23 ms·

Underdog Devs: supporting formerly incarcerated and disadvantaged aspiring devs

243 points by auslegung 5y ago

ThrowTeenFelon 5y ago
Throwaway for obvious reasons. I became a convicted felon a hair after my 18th birthday, for a trespassing charge I received while out-of-my-mind high on drugs. Long story short, by the time I started highschool, I was experimenting with drugs and skipping school. I was in and out of youth prison for drug-related stuff, and never finished highschool. My life spiraled out of control, in full-blown drug addiction, until I finally landed a year in jail and this felony charge right when I turned 18. --- <Begin relevant part> When I got out, I got my start in a program similar to this, a software apprenticeship program for "at-risk" youth. It wasn't targeted towards formerly-incarcerated (in fact I think I was the only one they ever had) but I was completely transparent about my situation and past. I had been doing code stuff for fun, through video game scripting (Lua, some Visual Basic) ever since I was a child and it really paid off. Today, I have a career in a semi-well-known upstart tech company and live a life I never could have dreamed. But it could come crashing down at any moment. I'm still on felony probation almost a decade later for something I did when I was 18, due to massive debt I have to pay off. It makes it nearly impossible for me or my wife to find housing, since felons aren't a protected class (IE, you can legally discriminate against us, unlike people with disabilities or on the basis of race). By no exaggeration, I went through nearly a dozen interview processes while my wife I were working minimum-wage manual labor jobs on the brink of homelessness, to be given an offer letter and then rescinded due to HR blanket "no-felons" policies. "We're so sorry. We would be happy to recommend you to anyone else, though." It became a running joke. I'd do multiple interview rounds which all went well, have a good sense I'd get an offer, and feel nothing from it because I knew I'd have it yanked out from under me on a technicality. Even today, I live in constant terror that my current employer or coworkers would find out. It's been ~10 years for christ's sake, I've never done anything else in my life. I can't express to you all how absolutely fucked it is to go to prison and become a convicted felon. Actions speak louder than words, but I'm saving up enough to quit my job and try to secure state funding to back into prisons and teach development + give other people a reason to wake up every morning. It's really hard not to neck yourself when you're staring at doing multiple years/decades in one of our country's fine estates.
- Cd00d 5y ago
  Thank you for sharing. It seems that we used to call prison "paying your debt to society", but now we as a society charge interest on that debt to insure it's never paid off. We're loan-sharking people's past mistakes, which is not justice.
babelfish 5y ago
John Carmack has commented on this company before - does he have any affiliation? https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/1435307747470454787 https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/1435307747470454787
- edoceo 5y ago
  Didn't see him on their GitHub, can't see LinkedIn. Maybe just a cool guy tweeting about a cool thing.
  - RickWolter 5y ago
    I reached out and asked him for his support. He thinks its an interesting problem to solve and has decided to help.
- cma 5y ago
  I think he went to juvenile hall for breaking and entering, and so perhaps has some affinity for their cause through his experiences with that.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  He is helping us solve some things. Mainly how to get companies to give our mentees a chance.
moksly 5y ago
I’ve worked with a few former criminals who spent time in prison for things they did in their youths. Keep in mind that I’m Scandinavian and our justice system is very, very, different. But all of them had been young and unadjusted and eventually wound up hurting someone over something stupid. Having matured and now in their 30’ies, none of that past life remained in any way in my dealings with them. Obviously this is both anecdotal and success biased as I’d never be in a position to meet the people who don’t succeed, but not giving people a chance just because they’ve made mistakes is silly and I’m happy that initiatives like this exist when your justice system doesn’t want to reform people.
- gatlin 5y ago
  The single best tool for rehabilitation, for the convict and the society around them, is meaningful activity. People hurt each other for reasons that are often as sympathetic as they are ultimately intolerable. I think it's wonderful that you had a great experience and shared it because the stigma needs to go. The inclination to follow the law may be tangentially related to a basic ability to follow directions, granted, but it doesn't make someone good or moral.
  - moksly 5y ago
    I think it’s just a really hard nut to crack. Because even if you remove the bias and stigma, corporations are at their core, risk adverse. I’ve met these people in the public sector where we have policies in place to employ the people who are hard to employ and focus on not discriminating people because of what they bring. But the fact that we have those policies and that focus speaks a lot about how hard of an issue it is. Because if you’ve committed crime, you’ll simply be considered a more risky hire, and we don’t like that. The most expensive mistake a manager can make in my country is hiring the wrong person. This is where a lot of the discrimination against former criminals, people with different sort of diagnosis’s, people over 60 and so on come from. Often the risk assessment isn’t actually true. Because a lot of these people will be far more loyal to your organisation than a fresh hire out of university, but the risk assessment will still favour the young person, and if someone experience and “normal” in their late 30ies or early 40ies is in competition, well…
