<story><title>Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-promised-lucrative-tech-coding-career-low-job-placement-2021-10</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sam0x17</author><text>This one particular student sticks with me. He was in his 60s-70s, and had a burgeoning career in IT&amp;#x2F;Security in the late 90s, but quit his job to take care of his ailing mother around 2001 or so. He took care of her, living off of her reverse mortgage for 20 years, but now she has passed away, and the term of the reverse mortgage ends soon (or I believe by now has ended) so the bank will be re-posessing his house, his only remaining asset. The guy was not doing well. Even though he was quite smart and had C++ in his distant background, he was making almost zero progress in the course. It soon became clear that he was so drained from working 12-hour days at a Costco warehouse (and doing other similar menial jobs) 6 days a week (and still not making enough to even pay his medical bills) that he wasn&amp;#x27;t going to be able to make any progress. I repeatedly recommended him for a scholarship (because of his intelligence and skill) but I never heard back, and eventually he dropped off my schedule. I did everything I could to give him what he needed to succeed, but ultimately there was nothing I could do. It haunts me. This country is so fucked.</text></item><item><author>sam0x17</author><text>It isn&amp;#x27;t just Lambda School. I mentor for [insert large coding bootcamp here] and I will say things have been going badly across the board for more than 50% of students. They recently had to cut a lot of staff, and completion rates seem to hover around only 50-60% when you take into account all the students they remove from this calculation when they withdraw for &amp;quot;personal reasons&amp;quot;. The employment numbers I don&amp;#x27;t have as much insight into but I have definitely had students who I don&amp;#x27;t think will get hired easily, and students reach out via LinkedIn 6th months later still looking for a job and wondering if they can work for me.&lt;p&gt;That said, two of our best junior devs (at Arist YC S20) are Lambda School and Ironclad grads respectively, and neither of them had any background in programming and went right from bootcamp into their current positions. So it definitely works for some people.&lt;p&gt;One thing I&amp;#x27;ve tried to emphasize with my mentees is the need to go beyond the curriculum (because it simply doesn&amp;#x27;t cover enough) and do personal projects. I always tell them the narrative about how back in the early 00s, the only resources available were things like w3schools.com, documentation, and the occasional dubiously accurate blog entry. I was able to learn almost everything I learned not for the sake of learning it but because I wanted to build X or Y. Bootcamps will teach you a vertical slice of some skills that are relevant in [current year], but they do not do a very good job of getting you started on a lifelong process of self-learning and side projects, which is the only way you get anywhere in this industry. Plus the only way to stand out when you went to a bootcamp anyway is having a very exceptional github profile with open source contributions that demonstrates you actually have an interest and do things beyond what is required by the bootcamp.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kirso</author><text>Yep, that&amp;#x27;s also because: &amp;quot;Earlier this year researchers at the London School of Economics released a paper titled, “Why Do People Stay Poor?” that illustrated how the lack of initial wealth (and not motivation or talent) is what keeps people in poverty.  The researchers tested this by randomly allocating wealth (i.e. livestock) to female villagers in Bangladesh and then waited to see how that wealth transfer would affect their future finances.  As their paper states:&lt;p&gt;[We] find that, if the program pushes individuals above a threshold level of initial assets, then they escape poverty, but, if it does not, they slide back into poverty…Our findings imply that large one-off transfers that enable people to take on more productive occupations can help alleviate persistent poverty.&lt;p&gt;Their paper clearly illustrates that many poor people stay poor not because of their talent&amp;#x2F;motivation, but because they are in low-paying jobs that they must work to survive.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;More on this here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ofdollarsanddata.com&amp;#x2F;why-do-poor-people-stay-poor&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ofdollarsanddata.com&amp;#x2F;why-do-poor-people-stay-poor&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Lambda School leaked documents show poor performance over the last two years</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-promised-lucrative-tech-coding-career-low-job-placement-2021-10</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sam0x17</author><text>This one particular student sticks with me. He was in his 60s-70s, and had a burgeoning career in IT&amp;#x2F;Security in the late 90s, but quit his job to take care of his ailing mother around 2001 or so. He took care of her, living off of her reverse mortgage for 20 years, but now she has passed away, and the term of the reverse mortgage ends soon (or I believe by now has ended) so the bank will be re-posessing his house, his only remaining asset. The guy was not doing well. Even though he was quite smart and had C++ in his distant background, he was making almost zero progress in the course. It soon became clear that he was so drained from working 12-hour days at a Costco warehouse (and doing other similar menial jobs) 6 days a week (and still not making enough to even pay his medical bills) that he wasn&amp;#x27;t going to be able to make any progress. I repeatedly recommended him for a scholarship (because of his intelligence and skill) but I never heard back, and eventually he dropped off my schedule. I did everything I could to give him what he needed to succeed, but ultimately there was nothing I could do. It haunts me. This country is so fucked.</text></item><item><author>sam0x17</author><text>It isn&amp;#x27;t just Lambda School. I mentor for [insert large coding bootcamp here] and I will say things have been going badly across the board for more than 50% of students. They recently had to cut a lot of staff, and completion rates seem to hover around only 50-60% when you take into account all the students they remove from this calculation when they withdraw for &amp;quot;personal reasons&amp;quot;. The employment numbers I don&amp;#x27;t have as much insight into but I have definitely had students who I don&amp;#x27;t think will get hired easily, and students reach out via LinkedIn 6th months later still looking for a job and wondering if they can work for me.&lt;p&gt;That said, two of our best junior devs (at Arist YC S20) are Lambda School and Ironclad grads respectively, and neither of them had any background in programming and went right from bootcamp into their current positions. So it definitely works for some people.&lt;p&gt;One thing I&amp;#x27;ve tried to emphasize with my mentees is the need to go beyond the curriculum (because it simply doesn&amp;#x27;t cover enough) and do personal projects. I always tell them the narrative about how back in the early 00s, the only resources available were things like w3schools.com, documentation, and the occasional dubiously accurate blog entry. I was able to learn almost everything I learned not for the sake of learning it but because I wanted to build X or Y. Bootcamps will teach you a vertical slice of some skills that are relevant in [current year], but they do not do a very good job of getting you started on a lifelong process of self-learning and side projects, which is the only way you get anywhere in this industry. Plus the only way to stand out when you went to a bootcamp anyway is having a very exceptional github profile with open source contributions that demonstrates you actually have an interest and do things beyond what is required by the bootcamp.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>codr7</author><text>Same story in most western countries by now, stumble once and you&amp;#x27;re fucked for life.&lt;p&gt;And to add insult to injury, people will rather think you deserve it than face the fact that we&amp;#x27;re all in the same stinking boat.</text></comment>