July 29, 2015 at 14:55Dirty Secrets of Express Programming Courses
- Transfer
Hello, Habr!
The goal of our Hexlet educational project is to teach programming. We constantly try to draw attention to the fact that the basics of programming, analysis and problem solving, understanding the foundation are important. More important than just a trendy stack or technology. Therefore, our courses in PHP or Ruby are based on SICP , and the course in databases is actually devoted to the SQL-92 standard , and not to the features of any MySQL.
The idea of educational centers is spreading more and more actively in the CIS, where " you can become a programmer and get a job in 8 weeks"In the West, there are hundreds of them! Everyone promises a bright future, many say that" anyone can become a programmer. "They promise employment. In the wake of" coding is the new literacy ", thousands of people are written in called “bootcamps.” This is a huge business, but, unfortunately, most of these bootcamps do not train real programmers.
Today we publish a translation of an article by Ken Mazayka, a professional developer and founder of several successful companies, including an educational project. Ken talks about akimi myths are stuffed with many beginners bootcamp, and that he thinks about it.
There is an incredible mess on the market today. Marketers and the media brainwash people. Because of them, it might seem that becoming a developer and getting paid with five zeros is easy. You just need to sign up for any bootcamp (short, concise educational program), study for 8 weeks (~ 40 business days), and you can easily get your first job. Unfortunately, in most cases this is a hoax.
Among recruiters, all of the largest software bootcamps have a reputation for being used by nonprofessional developers. After suffering in the labor market, some graduates give up. Others continue to study independently and, after several months of perseverance, they have the opportunity to apply for a job.
This is not their fault. Here is a massive ad that is being rubbed by beginners about bootcamps and that has nothing to do with the truth:
When I look at the curriculum of most bootcamps, I see that the largest training programs omit one minor point: how to program .
Instead, they focus on the latest trends like reactive-backbones-for-angularstrap-5. I understand. Beginners think they need to know all this. Although in reality it would be much more useful to understand the basics. 99% of bootcamps use the novice naivety instead of teaching them really important things.
These bootcamps tend to focus on learning certain technologies. But they do not teach how to think over and solve complex problems, how to become a specialist in some programming language. Many will never teach you how to become a real programmer.
Learning to solve complex problems and grasp new concepts on the fly is the only thing that matters. Becoming a self-sufficient developer who can figure out how to build complex functions is the whole point. Please believe me, having a buzzword in your resume is less important.
The number of “developers” who graduated from various training programs, but are not able to solve elementary programming problems, is amazing.
Fact: the labor market is saturated with a large number of unqualified candidates for initial positions.
If you just graduated from bootcamp, on paper (in resume) you are not very different from other graduates. This means that breaking through with a resume is an extremely inefficient way to get your first job, even if you are actually a master.
Since you look like many other juniors on paper, looking for work in the traditional way is not effective for you. It should be served at ~ 100 positions per week. Then, you will probably go through 4-8 interviews, of which, presumably, you will receive 1 sentence if you really have the skills. 99 refusals per 1 consent. So-so statistics.
If you do not want to play this inefficient game, I strongly recommend that you join the local community, build a serious relationship (within a month or two, while you study), and then ask the community for help when you are ready. People often underestimate the importance of communication. That is your everything. It takes effort. It takes time. But this is a very effective way to find a job.
Technical interviews are needed in order to get to the question "Does this person have real skills?" You can embellish your abilities on paper, but then you will have to prove your worth.
Ignoring the basics of programming, and then expecting skills to emerge in a two-week review course, is like believing in a magic pill that will give you a dice press (you can eat pizza every day). This does not happen. To believe in this means not to understand how the world works.
This is a long process, here you need to develop the ability to immerse yourself in work and focus on the fundamentals that, in fact, matter. There are no other realities.
Many training projects try to instill in students the idea that their connections in employment agencies and friendly companies will help students find work. Not. Employment agencies and networks of friendly companies are a way for programmer bootcamps to make money on students who can find work without them .
I heard about a well-known training program, whose representatives phoned the employer (not related to their agency) who hired one of their graduates (the student found a job on his own), and demanded to pay them thousands of dollars as a “recruiting fee”. Although they had nothing to do with the hiring process.
Cool, yeah?
They say that there are Falsehoods, Impudent falsehoods and Statistics. A larger percentage of employment statistics are unbelievably overstated by skillful mathematical nonsense.