paxys 5y ago
Those interested should also check out https://thelastmile.org/ https://thelastmile.org/. They are doing fantastic work in the same area.
willcipriano 5y ago
The sign up form could use a confirmation dialog, had to get into the dev console to confirm it had been submitted. Otherwise cool idea, I'd like to help coming to development from a non-traditional background as well.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  reach out. We are always looking for more support.
Romanulus 5y ago
That horizontal scrollbar (Chrome/FF) is criminal.
nomdep 5y ago
Are developers the new blue-collar workers? I haven’t seen a similar program for aspiring lawyers, doctors or accountants. Aren’t we too eager to commoditize the profession?
- edoceo 5y ago
  For lawyers, passing the Bar and education are just one requirement. In some cases your criminal record simply classes you as not "good moral character" and you are denied admission to the Bar or school (w/o significant effort)
- not2b 5y ago
  The short answer is yes, the bar for a developer is much, much lower than for a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant, requiring much less training. Doesn't mean that there aren't some forms of development that require considerable skill and experience, but many positions just don't.
  - symlinkk 5y ago
    The bar is lower because we don’t have formal testing like they do, e.g. the bar exam or med school.
    - makeitdouble 5y ago
      The parent mentioned regulated professions, but there is a flurry of roles surrounding lawyers, nurses and accountants that don't require certification. Now, I'm sure there are programs to try to help ex-convicts to get into generic company roles like assistants, data operators etc.
    - not2b 5y ago
      So, would you require someone to get formal testing before they can code a website for someone for pay? Why?
      - symlinkk 5y ago
ggfdh 5y ago
How do they define “disadvantaged?”
- IvanaSays 5y ago
  How important is that? What kind of detail would you want to know? Are you afraid of misclassification or missing out on someone, or...?
  - ggfdh 5y ago
    Stop riding my ass, Ivana.
    - IvanaSays 5y ago
      I was genuinely curious as I am often involved in writing for websites, including on D&I issues, so it's helpful to know what kind of information is needed, that's all. I don't think I deserved this comment. Cheers.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  By disadvantaged we mean people from a lower socio-economic background.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
devwastaken 5y ago
I want a program like this to work, and this is of course an unpopular but factual statement - most of these kinds of programs define "disadvantaged" on your sex, skin color, and country of origin. This makes sense because they're the programs companies like to fund to pad their diversity portfolio.thst protects them from Title 9 lawsuits. It follows the money. But it doesn't actually target "disadvantaged" people, it targets whatever criteria they've created. But perhaps this program is different, there's no details given for maybe good reason.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  In referring to "disadvantaged" we meant having a lower socio-economic background. Mainly those who are economically disadvantaged. We started by trying to help only the formerly incarcerated but enough people reached out that we decided to try and expand to help more people.
tossit24 5y ago
I am a person with a degree in computer science that was convicted of a felony many moons ago. I have been working as a developer for about the last decade. You can do it, but the fear of losing employment, housing, etc is a very real day-to-day thing I still have in the front of my mind.
- shadycuz 5y ago
  Yup. It's not teaching these people how to code. It's getting them a job once they can. Most companies will not hire them.
  - RickWolter 5y ago
    We have had 16 people hired in under a year and without a website at that time. Companies will hire if you use your network to make it happen.
- ThrowTeenFelon 5y ago
  You're not alone! It's going to take a movement to raise awareness about felons not being a Protected Class, and the legalized-discrimination that implies. The way I usually phrase it is: "What would you do if you were black/hispanic/asian and someone said: 'Yeah there's nothing technically WRONG with you as an applicant. 'But we just don't really house/hire YOUR KIND around here. Just policy, nothing personal, sorry.'" And then watch the horrified look on peoples' faces. This is just an expected occurrence as a felon, regardless of how long it's been. But who is going to raise such awareness? Someone who can afford to lose their job? Which unfortunately isn't me at the moment, and it sounds like isn't you.
  - xamolxix 5y ago
    You are conflating "the way you are born" with "something you've done" e.g. something you can't choose with something you can.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
