u/SoManyCrafts wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Oh no, Michael, again?! Just kidding. Hello old friend. I hate to point out that since we last had a chat about the pros and cons of codesmith, that I realized you run a program that seems to be in competition with them! I hadn’t realized that at the time, but it does make a li
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Hi Crafts :D Thanks for adding the info again, appreciate civil conversations haha.
I totally agree with understanding who is posting information and understanding where they are coming from. Reddit is a tough place because everyone is anonymous (and it's easy to attack people anonymously) and I insist on using my real identity, have an open mind, stand behind my statements, and engage in good discussion.
Now for the expected reply hahaha:
I disagree about competing with Codesmith. If someone at Codesmith told you this it means they are probably concerned about us competing with them but not the other way around. I don't think I've interacting with anyone who said "I'm choosing between Formation and Codesmith", whereas I've interacted with many people who have done Formation AFTER Codesmith (either right after or a few years later), or who wanted to talk about if it was the right thing for them or not.
Some comments triggered something somewhere because there are suddently a lot of people coming out saying Codesmith is full of experienced engineers now. Experienced engineers who pass our technical assessment definitely would compete with Codesmith. I did look into this more and people assured me that this was a very small number of people. But I still haven't talked to anyone choosing between the two.
The programs themselves are entirely different models that aren't remotely comparable. We have some sample weeks here and you can read more about the stuff: [https://formation.dev/program#week](https://formation.dev/program#week). They are so absurdly different logistically, goals-wise, mentorship-wise, everything. If someone is comparing them directly, let me know so I can explain to them how they are not remotely the same at all, and likely one or the other is the objective right choice and help them figure that out.
Would love to answer more about this because I have no idea where this narrative is coming from.
P.S. +1 on reaching out to people. We hired someone who went through Codesmith on our team. I've chattend with a dozen or so Codesmith alumni over a few years who attended Formation or wanted to attend. And I know a lot of people do the same with Formation alumni, and highly recommend anyone do the same to understand more!