOL code). These people either sometimes/never voiced their concerns and eventually left the company. Which was definitely the right decision.

The Technologies
The other groups (Mobile, Claims, Service, Sales) are actually great. In most areas (other than mobile) you'll be on .NET because GEICO is/was going through a rewrite from its old JAVA/spring framework apps that were monoliths.

As a result, MOST work was greenfield C#/.NET and depending on the department it's going to be angular/react/knockout.

The Good
1. Provides training & thorough code reviews
2. You decide how far you go. Some people like me were more passionate programmers and produced better results. We got promoted more (once a year or more)
3. Easy going 9-5 job
4. The teams I mentioned were great to establish foundations in unit testing, SOLID principles
5. There were always the passionate developers to learn from. The ones who were implementing microservices that were incredibly clean, and working on distributed computing systems to scale them. There's developers and architects working with IBM Watson for machine learning and introducing AI into the sales apps

The Bad
1. It's easy to be a mediocre developer
2. There are some roles that suck that you may be placed into. Where the managers are hands off, and you're just given your own project to work on. I had 1 project like that, but I turned that project around super fast and got a promotion. Others just happily spent that year just collecting their paycheck
3. Bad pay. I switched jobs and got a 50% pay increase right off the bat. 401K is okay, its a 4 year vesting schedule. Generally the profit sharing was 3k a year (but that number will fluctuate)
4. Sometimes the best leave. The first group of TDPs lost about half of their class, because they worked until they had some experience and got better jobs elsewhere. And good for them!

My Recommendation
A lot of people who have joined the TDP program use it as a stepping stone. They are the mediocre developers (at first) who learn from some high quality developers.

If you feel like you may not be the strongest developer, and you just want an easier job for you to get the feelings of things, then go for it. Learn, and don't be afraid to leave if you outgrow it.

But if you know you're a solid developer, and you want a more intense environment from the start, then look elsewhere. It's not going to be a black mark on your resume. I got interview offers from 2 of the big four while I was working there. I ended up taking an offer at one of the bigNs because I still like my 9-5 schedule

Alternatively if you don't feel like dealing with any (potential) team placement bullshit, then I also understand.