Although I support the idea, the web site seems a bit … sparse … to me. This is an area that I know well. I’ve been working with folks like this for decades. One huge problem with rehabilitation and reentry programs, is a fairly significant level of sketchy behavior. Many times, these efforts start from a good place, but fall victim to corruption. It’s difficult to work with folks that have criminal backgrounds, but it can be quite gratifying. The challenges are real, but there are many, many people that are willing to work hard to climb out of a hole. It’s incredibly rewarding to help those folks. But there are always a few that have no interest in changing their spots, and they can really piss in the punch bowl. It’s important to be ready for these people. This kind of work is not for the faint of heart. Tough room. Also, I’m not too thrilled about the site conflating “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. They are quite different. Although ex-cons are a subset of disadvantaged people, they are a pretty small percentage, and present radically different challenges from other folks that suffer from things like poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity.
- throwhn68753 5y ago
  Between school and studies I also worked for a year a job involving manual labor (what people do during that time). So there were people with such backgrounds. All people are different and while working there I found them very likeable. With one guy I also became friends later and that guy stalked/pressed money out of me for a year. I think this is all great but companies need to have a very good idea what they are doing and have 1:1s with all employees about this and educate their juniors well. > Also, I’m not to thrilled about the site conflating “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. True, I mean "disadvantaged" people might not be selling themselves so well anyway. So people are already cautious.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  Hi founder of Underdog Devs here.... 1. The website is sparse because we spend our money on the mentees bills and so relied on those learning to build it. 2. As for orgs having a "fairly significant level of sketchy behavior" and falling victim to corruption, as you put it...sounds like a lot of speculation. I cant know either of those assertions as I dont have any data on it. I only know what we are doing. 3. I disagree that it's difficult to work with folks who have criminal backgrounds. I do agree that there are some who have no interest in changing. 4. The site doesnt conflate “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. Read it again. It says OR. Meaning you can come from either. 5. You say ex-cons are a subset of disadvantaged people and then you mention they face "radically" different challenges than folks who suffer from things like poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity. They face legal discrimination but thats the only difference. The vast majority of inmates come from lower socio-economic backgrounds so they face very similar obstacles. If you have any more questions reach out rick@underdogdevs.org or join an info session some time.
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
For those interested, in New York, we have Pursuit.org[0]. It was founded by the StackExchange folks. I wanted to work with them, but they weren't particularly interested in my tech stack (I do Apple development in Swift). Good folks. [0] https://www.pursuit.org https://www.pursuit.org
klik99 5y ago
Has anyone done a mentor program like this? Or even this?
- twof 5y ago
  As a mentor or mentee? I'm mentoring for them right now. AMA.
  - klik99 5y ago
    As a mentor - I signed up to show interest and will attend an info session - just curious about the process and time investment - is it typically "bootcamp" type of coding - full stack, web stuff? And if you do weekly sessions with someone, is it more reacting and giving advice/direction? Are they typically learning through other program and need some extra 1-on-1 time? Or are you taking a more active role in education? Thanks!
the-dude 5y ago
https://www.70millionjobs.com/ https://www.70millionjobs.com/ is from one of our own ( HN user https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=RBBronson123 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=RBBronson123 )
RickWolter 5y ago
Underdog Devs founder here... We are a scrappy group of software engineers working to create opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them. Mainly the formerly incarcerated. We are a very unique org in that we have no operating costs. No operating costs and yet we do the following.... We provide pair programming sessions all week for mentees with professional software engineers, they meet every other week with another mentor for career guidance, we have interview prep, our bootcamp partnerships provide free seats at various bootcamps, they get code assessments to determine progress by a CTO of a successful fintech company in San Fran, and a group of them have their bills paid so that they can focus on developing their skills unimpeded. Again, costs nothing, so all our money goes to the mentees bills. We have had 16 people hired in under a year and without a website. We plan to have 6 more hired within the next couple months. Although these aren't huge numbers remember that these are folks who have done prison time, who usually dont have degrees, who come from low income, and who many times felt like giving up on their software dev aspirations. This isn't the architect turned coder...this is major economic mobility that will change entire their family's trajectory. That 16 is a very meaningful 16. If anyone is interested in more info reach out. on Twitter Im @RwoltX and you'll find UD at @UnderdogDevs Or email us: questions@underdogdevs.org