Often on the website of companies it is said that they found work for all graduates. In reality, everything ... almost like that. Let's say the first group of bootcamps has a positive percentage of employment - 90%. The second is 40%. Firstly, there is a downward trajectory, so we can expect that the percentage will only decrease. Naturally, the result of the first group will be advertised - 90%, and this seems to be not a hoax ... In statistics, this is called a sampling error.
Most universities need to study for 4 years. The end of the traditional 4-year computer science program shows a certain amount of perseverance and demonstrates that you have been immersed in programming and engineering for a long time.
A close friend of mine recently looked for work. I tried to help him and sent him to the technical director of the company, which begged me to send some suitable candidate who was familiar. This man trusted me, and I showed him a preliminary resume with a brilliant recommendation. Then I got this answer:
Now my friend found a job somewhere, and he is doing well, but the fact is that certain people infringe on the interests of candidates without a degree in computer science. This is how the world works, but this situation is slowly improving.
Senior developers often say "education in Computer Science has given me nothing, it is completely useless." It rather elevates their ego than helps people make informed decisions.
Yes, universities hardly prepare for the practical aspects of a programmer's work. On the other hand, most (good) universities have excellent teaching on complex fundamental topics that help improve problem-solving abilities and produce self-sufficient programmers.
Good bootcamps for programmers cover Computer Science topics regarding algorithms and data structures, but 9 out of 10 bootcamps do not cover these topics at all. After all, teaching these disciplines is not so simple.
If your bootcamp does not cover these types of knowledge, you need to fully devote yourself to studying algorithms and data structures in your free time.
On the other hand, although I understand the value of classical education, now is not the best time to enter a university. Spending 4 years of your life, borrowing $ 100,000 is a serious commitment.
If you are ready to invest quality time and energy in acquiring skills and finding a first job, then becoming self-taught is a great way.
Most recruiters are interested in how many years you have been programming in the real world, and not in what you studied at the university. And as soon as you have a couple of years of experience in the piggy bank, no matter how you get it, you will be in great demand.
Starting is hard because you need to sweat to get your first job. After you work a year or so, everything will change dramatically, and you will suddenly begin to receive unwanted emails from agencies trying to hire you. Receiving 10-20 letters from recruiters every month is a common thing. Experienced developers spend more time teasing recruiters than communicating with them!
Experienced developers are very difficult to find! Companies that raise millions of dollars are forced to spend this money, and the main resource that they value is technical experience.
Many companies require an increase in the engineering team to over 20 people. You may not have thought about this, but this task is practically impossible.
Finding a good senior in your city and convincing him to join your team is like finding a diamond the size of a refrigerator in your yard. Find twenty people how to win the lottery twice in a row.
In addition, most recruiters hardly know anything about technology or what those slang words that they use all day mean. This is how recruiters see the life of a programmer:
Now is a great time to change your career and become a developer. Even if you need to work hard to get your first job as soon as you find yourself in the industry, writing applications is a craft with a good reward.
That's why I became the co-founder of theFirehoseProject - to help students become full-fledged web developers who can solve complex problems, write algorithms and use the latest technology.
Let's just call a spade a spade. The largest world bootcamps for programmers only care about stamping students (and are not particularly concerned about the results they get), many of them have a board of directors that dismiss CEOs if they don't make enough sales. They focus on quantity, and this is the only indicator that excites them.
Most bootcamps for programmers do not last long. They focus on the short-term goal - the sale, and not on the long-term goal - the release of able-bodied engineers. The curriculum and teachers go by the wayside.
You can register, pay money and not gain any experience or understanding - is the profession of a programmer for you at all? The fact is that programming is not for everyone and any bootcamp that gives you the opportunity to pay for it (without proving that you are capable of programming by solving specific tasks) didn’t care about student performance. Dot. The end of the story.
The low bar set by poor training centers spoils the reputation of all bootcamps!
As soon as the recruiter interviews a couple of candidates from these low-quality courses, he immediately discriminates against all existing bootcamps. Such organizations break the life of all novice programmers.
If you plan to join the curriculum, I strongly recommend that you study everything and make sure that the curriculum of your choice covers algorithms and data structures if you are thinking about a career change. Otherwise, you will have to face many questions that you will not understand during the interview process.
Translation: Natalia Bass
The goal of our Hexlet educational project is to teach programming. We constantly try to draw attention to the fact that the basics of programming, analysis and problem solving, understanding the foundation are important. More important than just a trendy stack or technology. Therefore, our courses in PHP or Ruby are based on SICP , and the course in databases is actually devoted to the SQL-92 standard , and not to the features of any MySQL.
