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Comment by lifer555 | Hacker News Reader

I am a recent LS graduate. The program is a total shit show. I was able to get a job but I would never recommend it to anyone. They are just very good at marketing. Great idea, terrible execution.

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I’ve been watching a housemate try the program, and it is so obviously terrible, I reached out to Austen on Twitter and offered to help.

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.

There are solid programs that offer ISAs now. e.g. Hack Reactor. I appreciate what Lambda School has done for the industry (pioneering the ISA), but the execution has been a total disaster. Trying to scale a business that relies on services, and basically zero technology, is a very, very bad time.

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)

What about it makes you say that?

The job is at a fast food restaurant.

I got an entry level SWE position. A bunch of my peers have also landed really awesome positions. It's all about what you put into it, but Lambda School as a whole is just very chaotic. I think if executed properly it would be a pretty good option for people.

I have worked with and managed quite a few code school grads (in my city there are several). This matches my experience with them. You kind of just get force-fed a bunch of content, and if you're a person that does the (extra) work to retain that information, you have the opportunity to find success.

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.

Most code schools (including Lambda School) don't really train students effectively. It's closer to a crash course in a bunch of different topics. Students that graduate often aren't actually able to perform whatever they were supposed to have learned effectively on the job. Worse, to pad hiring stats, lots of code schools also will hire recent grads that cannot find employment as instructors. They technically aren't lying when they say "95% of graduates get a job within 6 months", but their statistics would be a lot worse if you looked at those hired _externally_.

Code schools are actually pretty gross. The idea is fine, but reality and greed kind of ruin them.

> Worse, to pad hiring stats, lots of code schools also will hire recent grads that cannot find employment as instructors. They technically aren't lying when they say "95% of graduates get a job within 6 months", but their statistics would be a lot worse if you looked at those hired _externally_.

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.

Yes, that is what I am saying. It is relatively easy to verify via LinkedIn

Does it compare to:

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecond...

How was the job search? Was LS' career services useful at all? I'm a self taught dev that is going to start looking for a job in a few months

It took me ~4 months. I interviewed with a handful of really great companies and made it to the final round with 4. Companies are definitely willing to interview/hire self taught developers. LS career services overall were pretty useless, but there were a few staff members who helped give guidance and I am really grateful for that. Try and find someone in the field who can help mentor you.

That's helpful and reassuring, thank you. I'm hoping to start attending in person tech events/meetups soon. Hopefully people are excited to be able to meet new people again :)

Congratulations by the way!

Thank you!! And good luck :) I also recommend checking out apprenticeships. Asana, Twilio, and Twitter are just a few companies that have apprenticeships that specifically target self taught/bootcamp grads.

What aspects of mentorship did you find useful?

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.

My mentors helped me create my resume/portfolio, prep for interviews, find different resources, looked over my cover letters, put me in touch with their connections, and were just there for overall guidance and support.

I'm self taught like you, my biggest regret is not sending out resumes earlier. Try to find small and midsize businesses they are the most receptive in my experience.

Things might have changed since I finished the program, but their career services were effective for me.

That's great!

If you could do it over, what would you do instead to get the job?

I don't really regret attending Lambda School because it gave me structure that I needed, but I just got super lucky. I joined right before they made a ton of terrible changes to the program. I would either attend a better/different bootcamp or self teach and start working on solo projects. I participated in a few different hackathons and learned a whole lot more than I did during my 9 months at Lambda School.

Did your classmates also get good jobs, on average?

> I joined right before they made a ton of terrible changes to the program

What were these?

On average, no not really. I'd say that roughly 15-20% have found decent positions but it is really hard to say because some students just might not be very active on slack/linkedin.

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.

As a student that experienced the changes you were talking about... Before the TLs were removed, my code was vetted by my TL (and she was a good one, thank goodness), but after the changes, not a single person vetted it. I could probably have sent DMs to various people to get some sort of code review, but as a standard process, it wasn't available anymore.

I went through the program much earlier than you did. Having a good TL (or PM as they used to call them) was the biggest difference between passing and not some units. I was one at one point too, and there are a lot of bad habits you need to get students out of by pointing out in reviews repeatedly.

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?

Is this a serious question?

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