u/Putrid-Doctor-6233 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Have been skimming discord for a while now and realized how often/self obsessed you seem with Codesmith. Literally every post is a form of sneaky or indirect negativity towards them and honestly just wondering if this is all just an attempt to lessen the competition with them? Li
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Hi, this sub is extremely Codesmith heavy, and there are several Codesmith students, alumni, and employees, who are extremely active on here, so it comes up a lot.
That said, I know many bootcamp founders, talk to some regularly, and I've worked/work with hundreds of bootcamp alumni, mostly from top bootcamps, so I have a unique view of many programs.
I have extensive knowledge of BloomTech/Lambda School as well and have a similar depth of understanding of their program but it's rarely talked about! I'm like the only person who read their trademark lawsuit legal documents in real time and discovered that they acquired a company in Florida to use that's company's trademark to bolster their claims - no journalist even reported on this.
I aim to be middle of the road on everything, which doesn't mean neutral, but it means talking about the pros and cons.
Codesmith alumni in particular are a little more ambitious (at least the ones I work with) so I've worked with more alumni from there than anywhere else and I have a deep understanding of how it works and I make a point of emphasizing that when only one side of the coin is expressed in comments (which tends to be often).
I've talked to dozens of people and encouraged many to choose Codesmith 1-1!
RE: "sour" you need to find the threads from months ago, where someone repeatedly was claiming I was trying to steal Codesmith students and I had to go extensively point by point to explain how Formation is nothing remotely similar. It was annoying because we don't have much public presence, and I had to make sure that other people reading properly recognize the differences and are properly informed about what is what. It took a lot of time to write it all out, which was annoying, yes.
EDIT: I think another thing is that Codesmith leaders make claims about "mid level and senior jobs", "senior level projects", etc... and no other bootcamp makes such statements. Also representation on resumes, and using the name OSLabs to add credibility to projects. Hence I very often mention why I think these statements are inaccurate from my industry lens, and how every engineer in the industry I talked to about this has found these inaccurate, some cursing, and some laughing out loud. So I think it's important to mention that whenever it comes up so people are informed. Their outcomes are fantastic and it's a great choice for the right people, but that's independent from these specific statements, and the representation of their projects.