Need advice for onsite interview at Meta · r/leetcode
u/michaelnovati replied ·
This archive of videos from years of conferences is one of the hidden gems for practicing: [https://atscaleconference.com/](https://atscaleconference.com/)
Full Archive
Every captured entry — 6,269 posts, including 3,828 that didn't meet the Featured threshold. Newest first.
Page 77 of 126 · showing 3801–3850 of 6269
Is Formation.dev legitimate? · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · DELETED · archived copy ★ FEATURED
I wrote a long comment on the top level post, but all of this is correct. We don't disclose much information about our membership base and because of the flexibility of Formation, it's hard to come up with useful numbers that you can use. I usually suggest to find people with a similar background and goals to yourself that did Formation or are here now and find out more about their experience. There are people who get jobs in 2 weeks, people who struggle to get a job in 2+ years, and everything in between, and the experience those people have are wildly different - mostly resulting from different backgrounds and goals.
We aren't a school or bootcamps and we have a dynamic program so everyone's experience is unique, we also don't ask people to write reviews. But we have a lot of strengths and weaknesses that I'm happy to elaborate on.
Is Formation.dev legitimate? · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Hi I can comment, I'm one of the co-funders and heavily involved day by day, so my answer is super biased, but I can tell you about what we do and why we do it.
First off, we're not a bootcamp and we don't have a curriculum or teach anything. We're a mentorship platform to practice, benchmark, and prepare for interviews and become a stronger engineer while doing it. Everyone does different things with us and the personal trainer analogy below is pretty good imo... we help you get from A to B with your job hunting goals and your path to get there will look unique to you.
Second off, the vast majority of people we work with have 1+ YOE as SWE (often more) and are currently employed and doing Formation part time on the side. Our platform supports you ramping up or down your commitment every week, so people practice at their own pace and it tends to take people about 6 months or so before…
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Yeah sure!
I need a reference from 100 devs · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
I wrote about this here at Codesmith: [https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/18cpq98/analysis\_of\_52\_most\_recent\_codesmith\_offers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/18cpq98/analysis_of_52_most_recent_codesmith_offers/)
But heck this post has 500 upvotes and the perosn literally said they were encouraged to lie not from staff but from career support engineers: [https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/17m0fis/codesmith\_graduate\_2023\_experiences\_job\_offer/?sort=new](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/17m0fis/codesmith_graduate_2023_experiences_job_offer/?sort=new)
I need a reference from 100 devs · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited
Watch this to get a sampling, I found it: [https://youtu.be/ZlB4BockYNQ?t=2979](https://youtu.be/ZlB4BockYNQ?t=2979)
Starting at that timestamp
Yep, Course Report favours + reviews and filters - reviews · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Yeah that's it!
Yep, Course Report favours + reviews and filters - reviews · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
It's here: [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1978942.1979167](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1978942.1979167)
I did the research and wrote a thesis as an undergrad and it was good enough that a PhD student on the team wrote the shorter paper version for CHI and presented it at the conference. I don't have the code anymore for the UI but it was really cool, other people have built on the research now.
Yep, Course Report favours + reviews and filters - reviews · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Yikes I thought there was a bug, but they have like 25 five star reviews in literally the past two days and about 1-2 per week before then.
I did my undergrad thesis on online reviews and I received a best paper award at CHI (the tool HCI conference)... this is in my wheelhouse to dig into but I'm far too busy with my day job and I used some side time over the weekend on my Codesmith piece.
I'll put this on my radar of things to look into while waiting for code to push haha.
I need a reference from 100 devs · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited
Yeah Leon told people to lie and put it as work experience and it will get caught sometimes but it will work eventually.
He says gatekeepers are controlling the industry and it's justified to make the system fair.
I don't think he does reference checks and in that talk said it won't work all the time and you burn some bridges and move on until it does.
I was under the impression he does do reference checks if you work on a client project through his studio.
This is from a Twitch stream he did and he literally said this directly and had some slides / images to go with it.... not sure if his tone has changed, this was over a year ago.
I ended up with the worst group for my final project. What to do. · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
I'm also curious what program this is because my advise actually depends on that.
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Yeah I haven't seen anyone else do that. I don't know if it's just because no one has, or because people think it's wrong so they wouldn't even think of doing something like this.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Yeah it has contributed to the YOE bar for entry level roles going up and companies dismissing all bootcamp resumes without a deeper look.