The idea of educational centers is spreading more and more actively in the CIS, where " you can become a programmer and get a job in 8 weeks"In the West, there are hundreds of them! Everyone promises a bright future, many say that" anyone can become a programmer. "They promise employment. In the wake of" coding is the new literacy ", thousands of people are written in called “bootcamps.” This is a huge business, but, unfortunately, most of these bootcamps do not train real programmers.
Today we publish a translation of an article by Ken Mazayka, a professional developer and founder of several successful companies, including an educational project. Ken talks about akimi myths are stuffed with many beginners bootcamp, and that he thinks about it.
There is an incredible mess on the market today. Marketers and the media brainwash people. Because of them, it might seem that becoming a developer and getting paid with five zeros is easy. You just need to sign up for any bootcamp (short, concise educational program), study for 8 weeks (~ 40 business days), and you can easily get your first job. Unfortunately, in most cases this is a hoax.
Among recruiters, all of the largest software bootcamps have a reputation for being used by nonprofessional developers. After suffering in the labor market, some graduates give up. Others continue to study independently and, after several months of perseverance, they have the opportunity to apply for a job.
This is not their fault. Here is a massive ad that is being rubbed by beginners about bootcamps and that has nothing to do with the truth:
Myth # 1: All bootcamps for programmers provide the skills needed to get a job.
You may not have noticed, but: fundamental disciplines are important!
When I look at the curriculum of most bootcamps, I see that the largest training programs omit one minor point: how to program .
Instead, they focus on the latest trends like reactive-backbones-for-angularstrap-5. I understand. Beginners think they need to know all this. Although in reality it would be much more useful to understand the basics. 99% of bootcamps use the novice naivety instead of teaching them really important things.
These bootcamps tend to focus on learning certain technologies. But they do not teach how to think over and solve complex problems, how to become a specialist in some programming language. Many will never teach you how to become a real programmer.
Learning to solve complex problems and grasp new concepts on the fly is the only thing that matters. Becoming a self-sufficient developer who can figure out how to build complex functions is the whole point. Please believe me, having a buzzword in your resume is less important.
The number of “developers” who graduated from various training programs, but are not able to solve elementary programming problems, is amazing.
Myth # 2: Getting a job is easy.
This is not true. It takes a lot of energy. Lots of.
Fact: the labor market is saturated with a large number of unqualified candidates for initial positions.
If you just graduated from bootcamp, on paper (in resume) you are not very different from other graduates. This means that breaking through with a resume is an extremely inefficient way to get your first job, even if you are actually a master.
Since you look like many other juniors on paper, looking for work in the traditional way is not effective for you. It should be served at ~ 100 positions per week. Then, you will probably go through 4-8 interviews, of which, presumably, you will receive 1 sentence if you really have the skills. 99 refusals per 1 consent. So-so statistics.
If you do not want to play this inefficient game, I strongly recommend that you join the local community, build a serious relationship (within a month or two, while you study), and then ask the community for help when you are ready. People often underestimate the importance of communication. That is your everything. It takes effort. It takes time. But this is a very effective way to find a job.
Myth # 3: Two weeks to prepare for a technical interview
Technical interviews are needed in order to get to the question "Does this person have real skills?" You can embellish your abilities on paper, but then you will have to prove your worth.
Ignoring the basics of programming, and then expecting skills to emerge in a two-week review course, is like believing in a magic pill that will give you a dice press (you can eat pizza every day). This does not happen. To believe in this means not to understand how the world works.
This is a long process, here you need to develop the ability to immerse yourself in work and focus on the fundamentals that, in fact, matter. There are no other realities.
Myth # 4: Employment Agencies Help Students
Many training projects try to instill in students the idea that their connections in employment agencies and friendly companies will help students find work. Not. Employment agencies and networks of friendly companies are a way for programmer bootcamps to make money on students who can find work without them .
I heard about a well-known training program, whose representatives phoned the employer (not related to their agency) who hired one of their graduates (the student found a job on his own), and demanded to pay them thousands of dollars as a “recruiting fee”. Although they had nothing to do with the hiring process.
Cool, yeah?
Myth # 5: You can trust statistics on ad placement
They say that there are Falsehoods, Impudent falsehoods and Statistics. A larger percentage of employment statistics are unbelievably overstated by skillful mathematical nonsense.