243 points by auslegung 5y ago

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I became a convicted felon a hair after my 18th birthday, for a trespassing charge I received while out-of-my-mind high on drugs. Long story short, by the time I started highschool, I was experimenting with drugs and skipping school. I was in and out of youth prison for drug-related stuff, and never finished highschool. My life spiraled out of control, in full-blown drug addiction, until I finally landed a year in jail and this felony charge right when I turned 18. --- <Begin relevant part> When I got out, I got my start in a program similar to this, a software apprenticeship program for "at-risk" youth. It wasn't targeted towards formerly-incarcerated (in fact I think I was the only one they ever had) but I was completely transparent about my situation and past. I had been doing code stuff for fun, through video game scripting (Lua, some Visual Basic) ever since I was a child and it really paid off. Today, I have a career in a semi-well-known upstart tech company and live a life I never could have dreamed. But it could come crashing down at any moment. I'm still on felony probation almost a decade later for something I did when I was 18, due to massive debt I have to pay off. It makes it nearly impossible for me or my wife to find housing, since felons aren't a protected class (IE, you can legally discriminate against us, unlike people with disabilities or on the basis of race). By no exaggeration, I went through nearly a dozen interview processes while my wife I were working minimum-wage manual labor jobs on the brink of homelessness, to be given an offer letter and then rescinded due to HR blanket "no-felons" policies. "We're so sorry. We would be happy to recommend you to anyone else, though." It became a running joke. I'd do multiple interview rounds which all went well, have a good sense I'd get an offer, and feel nothing from it because I knew I'd have it yanked out from under me on a technicality. Even today, I live in constant terror that my current employer or coworkers would find out. It's been ~10 years for christ's sake, I've never done anything else in my life. I can't express to you all how absolutely fucked it is to go to prison and become a convicted felon. Actions speak louder than words, but I'm saving up enough to quit my job and try to secure state funding to back into prisons and teach development + give other people a reason to wake up every morning. It's really hard not to neck yourself when you're staring at doing multiple years/decades in one of our country's fine estates.

Cd00d 5y ago
Thank you for sharing. It seems that we used to call prison "paying your debt to society", but now we as a society charge interest on that debt to insure it's never paid off. We're loan-sharking people's past mistakes, which is not justice.

babelfish 5y ago

John Carmack has commented on this company before - does he have any affiliation? https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/1435307747470454787 https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/1435307747470454787

edoceo 5y ago
Didn't see him on their GitHub, can't see LinkedIn. Maybe just a cool guy tweeting about a cool thing.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  I reached out and asked him for his support. He thinks its an interesting problem to solve and has decided to help.
cma 5y ago
I think he went to juvenile hall for breaking and entering, and so perhaps has some affinity for their cause through his experiences with that.
RickWolter 5y ago
He is helping us solve some things. Mainly how to get companies to give our mentees a chance.

moksly 5y ago

I’ve worked with a few former criminals who spent time in prison for things they did in their youths. Keep in mind that I’m Scandinavian and our justice system is very, very, different. But all of them had been young and unadjusted and eventually wound up hurting someone over something stupid. Having matured and now in their 30’ies, none of that past life remained in any way in my dealings with them. Obviously this is both anecdotal and success biased as I’d never be in a position to meet the people who don’t succeed, but not giving people a chance just because they’ve made mistakes is silly and I’m happy that initiatives like this exist when your justice system doesn’t want to reform people.

gatlin 5y ago
The single best tool for rehabilitation, for the convict and the society around them, is meaningful activity. People hurt each other for reasons that are often as sympathetic as they are ultimately intolerable. I think it's wonderful that you had a great experience and shared it because the stigma needs to go. The inclination to follow the law may be tangentially related to a basic ability to follow directions, granted, but it doesn't make someone good or moral.
- moksly 5y ago
  I think it’s just a really hard nut to crack. Because even if you remove the bias and stigma, corporations are at their core, risk adverse. I’ve met these people in the public sector where we have policies in place to employ the people who are hard to employ and focus on not discriminating people because of what they bring. But the fact that we have those policies and that focus speaks a lot about how hard of an issue it is. Because if you’ve committed crime, you’ll simply be considered a more risky hire, and we don’t like that. The most expensive mistake a manager can make in my country is hiring the wrong person. This is where a lot of the discrimination against former criminals, people with different sort of diagnosis’s, people over 60 and so on come from. Often the risk assessment isn’t actually true. Because a lot of these people will be far more loyal to your organisation than a fresh hire out of university, but the risk assessment will still favour the young person, and if someone experience and “normal” in their late 30ies or early 40ies is in competition, well…

paxys 5y ago

Those interested should also check out https://thelastmile.org/ https://thelastmile.org/. They are doing fantastic work in the same area.

willcipriano 5y ago

The sign up form could use a confirmation dialog, had to get into the dev console to confirm it had been submitted. Otherwise cool idea, I'd like to help coming to development from a non-traditional background as well.