But it's clearly for these 52 people this is working though and they are choosing their own paths over all of their peers from other programs, and no one is doing anything about it so 🤷♂️.
There was [a post](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/17m0fis/codesmith_graduate_2023_experiences_job_offer/) where someone said
>Students who hustled like crazy, pushed themselves to the limit, and embraced the resume/interview tactics. This is hard to do. It is admittedly pretty shady, but any Career Coach or resume course is gonna have you embellish pretty hard. So I don't think Codesmith's hiring portion is necessarily worse or different than any other field's... but it definitely is ethically uncomfortable if you've never done it before. It…
u/michaelnovati replied · DELETED · archived copy ★ FEATURED
New info:
\- One of the final employees at Fanzter who was involved in the deal didn't know who Eric was and had to look him up.
\- This employee said that Disney had no interest in purchasing Fanzter or Coolspotters and that the purpose of the deal was to pay back the investors in Fanzter as a guesture as the talent was being hired by ESPN to work there and Fanzter was shutting down.
Whatever you call that, it's not something I would show off as the way I introduce myself.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
The only change I've seen is the background check process used to 'text this number and tell them what you told the company and we'll confirm it' to a more legit "background check request" process that still includesquestions about how long you told the company you worked on the project and how you framed OS Labs to the company.
Like a legit process wouldn't ask you what you told the company - they would independently figure out what dates you worked at OS Labs and the whole point is that should match what the company expected. If they are just confirming what you told the company that explains how people get through background checks.
Niceee · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I have a draft ready but I need to polish a lot haha. I would read the Interviewing,io post though, that's much more thorough than what I'm writing, I'm writing trends I'm observing in the bootcamp industry and not so much a data driven view of the market.
It's a very tricky subject because the market will start off good for mid level and senior and this problematic in this subreddit because
1. my company actually helps real mid level and senior people and therefore this argument looks self promoting
2. Codesmith claims to create mid level and senior engineers and the grads think they are those titles, but what [Interviewing.io](https://Interviewing.io) and me are talking about is FAANG-canonical mid level and senior roles, and they require 2+ years of REAL work experience to get them. Given my post last week about Codesmith LinkedIn profiles I feel like this is going to be a can of w…
u/michaelnovati replied ·
I'm sorry for speaking so bluntly on here and I realize I didn't say this the most friendly way. At the end of the day, it is the way it is.
On the plus side, if you don't give up you will get a job, it might just take a super long time, and if you love coding that's what you should do.
Why are bootcamp reviews on Reddit different to those on Course Report, Switchup, CareerKarma? · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
The sites all make money from partnerships with bootcamps. So they try to stay impartial but there is implicit bias there in the way the product is designed.
Good reviews are shown first in the ranking algorithm and it's hard to link to bad ones directly.
I reported one review on Course Report because the person's name was on it and they are employed by the bootcamp and didn't disclose that in the review and the moderator said that this is totally fine and wasn't a violation.
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
If you want to redo the deep dive I did, look at court records, secretary of state records, and contact the people involved in the deal. It costs a lot of money to get those records, I spent about $100 doing so because this is a very serious claim that's core to Eric's identity so if it's not true I need irrefutable evidence of what happened because making sure a claim.
I'm happy to chat over DM about more about the process I did. People can make official "off the record" comments and statements so there is some things I can't talk about ethically, but I can go over the process I used if you wanted to try to repeat it.
The summary of the story is that the company wasn't doing well, Aaron left in 2013 to go back to ESPN (and is now the CTO of Disney's online services) and was down to two engineers in 2014. They got sued in early 2014 for copyright infringement and shortly after those tw…
Niceee · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
I would be cautious and I'm working on a 2024 prediction I will post this week.
Interviewing.io did a great presentation on trends as well, using that slide, and was showing that only mid level and senior engineers with 2 years of work experience or more (not the Codesmith kind) is where they are seeing movement.
My lens is similar and it's still not looking great or improving yet for bootcamp grads.
But the optimist in me is hopeful that if hiring continues we'll see more entry level jobs open up a little farther down the road.
Codesmith coding bootcamp SCAM! Beware! · r/TechLA
u/michaelnovati replied ·
For anyone still following this, this is an update 4.5 years later:
https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/18cpq98/analysis\_of\_52\_most\_recent\_codesmith\_offers
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Hi again, I can't tell you what to do and my advice is general specific to certain companies or types of companies.
