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Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. They were taking what they learned and applyin

Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. They were taking what they learned and applying it. Others organized groups of people, and essentially formed a small support network of people in a similar position. I completely understand that not everyone has the time for that. I think two things happened over Lambda's life span that effected the quality of the teaching. The first was the initial pool they advertised too. I think I saw the post on Hacker News before everywhere else. I'd wonder if you're more selective from already technical people at the beginning and then sorta widening the net as time goes on to include more people if you could get initial big numbers push followed by more ok numbers. The instructors I met were all great. I think a lot of that flack went more towards later cohorts or alternative program from the main full webstack track.

chrisfosterelli 4y ago
> Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. Ironically this is not that different from my university experience.
- MivLives 4y ago
  Mine too actually.
- ivanche 4y ago
  Not ironically at all! If someone expects to attend programming classes (or any classes for that matter), not do any extra work and as a result to become a programmer, that someone will have a rude awakening. Or as one of my university professors said "Attempt to learn this subject by just listening these classes is equivalent to attemting to become a gymnast by watching Olympics on TV".
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Manuel_D 4y ago
Did lambda school have any sort of assessment before accepting students? This really resonates with my observations. The people who got the most out of software bootcamps were those that had tinkered with video game modding, WordPress, etc. and had done some self-learning of coding before going to a bootcamp. In other words, people who knew they liked hacking on tech and had a basic ability to code. They approached the bootcamp with the mindset that they already knew they had technical interest and ability, and wanted direction on building marketable skills. Do you think greater selectivity applicants would increase the success rate? I had thought the ISA model would incentivize this, but when I learned lambda was selling ISAs that seemed like it removed this incentive.
- MivLives 4y ago
  They had a prebootcamp with a free course that taught the basics. Some people cheat through that though and didn't quite process that... you can't really pull that off through the whole program? I totally saw people who had never coded before succeed, I'm not sure I could pick out in an interview who would do well and who wouldn't. It's a marathon not a sprint. For the selectivity thing... I'm really not sure. The selling ISAs thing was a bit weird when I learned about. I honestly kinda wonder about the actuarial calcs of it all.
  - austenallred 4y ago
    Honestly I was a little surprised at the cheating too. I think I was a little naive in the beginning that if you actually wanted a job you would understand that you would have to be able to write code. But some folks are in a school mentality that if you get a grade/diploma you're good, regardless of whether you understand the things required to go into that. Having tried a number of different ways to do admissions, I can assure you doing interviews is possibly the worst. As far as ISAs go, it all comes out in the wash. If you create a pool of ISAs and students don't get hired you may have more ISAs but the average ISA is worth less, so the only thing that matters is whether each individual student gets hired. There's no financial wizardry that can let you sell $1 for $2 in the long-run.
morgante 4y ago
> Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. They were taking what they learned and applying it. Is this a knock on Lambda School, though? You can go to MIT but if you never apply your learnings you won't be a good engineer.
- TulliusCicero 4y ago
  Going through the motions of a CS degree is probably sufficient to land a decent job if you're getting good grades, not cheating, and you get an internship (or similar). At least from what I've heard of bootcamps, you need to really go above and beyond to have similar chances with that route.
  - JCharante 4y ago
    Well there are many many students at schools with CS programs who never get internships (because they don't apply or have an empty resume).
jwmoz 4y ago
"They were taking what they learned and applying it." Am I missing something, surely this is exactly what you should be doing?

chrisfosterelli 4y ago

> Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. Ironically this is not that different from my university experience.

MivLives 4y ago
Mine too actually.
ivanche 4y ago
Not ironically at all! If someone expects to attend programming classes (or any classes for that matter), not do any extra work and as a result to become a programmer, that someone will have a rude awakening. Or as one of my university professors said "Attempt to learn this subject by just listening these classes is equivalent to attemting to become a gymnast by watching Olympics on TV".
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Manuel_D 4y ago

Did lambda school have any sort of assessment before accepting students? This really resonates with my observations. The people who got the most out of software bootcamps were those that had tinkered with video game modding, WordPress, etc. and had done some self-learning of coding before going to a bootcamp. In other words, people who knew they liked hacking on tech and had a basic ability to code. They approached the bootcamp with the mindset that they already knew they had technical interest and ability, and wanted direction on building marketable skills. Do you think greater selectivity applicants would increase the success rate? I had thought the ISA model would incentivize this, but when I learned lambda was selling ISAs that seemed like it removed this incentive.

MivLives 4y ago
They had a prebootcamp with a free course that taught the basics. Some people cheat through that though and didn't quite process that... you can't really pull that off through the whole program? I totally saw people who had never coded before succeed, I'm not sure I could pick out in an interview who would do well and who wouldn't. It's a marathon not a sprint. For the selectivity thing... I'm really not sure. The selling ISAs thing was a bit weird when I learned about. I honestly kinda wonder about the actuarial calcs of it all.
- austenallred 4y ago
  Honestly I was a little surprised at the cheating too. I think I was a little naive in the beginning that if you actually wanted a job you would understand that you would have to be able to write code. But some folks are in a school mentality that if you get a grade/diploma you're good, regardless of whether you understand the things required to go into that. Having tried a number of different ways to do admissions, I can assure you doing interviews is possibly the worst. As far as ISAs go, it all comes out in the wash. If you create a pool of ISAs and students don't get hired you may have more ISAs but the average ISA is worth less, so the only thing that matters is whether each individual student gets hired. There's no financial wizardry that can let you sell $1 for $2 in the long-run.

morgante 4y ago

> Most of the people I saw get successful were people were people doing like... extra stuff outside of the classes. They were taking what they learned and applying it. Is this a knock on Lambda School, though? You can go to MIT but if you never apply your learnings you won't be a good engineer.

TulliusCicero 4y ago
Going through the motions of a CS degree is probably sufficient to land a decent job if you're getting good grades, not cheating, and you get an internship (or similar). At least from what I've heard of bootcamps, you need to really go above and beyond to have similar chances with that route.
- JCharante 4y ago
  Well there are many many students at schools with CS programs who never get internships (because they don't apply or have an empty resume).

jwmoz 4y ago

"They were taking what they learned and applying it." Am I missing something, surely this is exactly what you should be doing?