RickWolter 5y ago
reach out. We are always looking for more support.

Romanulus 5y ago

That horizontal scrollbar (Chrome/FF) is criminal.

nomdep 5y ago

Are developers the new blue-collar workers? I haven’t seen a similar program for aspiring lawyers, doctors or accountants. Aren’t we too eager to commoditize the profession?

edoceo 5y ago
For lawyers, passing the Bar and education are just one requirement. In some cases your criminal record simply classes you as not "good moral character" and you are denied admission to the Bar or school (w/o significant effort)
not2b 5y ago
The short answer is yes, the bar for a developer is much, much lower than for a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant, requiring much less training. Doesn't mean that there aren't some forms of development that require considerable skill and experience, but many positions just don't.
- symlinkk 5y ago
  The bar is lower because we don’t have formal testing like they do, e.g. the bar exam or med school.
  - makeitdouble 5y ago
    The parent mentioned regulated professions, but there is a flurry of roles surrounding lawyers, nurses and accountants that don't require certification. Now, I'm sure there are programs to try to help ex-convicts to get into generic company roles like assistants, data operators etc.
  - not2b 5y ago
    So, would you require someone to get formal testing before they can code a website for someone for pay? Why?
    - symlinkk 5y ago

ggfdh 5y ago

How do they define “disadvantaged?”

IvanaSays 5y ago
How important is that? What kind of detail would you want to know? Are you afraid of misclassification or missing out on someone, or...?
- ggfdh 5y ago
  Stop riding my ass, Ivana.
  - IvanaSays 5y ago
    I was genuinely curious as I am often involved in writing for websites, including on D&I issues, so it's helpful to know what kind of information is needed, that's all. I don't think I deserved this comment. Cheers.
RickWolter 5y ago
By disadvantaged we mean people from a lower socio-economic background.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

devwastaken 5y ago

I want a program like this to work, and this is of course an unpopular but factual statement - most of these kinds of programs define "disadvantaged" on your sex, skin color, and country of origin. This makes sense because they're the programs companies like to fund to pad their diversity portfolio.thst protects them from Title 9 lawsuits. It follows the money. But it doesn't actually target "disadvantaged" people, it targets whatever criteria they've created. But perhaps this program is different, there's no details given for maybe good reason.

RickWolter 5y ago
In referring to "disadvantaged" we meant having a lower socio-economic background. Mainly those who are economically disadvantaged. We started by trying to help only the formerly incarcerated but enough people reached out that we decided to try and expand to help more people.

tossit24 5y ago

I am a person with a degree in computer science that was convicted of a felony many moons ago. I have been working as a developer for about the last decade. You can do it, but the fear of losing employment, housing, etc is a very real day-to-day thing I still have in the front of my mind.

shadycuz 5y ago
Yup. It's not teaching these people how to code. It's getting them a job once they can. Most companies will not hire them.
- RickWolter 5y ago
  We have had 16 people hired in under a year and without a website at that time. Companies will hire if you use your network to make it happen.
ThrowTeenFelon 5y ago
You're not alone! It's going to take a movement to raise awareness about felons not being a Protected Class, and the legalized-discrimination that implies. The way I usually phrase it is: "What would you do if you were black/hispanic/asian and someone said: 'Yeah there's nothing technically WRONG with you as an applicant. 'But we just don't really house/hire YOUR KIND around here. Just policy, nothing personal, sorry.'" And then watch the horrified look on peoples' faces. This is just an expected occurrence as a felon, regardless of how long it's been. But who is going to raise such awareness? Someone who can afford to lose their job? Which unfortunately isn't me at the moment, and it sounds like isn't you.
- xamolxix 5y ago
  You are conflating "the way you are born" with "something you've done" e.g. something you can't choose with something you can.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

