4 ms·

Ask HN: Would you pay $3,500 for an Interview Bootcamp?

• hawkice 12y ago
  12 * 7 * 2 = 168 total hours of commitment for a program I know nothing about, except that if you ask me to do something I believe is a waste of time I have to burn five figures in billable hours to ride it out and get the refund or sacrifice the $3,500. I highly recommend you provide details of what precisely you are selling -- you've raised the stakes for all customers, so pitch me that I'll have more success with you than on my own.
  • streakerbee 12y ago
    >> you ask me to do something I believe is a waste of time You can see the proof for yourself when you burn through the following two books within the three months. a) http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Interviews-Insiders-Guide/dp/1479274836 http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Interviews-Inside... b) http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-Questions/dp/098478280X http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-... You need to spend 4hrs+ on weekends though. You will get to talk to candidates already working in the top companies and will be working in a group of 20+ highly motivated and intelligent peers.
    • Madmallard 12y ago
      The work required for passing programming interviews is rote practice of solving problems for which you cannot immediately think of a solution. There's already hundreds of resources available to do this. Top-coder, practice-it, project euler, coding interview books, etc. etc. Teaching negotiation and soft skills are probably more valuable for the general programming population.
• rsmaniak 12y ago
  Yes definitely
• nadocrew 12y ago
  Why not give it away? People come for the bootcamp and after the 12 weeks you represent them during their job search. The companies will pay you $5-15k, depending on the candidate, as a referral fee. No cost to the participants.
  • lsc 12y ago
    >The companies will pay you $5-15k, depending on the candidate, as a referral fee. I have tried, and from what I've seen, it is quite difficult to get that sort of a relationship with a company. If you have a recruiting agency that has that sort of relationship with a big company? You can sell your recruiting agency for a lot of money. If you don't have a relationship with the company doing the hiring, you have to go through recruiters who do, and you will get $0-$2500 per referral. I've placed a lot of people at this level. I've gotten $2500 once. The rest of the time? I get a "thank you" (and the person I placed, often, feels they owe me a favor.)
• aspHax0 12y ago
  If you'd take the $3500 fee after I have the job, I think anyone would do it. I'd even go so far as to say I'd be willing to give you guys 40-50% of my pay for 3 months.
• deleted 12y ago
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• jgautsch 12y ago
  Interesting idea. Would there be any sort of pre-requisites? I could see something like this being pretty successful at private universities (where parents sometimes have more money than their kids have ambition/drive/talent). It would resonate with the same folks who pay big bucks for SAT and ACT prep classes
  • streakerbee 12y ago
    The only pre-requisite is that the candidate should be reasonably intelligent. Someone who is already working in a big company/school and is putting off preparation for the interviews is ideal.
• arikrak 12y ago
  Interesting idea, but I think it will be difficult for you to find people who can actually land jobs at those companies (and need you to help them do it). I though of covering interview questions on my site http://www.learneroo.com http://www.learneroo.com , but I decided for now to focus on general learning (though there's a lot that's relevant for interviews too).
  • streakerbee 12y ago
    We are betting on the idea that a reasonably smart person would surprise themselves on how far they can get ahead if they can diligently work in a consistent manner. 2 hours per day may not seem much but over the course of 3 months it is pretty effective in hacking the interview process. We will actually call/text the candidate before and after study period is over to ensure focus. Kind of like having a personal trainer for interviews.
    • deleted 12y ago
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• 8_hours_ago 12y ago
  If I were looking for a job, then yes, I would. A signing bonus would easily cover the 3.5k. But why not work with the companies directly as a recruiting agency? Or work with already existing recruiting agencies to train their recruits? There is a lot of money to be made in the recruiting business, you definitely could make much more than 3.5k per hire.
• jesusmichael 12y ago
  guaranteed? right...
• thisiswei 12y ago
  Sign me up. I'll commit 6-8 hours, how to contact you?
• wodenokoto 12y ago
  I've seen companies offer similar deals in Denmark. It can't possibly be a new concept in the US, can it? Most often they'll ask for 50%-100% of the first paycheck (hopefully after tax, or else nobody can pay that in Denmark!)
• jamilv 12y ago
  I'd commit. However an easier model to attract more people is percentage of income (annually or monthly). I seen people work with headhunters before, giving up 1 months salary as the commission to land a job they want and in the end it seems like a win/win situation. Both people are happy.