Often on the website of companies it is said that they found work for all graduates. In reality, everything ... almost like that. Let's say the first group of bootcamps has a positive percentage of employment - 90%. The second is 40%. Firstly, there is a downward trajectory, so we can expect that the percentage will only decrease. Naturally, the result of the first group will be advertised - 90%, and this seems to be not a hoax ... In statistics, this is called a sampling error.
Myth 6: Informatics education has no value.
Most universities need to study for 4 years. The end of the traditional 4-year computer science program shows a certain amount of perseverance and demonstrates that you have been immersed in programming and engineering for a long time.
A close friend of mine recently looked for work. I tried to help him and sent him to the technical director of the company, which begged me to send some suitable candidate who was familiar. This man trusted me, and I showed him a preliminary resume with a brilliant recommendation. Then I got this answer:
Hello Ken,
I hope everything is fine with you.
I contacted him, but frankly, we are looking for someone with a specialization in Computer Science, a bachelor. Naturally, it was hard to find people who met the criteria.
Now my friend found a job somewhere, and he is doing well, but the fact is that certain people infringe on the interests of candidates without a degree in computer science. This is how the world works, but this situation is slowly improving.
Senior developers often say "education in Computer Science has given me nothing, it is completely useless." It rather elevates their ego than helps people make informed decisions.
Yes, universities hardly prepare for the practical aspects of a programmer's work. On the other hand, most (good) universities have excellent teaching on complex fundamental topics that help improve problem-solving abilities and produce self-sufficient programmers.
Good bootcamps for programmers cover Computer Science topics regarding algorithms and data structures, but 9 out of 10 bootcamps do not cover these topics at all. After all, teaching these disciplines is not so simple.
If your bootcamp does not cover these types of knowledge, you need to fully devote yourself to studying algorithms and data structures in your free time.
On the other hand, although I understand the value of classical education, now is not the best time to enter a university. Spending 4 years of your life, borrowing $ 100,000 is a serious commitment.
If you are ready to invest quality time and energy in acquiring skills and finding a first job, then becoming self-taught is a great way.
Most recruiters are interested in how many years you have been programming in the real world, and not in what you studied at the university. And as soon as you have a couple of years of experience in the piggy bank, no matter how you get it, you will be in great demand.
Starting is hard because you need to sweat to get your first job. After you work a year or so, everything will change dramatically, and you will suddenly begin to receive unwanted emails from agencies trying to hire you. Receiving 10-20 letters from recruiters every month is a common thing. Experienced developers spend more time teasing recruiters than communicating with them!
In fact, many fast-growing companies have big problems!
Experienced developers are very difficult to find! Companies that raise millions of dollars are forced to spend this money, and the main resource that they value is technical experience.
Many companies require an increase in the engineering team to over 20 people. You may not have thought about this, but this task is practically impossible.
Finding a good senior in your city and convincing him to join your team is like finding a diamond the size of a refrigerator in your yard. Find twenty people how to win the lottery twice in a row.
In addition, most recruiters hardly know anything about technology or what those slang words that they use all day mean. This is how recruiters see the life of a programmer:
Now is a great time to change your career and become a developer. Even if you need to work hard to get your first job as soon as you find yourself in the industry, writing applications is a craft with a good reward.
That's why I became the co-founder of theFirehoseProject - to help students become full-fledged web developers who can solve complex problems, write algorithms and use the latest technology.
Let's just call a spade a spade. The largest world bootcamps for programmers only care about stamping students (and are not particularly concerned about the results they get), many of them have a board of directors that dismiss CEOs if they don't make enough sales. They focus on quantity, and this is the only indicator that excites them.
Most bootcamps for programmers do not last long. They focus on the short-term goal - the sale, and not on the long-term goal - the release of able-bodied engineers. The curriculum and teachers go by the wayside.
You can register, pay money and not gain any experience or understanding - is the profession of a programmer for you at all? The fact is that programming is not for everyone and any bootcamp that gives you the opportunity to pay for it (without proving that you are capable of programming by solving specific tasks) didn’t care about student performance. Dot. The end of the story.
The low bar set by poor training centers spoils the reputation of all bootcamps!
As soon as the recruiter interviews a couple of candidates from these low-quality courses, he immediately discriminates against all existing bootcamps. Such organizations break the life of all novice programmers.
If you plan to join the curriculum, I strongly recommend that you study everything and make sure that the curriculum of your choice covers algorithms and data structures if you are thinking about a career change. Otherwise, you will have to face many questions that you will not understand during the interview process.
Translation: Natalia Bass