Although I support the idea, the web site seems a bit … sparse … to me. This is an area that I know well. I’ve been working with folks like this for decades. One huge problem with rehabilitation and reentry programs, is a fairly significant level of sketchy behavior. Many times, these efforts start from a good place, but fall victim to corruption. It’s difficult to work with folks that have criminal backgrounds, but it can be quite gratifying. The challenges are real, but there are many, many people that are willing to work hard to climb out of a hole. It’s incredibly rewarding to help those folks. But there are always a few that have no interest in changing their spots, and they can really piss in the punch bowl. It’s important to be ready for these people. This kind of work is not for the faint of heart. Tough room. Also, I’m not too thrilled about the site conflating “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. They are quite different. Although ex-cons are a subset of disadvantaged people, they are a pretty small percentage, and present radically different challenges from other folks that suffer from things like poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity.

throwhn68753 5y ago
Between school and studies I also worked for a year a job involving manual labor (what people do during that time). So there were people with such backgrounds. All people are different and while working there I found them very likeable. With one guy I also became friends later and that guy stalked/pressed money out of me for a year. I think this is all great but companies need to have a very good idea what they are doing and have 1:1s with all employees about this and educate their juniors well. > Also, I’m not to thrilled about the site conflating “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. True, I mean "disadvantaged" people might not be selling themselves so well anyway. So people are already cautious.
RickWolter 5y ago
Hi founder of Underdog Devs here.... 1. The website is sparse because we spend our money on the mentees bills and so relied on those learning to build it. 2. As for orgs having a "fairly significant level of sketchy behavior" and falling victim to corruption, as you put it...sounds like a lot of speculation. I cant know either of those assertions as I dont have any data on it. I only know what we are doing. 3. I disagree that it's difficult to work with folks who have criminal backgrounds. I do agree that there are some who have no interest in changing. 4. The site doesnt conflate “disadvantaged” folks with ex-cons. Read it again. It says OR. Meaning you can come from either. 5. You say ex-cons are a subset of disadvantaged people and then you mention they face "radically" different challenges than folks who suffer from things like poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity. They face legal discrimination but thats the only difference. The vast majority of inmates come from lower socio-economic backgrounds so they face very similar obstacles. If you have any more questions reach out rick@underdogdevs.org or join an info session some time.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

For those interested, in New York, we have Pursuit.org[0]. It was founded by the StackExchange folks. I wanted to work with them, but they weren't particularly interested in my tech stack (I do Apple development in Swift). Good folks. [0] https://www.pursuit.org https://www.pursuit.org

klik99 5y ago

Has anyone done a mentor program like this? Or even this?

twof 5y ago
As a mentor or mentee? I'm mentoring for them right now. AMA.
- klik99 5y ago
  As a mentor - I signed up to show interest and will attend an info session - just curious about the process and time investment - is it typically "bootcamp" type of coding - full stack, web stuff? And if you do weekly sessions with someone, is it more reacting and giving advice/direction? Are they typically learning through other program and need some extra 1-on-1 time? Or are you taking a more active role in education? Thanks!

the-dude 5y ago

https://www.70millionjobs.com/ https://www.70millionjobs.com/ is from one of our own ( HN user https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=RBBronson123 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=RBBronson123 )

RickWolter 5y ago

Underdog Devs founder here... We are a scrappy group of software engineers working to create opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them. Mainly the formerly incarcerated. We are a very unique org in that we have no operating costs. No operating costs and yet we do the following.... We provide pair programming sessions all week for mentees with professional software engineers, they meet every other week with another mentor for career guidance, we have interview prep, our bootcamp partnerships provide free seats at various bootcamps, they get code assessments to determine progress by a CTO of a successful fintech company in San Fran, and a group of them have their bills paid so that they can focus on developing their skills unimpeded. Again, costs nothing, so all our money goes to the mentees bills. We have had 16 people hired in under a year and without a website. We plan to have 6 more hired within the next couple months. Although these aren't huge numbers remember that these are folks who have done prison time, who usually dont have degrees, who come from low income, and who many times felt like giving up on their software dev aspirations. This isn't the architect turned coder...this is major economic mobility that will change entire their family's trajectory. That 16 is a very meaningful 16. If anyone is interested in more info reach out. on Twitter Im @RwoltX and you'll find UD at @UnderdogDevs Or email us: questions@underdogdevs.org