u/Parky-Park wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Would you mind if I DM'd you about Formation's program? For context, I not only graduated Codesmith, but also worked for them as a fellow. What you described is basically what I had hoped Codesmith would be, only for me to realize that while the program will tell people how to ad
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Hi! Yeah happy to explain more or answer questions over DM that pertain to your specific circumstances.
What you wrote summarizes exactly my overall stance on Codesmith and also what Formation is trying to do so I'm happy you pieced that together from your experience and from my posts.
I really admire Codesmith leadership for scaling the program that they have, they just don't have the experience needed in the tech industry to really solve the right problems that the industry needs, and if they did, maybe they would be more on the right track instead of the rabbit hole they've gone down focusing on going through the motions to put things like a "tech talk" (which are big jokes among students) on your resume.
At Formation, we think we need to get the most experienced people in the industry who are passionate about mentoring to answer the question of what it means to be a truly great engineer and how do we train people to get on that path. I don't want to sound like a gatekeeper but you just can't fake/outsmart/accelerate the experience needed to meaningfully work on these problems.
We have 5 staff/principal 10yr+ FAANG engineers we hired full time who have done hundreds of interviews, mentored interviewers, evaluated and hired engineers. We have 3 5yr+ FAANG recruiters on staff full time who evaluate Fellows for Formation and give them advice to see if Formation is a good fit. And we're just getting started! Formation is a living and breathing platform and we hope to continue to grow, improve, and help more and more people improve as engineers.