If you don't have any degree, and no experience, then you need to invest in growing your skills, not focusing on how to optimally fake your resume. For example:
1. Do REAL open source, not fake open source projects for your resume, but spend a year working on a large open source project
2. Turn a project into a real company and learn how to run a company
RE: Dates, 2023 - present can be fine if you actually did stuff the entire time and if your intentions are good - that you are trying to represent the work you did/are doing.
If you've only done a 3 week project - why are you more qualified than the ten thousand other bootcamp grads with 3 week projects. If you think you are just better than everyone else then you might justify lying to get your chance and prove that yo…
Tech Elevator · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
This is great to hear if people are getting jobs through their partnerships again! That was one of the things that made Tech Elevator special in the smaller-big cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland and if those are back, that's great!!
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Thanks for sharing, if comfortable to you mind sharing when you graduated (or approximately). A year ago or two so I would here this kind of thing more often, and I interviewed a number of Codesmith grads that were very uncomfortable with how they presented their projects and we spent the interview more therapy-like about why they were doing this and trying to explain they didn't have to do it that way. Someone said a mock interviewer at Codesmith told them their problem was practicing their buzzwords and their first response when I told them I wanted to pause the interview to chat about something, was 'sorry, my buzzwords are not up to par yet'.
Needless to say, these very unique situations over the years absolutely brought Codesmith onto my radar, and aren't representative of all cases but happened two or three times. I was interviewing people that needed extra support so presumably…
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited
Objective meaning I collected court records, secretary of state records, spoke with Disney and ESPN PR, requested comment from executives at the time that I know.You are wrong. ESPN, Disney, or any affiliated entities did not legally/actual acquire the company Fanzter Inc.
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
I'm sorry you feel that way but respect your opinion.
I've been here day in day out, giving people advice on all kinds of things and I'm sorry if you feel my tone has changed, but when I was first around - I had some way more intense conversations with some Codesmith alumni who claimed I was "stealing here with the secret motivation of stealing studetns to Formation".
I am here to provide a unique lens of industry perspective + bootcamp perspective (having worked with hundreds of bootcamp grads from many programs but also interviewed 450 people at Facebook, built interview programs, observer of hiring committees, work on peformance review tooling,, etc...)
Quick story. There was a period of time when I had a goal of connecting with 10 grads a day from 20 different bootcamps on LinkedIn and I was accused of "Tracking down Codesmith students and trying to steal them to go to Formation…
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Hi, you are touching on the more real aspect of this that I didn't go into at all and have a strong appreciation of. I work with a ton of people.sho struggle with similar problems.
First off, I wouldn't worry individual about doing this because no one really cares on am individual basis. Fraud requires harm to be done so if you got a job and didn't perform, that would be s problem. The tiny amount of harm you cause on society by getting a leg up is heard to measure too.
More practically what you see is companies raise the requirements bar for everyone and completely dismiss all open source work and bootcamps.
One motivation for this post is I'm working with someone who has about 10 significant commits to a very large open source project, several parts of a sizable feature, and they are struggling to get noticed because they otherwise have no experience and their resume looks less legi…
Getting problem to run .\a.exe · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Check that 1. your version of g++ is setup right. 2. that your environment variables are setup right
P.S. I would recommend starting with an easier to learn language than c++
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
I've so far appreciated your tone and would like to continue a normal discussion.
\- I have active conversations with dozens of prospective, current, former residents, staff, and former staff, it's not 3. I take the feedback to maybe back off a bit, things have definitely snowballed behind the scenes because they allegedly had layoffs of 18% of the staff and a lot of people were thrown off recently by the leadership response and feeling like every week something new is happening, lack of claritiy, and a lack of stability. I had a number of intense conversations that have continued and I think I that might be rubbing off on my tone as I keep everything there strictly confidential. I apologize and that's not how I intend to come across and hear that feedback.
\- If it means anything I circulated drafts with a number of people, some didn't respond, some demanded I post, some gave feedback…
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Thanks for sharing.
I agree to some extent that showing what others in the industry do would be useful to know in general but I also think the analysis is very clear on how it should be used, and lack of this doesn't cancel out the value.
There are two reasons I focused on Codesmith:
1. Codesmith very publicly considers itself in a league of it's own. They claim to be the only non-traditional program to take people from zero to mid-level/senior and compare themselves to "elite grad schools". I therefore hold them to the bar they are presenting for themselves and don't think they should be compared to others.
