Dirty secrets of express programming courses
Hi, Habr!
The goal of our educational project Hekslet 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 is important. More important than just a fashionable stack or technology. Therefore, our PHP or Ruby courses are based on SICP , and the course on databases is actually dedicated to the SQL-92 standard, and not to the features of any MySQL.
In the CIS, the idea of ​​educational centers, where " you can become a programmer and get a job in 8 weeks ", is becoming increasingly active. In the west - 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" ("coding is new literacy"), thousands of people are recorded in the so-called "bootcamps". This is a huge business, but, unfortunately, most of these bootcamps do not train real programmers.
')
Today we publish a translation of the article by Ken Mazayka, a professional developer and founder of several successful companies, including an educational project. Ken talks about how many new bootcamps are stuffing newbies with myths, and what he thinks about this.
Today, the market is an incredible mess. Marketers and the media brainwashed people. Because of them, it may seem that becoming a developer and starting to receive a salary with five zeros is easy. You only need to sign up for any bootcamp (short, concise educational program), study for 8 weeks (~ 40 working days), and you will easily get your first job. Unfortunately, in most cases this is a hoax.
Among recruiters, all major programmer bootcamps have a reputation as places where non-professional developers are stamped. After suffering in the labor market, some graduates give up. Others continue to study independently and, after several months of stubbornness, they have the opportunity to apply for a job.
It is not their fault. Here is a massive advertisement that is rubbed in by newbies about bootcamps and which 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, such as reactive-backbones-for-angularstrap-5. I understand. Beginners think they need to know all this. Although in reality it would be more useful to understand the basics. 99% of the bootcamps use the naivety of newbies instead of teaching them really important things.
These bootcamps tend to focus on learning certain technologies. But they do not teach how to think through and solve complex problems, how to become an expert 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. Become a self-sufficient developer who can figure out how to build complex functions, that's the whole point. Please believe me, having a buzzword in your resume is less important.
The number of "developers" who have completed 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 have just completed a bootcamp, on paper (in resume) you are not particularly 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 a master.
Since on paper you look like many other juniors, to look for work in the traditional way for you is not effective. It is necessary to apply for ~ 100 positions per week. Then, you will probably pass 4-8 interviews, of which you are expected to receive 1 offer if you really have the skills. 99 refusals for 1 consent. So-so statistics.
If you do not want to play this ineffective game, I strongly recommend that you join the local community, build a serious relationship (for a month or two while you study), and then ask the environment for help when you are ready. People often underestimate the importance of connections. This is your all. It requires 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 have to prove your worth.
Ignoring the basics of programming and then expecting skills to appear in a two-week review course - this is how to believe in a magic pill that will give you a press with dice (you can eat pizza every day). It 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 dive into the work and focus on the basics, which, in fact, matter. Other realities do not exist.
Many study projects try to convince students that their connections at employment agencies and friendly companies will help students find a job. Not. Employment agencies and networks of friendly companies are a way for programmer bootcamps to make money on students who can get a job without them .
I heard about a well-known curriculum whose representatives phoned an employer (not connected with their agency) who hired one of their graduates (the student found a vacancy independently) and demanded that they pay thousands of dollars as a “recruiting reward”. Although they had nothing to do with the hiring process at all.
Cool, yeah?
They say that there is a lie, a blatant lie and statistics. A larger percentage of statistics on employment is implausibly overestimated by adept mathematical nonsense.
Often on the website of the companies it is said that they found a job for all graduates. In reality, everything is ... almost like that. Say, the first group of bootcamp has a positive employment rate of 90%. The second is 40%. First, there is a downward trajectory, so you can expect that the percentage will only decrease. Naturally, the result of the first group will be advertised - 90%, and it seems like 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 program in computer science shows a certain amount of perseverance and demonstrates that you have been immersed in programming and engineering sciences for a long time.
A close friend of mine recently searched for a job. I tried to help him and sent him to the technical director of the company, which begged me to send some suitable familiar candidate. This person trusted me, and I showed him a preliminary resume with a brilliant recommendation. Then I received the following answer:
Now my friend has found somewhere a job, and he is fine, but the fact is that certain people infringe upon the interests of candidates without a degree in computer science. This is how the world works, but this situation is slowly beginning to improve.
Senior developers often say “education in Computer Science has given me nothing, it is completely useless.” It elevates their ego rather 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 perfectly teach complex fundamental topics that help improve problem solving abilities and produce self-sufficient programmers.
Good bootcamps for programmers cover Computer Science topics related to 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 easy.
