u/nabramow wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I graduated from Codesmith in 2020 and never worked there, but unless it really went downhill since then, this seems a bit extreme. I went into the program skeptical and a bit cranky as there was some miscommunications about my scholarship when I started. That said, having finis
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
This summary is fairly consistent with what I hear from most people as well, that overall Codesmith is a great program, very consistent, and the community is fantastic.
The big change is the job market since 2020 is the job market.
In the time period of 2021 and into 2022, people were getting like 150K jobs (which you can see in CIRR) at Amazon and Capital One by using exaggerated resumes (or have recruiters proactively reach out on LinkedIn without even expanding to see "Developed under OS Labs") to pass recruiter screens + practicing Leetcode on their own and with each other.
These people then were all over this subreddit in mid to late 2022 created an impression that Codesmith was a magical place with a magical formula and getting in will be the ticket to a $150K job. No one was explaining HOW it happened, just "Codesmith is the best", "Codesmith changes your life", and a bunch of people jumped on board desperately trying to get into Codesmith and pulling every trick in the book to get past the interviews - rather than realizing that was the other way around Codesmith: was letting people in who are already good enough and that's why they succeeded. I've been here consistently looking at bootcamps more neutrally and discussing the how and taken a ton of personal insults and attacks from both Codesmith alumni and staff members for talking about this stuff.
Then almost literally over night (over the span of \~1 month), market halted.
Now people who have those 6 months of OSP experience on their resumes are NOT passing recruiter screens anymore, and interviewers aren't just hiring you for passing a generic Leetcode problem - they are scrutinizing more and digging deeper into people's experience and problem solving abilities - which can't be crammed and can't be exaggerated.
The alumni community is fantastic because the students are fantastic, and they are fantastic because the bar is super high and they are very selective.