2. As I said in the disclaimers, I have been following their placements passively for almost two years now and my friends and colleagues in industry (specifically engineers and recruiters) feel that Codesmith grads representation is anecdotally far more exaggerated than the rest.…
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
That's absolutely aweful and appalling. Let me know if I can help in any way, I know a number of people who work at Reddit who might be able to help with reporting.
Anyone else reading this if you are participating in harassing OP, what the heck? You are all are adults and maybe this is wrong to say, but you should own up and apologize.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
I appreciate your challenges and it gives me a chance to explain how things work instead of one offs and generalizations.
1. Just like Codesmith we give guidance on Formation and you can see that below, copy pasted from our notes (I think it can be improved but that's as of 12/7/2023) and I don't think this is misrepresenting in any way what Formation is or tricking anyone into thinking it is something else.
2. Adults are adults, we are not responsible for anyone's LinkedIns just like Codesmith isn't responsible for them. The reason I did my post was because it was a pattern of 92% of recent Codesmith placements.
3. If someone said that 92% of Formation placements were listing Formation as a fake job and people were all not following our advice and going rogue by presenting Formation some kind of full time software engineer job experience, and that was the reason they were getting jobs…
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I love the last paragraph you wrote and fully agree with that.
Anyways, I'm sorry you feel attacked on this post, I don't agree with the tone of people calling you a liar or a paid ad and wish this was a much more useful discussion about how on earth you were the one of the only people out of hundreds right now to get a FAANG job post Codesmith because I'm sure you have a lot interesting things to say about your unique journey.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Daniel King was not a SWE at Google, he started as a Solutions Engineer.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
In all seriousness, the reason for Codesmith alumni's heavy, anonymous presence on Reddit is becasue people [exaggerate to get jobs](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/18cpq98/analysis_of_52_most_recent_codesmith_offers/) and if they out themselves on LinkedIn or somewhere else or give more details about who they are, they risk getting "found out" by colleagues and losing those jobs. I talk to my friend at a recent hiring and asked them if they knew a specific Codesmith grad the company just hired a few weeks ago had no experience (obviously friendly and off the books) and they said no idea from the resume or interview. So it's totally in people's interest to not share their success in any way that might reveal who they are, if it's based on stretching the truth.
At Formation, we had someone start at Meta this week and she happily participated in a blog post about her job…
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
I don't appreciate the condescending tone.
You are the one who clearly has no idea what you are talking about if you don't know what the E4 rotational program is. This is not E4 SWE.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
This is on the high side but when all said and done with base, signing, base performance, and stock, this is in that range.
But are Google and Meta hiring entry level engineers right now. I asked Meta recruiters and they only have a small number of return interns coming in at E3 right now. There are a number of REng (E4 rotational) starting this week but their pay in non negotiable and fixed (yes - truly non negotiable and it's not 230K, it's right about 200K because the signing bonus is split over 2 years.)
The E4 rotational program requires 2 years of SWE experience and it's firm. We work with their recruiters for that program and they won't take people under 2 YOE so if a Codesmith person with no experience lied, I'll give them a heads up to dive deeper into that. If someone lied to get into that program (OP said they have no experience) they should NOT be posting on Reddit because…
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I can assure you I have the raw data to back that there have not been 60 placements reported in the past month and I crossed checked my number with people who work there.
If you make incorrect assumptions about my data sources then that's on you for spreading misinformation and people won't trust you on here.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
This is a common problem with the Codesmith approach (not the majority, but it's a common thing to happen) and there's a number of people at career accelerators like Formation, Interview Kickstart, Pathrise, etc... as a result.
The Codesmith approach can really throw off your mental model of the industry because you hustle into roles many people are not ready for or the right fit for, and have a hard time understanding what to do next. It works if you keep the hustle going until you land a solid legit tech job, but it doesn't handle the other cases so well.
This market is making Codesmith grads learn quickly that you are not a mid level or senior engineer at top tier companies. So you get stuck with not getting these interviews, not knowing why, and then failing the mid-level/senior top tier interviews you do get. (This is the pattern I've seen).