If your bootcamp does not cover these types of knowledge, you need to fully devote yourself to the study of 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 find your 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 your piggy bank, no matter how you get it, you will be in great demand.
It’s hard to start because you need to sweat to get your first job. After you have worked for a year or so, everything will change drastically and you will suddenly begin to receive unwanted letters from agencies trying to hire you. Receiving 10-20 emails from recruiters every month is common. Experienced developers spend more time teasing recruiters than communicating with them!
Experienced developers are very hard to find! Companies that raise millions of dollars are forced to spend this money, and the main resource they value is technical expertise.
Many companies require an increase in the engineering team to over 20 people. Maybe you didn’t think about it, but this task is almost impossible.
Finding a good senior in your city and convincing him to join your team is how to find 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 the slang words they use all day mean. Here's how recruiters see the life of a programmer:
Now is a great time to change careers and become a developer. Even if it takes a bit of work to get your first job, once you get into the industry, writing apps is a good reward.
That's why I co-founded theFirehoseProject — to help students become full-fledged web developers who can solve complex problems, write algorithms, and use the latest technologies.
Let's just call things by their proper names. The world's largest bootcamps for programmers care only about stamping students (and are not particularly concerned about the results they get), many of them have a board of directors that dismisses CEOs if they do not sell enough. They focus on quantity, and this is the only indicator that worries 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. Curriculum and teachers go into the background.
You can register, pay money and not get any experience or understanding - is it a programmer’s job for you? 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 able to program, solving specific tasks) I didn’t care about student performance. Point. The end of the story.
The low bar set by poor training centers spoils the reputation of all bootcamps!
As soon as a recruiter interviews a couple of candidates from these low-quality courses, he immediately discriminates against all existing bootcamps. Such organizations break the lives of all novice programmers.
If you are planning 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 changing careers. Otherwise, you will have to face many questions that you will not understand in the interview process.
Translation: Natalia Bass
The goal of our educational project Hekslet 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 is important. More important than just a fashionable stack or technology. Therefore, our PHP or Ruby courses are based on SICP , and the course on databases is actually dedicated to the SQL-92 standard, and not to the features of any MySQL.
In the CIS, the idea of ​​educational centers, where " you can become a programmer and get a job in 8 weeks ", is becoming increasingly active. In the west - 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" ("coding is new literacy"), thousands of people are recorded in the so-called "bootcamps". This is a huge business, but, unfortunately, most of these bootcamps do not train real programmers.
')
Today we publish a translation of the article by Ken Mazayka, a professional developer and founder of several successful companies, including an educational project. Ken talks about how many new bootcamps are stuffing newbies with myths, and what he thinks about this.
Today, the market is an incredible mess. Marketers and the media brainwashed people. Because of them, it may seem that becoming a developer and starting to receive a salary with five zeros is easy. You only need to sign up for any bootcamp (short, concise educational program), study for 8 weeks (~ 40 working days), and you will easily get your first job. Unfortunately, in most cases this is a hoax.
Among recruiters, all major programmer bootcamps have a reputation as places where non-professional developers are stamped. After suffering in the labor market, some graduates give up. Others continue to study independently and, after several months of stubbornness, they have the opportunity to apply for a job.
It is not their fault. Here is a massive advertisement that is rubbed in by newbies about bootcamps and which has nothing to do with the truth:
Myth number 1: All bootcamps for programmers provide the skills necessary 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, such as reactive-backbones-for-angularstrap-5. I understand. Beginners think they need to know all this. Although in reality it would be more useful to understand the basics. 99% of the bootcamps use the naivety of newbies instead of teaching them really important things.
These bootcamps tend to focus on learning certain technologies. But they do not teach how to think through and solve complex problems, how to become an expert 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. Become a self-sufficient developer who can figure out how to build complex functions, that's the whole point. Please believe me, having a buzzword in your resume is less important.
The number of "developers" who have completed various training programs, but are not able to solve elementary programming problems, is amazing.
Myth number 2: Get a job just
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 have just completed a bootcamp, on paper (in resume) you are not particularly 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 a master.
Since on paper you look like many other juniors, to look for work in the traditional way for you is not effective. It is necessary to apply for ~ 100 positions per week. Then, you will probably pass 4-8 interviews, of which you are expected to receive 1 offer if you really have the skills. 99 refusals for 1 consent. So-so statistics.
If you do not want to play this ineffective game, I strongly recommend that you join the local community, build a serious relationship (for a month or two while you study), and then ask the environment for help when you are ready. People often underestimate the importance of connections. This is your all. It requires effort. It takes time. But this is a very effective way to find a job.
Myth number 3: In two weeks, you can 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 have to prove your worth.
Ignoring the basics of programming and then expecting skills to appear in a two-week review course - this is how to believe in a magic pill that will give you a press with dice (you can eat pizza every day). It 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 dive into the work and focus on the basics, which, in fact, matter. Other realities do not exist.
Myth number 4: Employment agencies help students
Many study projects try to convince students that their connections at employment agencies and friendly companies will help students find a job. Not. Employment agencies and networks of friendly companies are a way for programmer bootcamps to make money on students who can get a job without them .
I heard about a well-known curriculum whose representatives phoned an employer (not connected with their agency) who hired one of their graduates (the student found a vacancy independently) and demanded that they pay thousands of dollars as a “recruiting reward”. Although they had nothing to do with the hiring process at all.
Cool, yeah?
Myth number 5: You can trust the statistics on employment from advertising
They say that there is a lie, a blatant lie and statistics. A larger percentage of statistics on employment is implausibly overestimated by adept mathematical nonsense.
Often on the website of the companies it is said that they found a job for all graduates. In reality, everything is ... almost like that. Say, the first group of bootcamp has a positive employment rate of 90%. The second is 40%. First, there is a downward trajectory, so you can expect that the percentage will only decrease. Naturally, the result of the first group will be advertised - 90%, and it seems like not a hoax ... In statistics, this is called a sampling error.
Myth 6: Computer science education has no value.
Most universities need to study for 4 years. The end of the traditional 4-year program in computer science shows a certain amount of perseverance and demonstrates that you have been immersed in programming and engineering sciences for a long time.
A close friend of mine recently searched for a job. I tried to help him and sent him to the technical director of the company, which begged me to send some suitable familiar candidate. This person trusted me, and I showed him a preliminary resume with a brilliant recommendation. Then I received the following answer:
Hello Ken
I hope you are fine.
I made contact with him, but to be honest, we are looking for someone with a specialization in Computer Science, a bachelor's degree. Naturally, it was hard to find people who meet the criteria.
Now my friend has found somewhere a job, and he is fine, but the fact is that certain people infringe upon the interests of candidates without a degree in computer science. This is how the world works, but this situation is slowly beginning to improve.
Senior developers often say “education in Computer Science has given me nothing, it is completely useless.” It elevates their ego rather 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 perfectly teach complex fundamental topics that help improve problem solving abilities and produce self-sufficient programmers.
Good bootcamps for programmers cover Computer Science topics related to 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 easy.
If your bootcamp does not cover these types of knowledge, you need to fully devote yourself to the study of 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 find your 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 your piggy bank, no matter how you get it, you will be in great demand.
It’s hard to start because you need to sweat to get your first job. After you have worked for a year or so, everything will change drastically and you will suddenly begin to receive unwanted letters from agencies trying to hire you. Receiving 10-20 emails from recruiters every month is common. Experienced developers spend more time teasing recruiters than communicating with them!
In fact, many fast-growing companies have big problems!
Experienced developers are very hard to find! Companies that raise millions of dollars are forced to spend this money, and the main resource they value is technical expertise.
Many companies require an increase in the engineering team to over 20 people. Maybe you didn’t think about it, but this task is almost impossible.
Finding a good senior in your city and convincing him to join your team is how to find 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 the slang words they use all day mean. Here's how recruiters see the life of a programmer:
Now is a great time to change careers and become a developer. Even if it takes a bit of work to get your first job, once you get into the industry, writing apps is a good reward.
That's why I co-founded theFirehoseProject — to help students become full-fledged web developers who can solve complex problems, write algorithms, and use the latest technologies.
Let's just call things by their proper names. The world's largest bootcamps for programmers care only about stamping students (and are not particularly concerned about the results they get), many of them have a board of directors that dismisses CEOs if they do not sell enough. They focus on quantity, and this is the only indicator that worries 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. Curriculum and teachers go into the background.
You can register, pay money and not get any experience or understanding - is it a programmer’s job for you? 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 able to program, solving specific tasks) I didn’t care about student performance. Point. The end of the story.
The low bar set by poor training centers spoils the reputation of all bootcamps!
As soon as a recruiter interviews a couple of candidates from these low-quality courses, he immediately discriminates against all existing bootcamps. Such organizations break the lives of all novice programmers.
If you are planning 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 changing careers. Otherwise, you will have to face many questions that you will not understand in the interview process.
Translation: Natalia Bass
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/263407/
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