With the exaggerations seen in most r…
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I don't know what "support" means but.I can list out what I've seen people do. Codemsith adamantly claims to not help people lie so I assume they'd re not helping with most of this but it's possible they are and that is "support"
1. Stretch things, turning fast food-like jobs into technical jobs
2. Go back to school
3. Work at Codemsith itself, either as an instructor or another role
4. Be a fellow and stretch the length of time on that
5. Do unpaid internships or contracts that aren't documented as placements I told they can neither convert or get another job
6. Work on projects independent of Codemsith
7. Do another paid program afterwards, like an interview prep or career accelerator
8. Follow Codemsith networking advice
Codemsith will help any time with career support conversations so they offer those to all these people, but there isn't anything tangible that they do specifically f…
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Those people have a really hard time, but they often do eventually get jobs by some way that seems to be unique for each one, or they give up and end up in the 20% of I graduated or unplaced people. Like Codesmith is just 13 weeks and you can do a heck of a lot in the 6 months to 12 months afterwards that your job hunting to keep developing and growing, heck, you could start your own company! Codesmith does not really support these people though to be very blunt and I talk to a number of them or work with them. But those who don't give up eventually get jobs.
It's definitely a let down for some because they expected a six-figure job and they are definitely some of the more unhappy people and maybe I'm biased because I talked to a number of these people but yeah don't know what else to say, very case by case. But it's one of the motivations for calling this out so often, many are misled…
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
This is one of the reasons why I so adamantly believe that people need to get appropriate first jobs out of a boot camp. what that means is different for each person but getting an entry level FAANG job that pays not as high as potentially some other jobs achieved through exaggerating resumes and pushing really hard, can be the path rapidly accelerating your career.
If Codesmith was really the ivy league like grad school for bootcamps they claim to be. they should be striving to place people in incredible entry-level rules that result in them making $600,000 in a few years and instead they are dismissive of those roles and pushing people to these exaggerated mid-level senior looking roles and pushing people to make the highest compensation they possibly can right out of the program.
I think they know that this is pretty much impossible because they can't reliably get people these jobs…
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Sadly Codemsith has a "sister company" charity called OSLabs that signs letters of reference and does reference check calls.
I have evidence that they sign off on 4 months plus any additional time you claimed to have worked on the project (example letters of reference, and an employee confirming this publicly)
A grad claimed 10 months on LinkedIn and said it was because "people have the option of continuing to work on their projects" yet the project was untouched after the initial development window of about a month. I do not have evidence if Codesmith would sign off on 10 months of experience but this person seems to think they did 10 months and if they told Codesmith this, would they sign off on it?
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
I personally don't include benefits and not do standard compensation metrics but some people do
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Yeah absolutely even 2 people a cohort is like 5% of people and wouldn't surprise me at all that it's that or a bit higher, it's just not remotely representative of the entire experience and people framing this like its a typical case can be extremely misleading. No problem celebrating these placements with appropriate disclaimers.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Can you provide there have been 60 offers in the past month because there are doubts of that claim. The CEO and outcomes advisor have been saying that but people who work there and my own independent analysis could not support that claim and we independent came up with a much smaller number, about one per day.
Ask for proof of that number before believing them.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied ·
Been monitoring this post - upvotes went from 0 to 10 in a 3 minute window at 12:50am to 12:53am PST, not suspicious at all.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Yeah I see to varying degrees as well in other programs and it's most pronounced in Codesmith but I see all kinds of things with non traditional engineers and am very open minded 1-1 to helping people find their path.
The reason to call it out is because Codesmith is the only one claiming over and over that it produces "mid level and senior engineers" and signs letters of reference for their open source projects via their "sister charity" OSLabs to back up this open source work for background checks.
From Codesmith to FAANG · r/codingbootcamp
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I think the last thing you said is the key, I wrote about that before and there are four buckets I've observed and almost all of them it is not the celebratory story, but a grueling first year of stress:
\- get fired, not a lot, but some people do
\- barely get by and leave before getting PIPed or because they are no where near progressing and want a more appropriate role
\- secretly put in nights and weekends to make up for their gaps and get by long enough to hang on
\- other: the jobs aren't really "senior", e.g. consultants at Google via contractors are "Senior Engineer", they are more mid level-ish and there is another set of outcomes there
The key thing with Codesmith is the entry bar is very high and looking for a very specific person - a person who tends to be successful in a lot of situations.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I mean the community is amazing, the people are just really well spoken, great and interesting people. There are a lot of reasons to go there!
If you are cruising Reddit late at night pondering a career switch and stumble upon Codesmith and see $120K placements and think "sign me up!", definitely slow down and learn about how it works and see if it's what you want first - same goes for any program!! And you'll find a lot of more legit reasons to go there, or not go there, depending on what you want.