u/Faero_ wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Hey OP, codesmith graduate here – Here's a brief rundown of how the open source contributions work: When people get accepted into codesmith they also get accepted into a tech accelerator called OSLabs, which is a sister company to codesmith. After going through the majority of
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I can add details and caveats from various discussions with dozens of Codemsith alumni and from analyzing public OS Labs repos
When people on here call Codesmith "culty" three reasons are
1. they convince students these projects are production level projects. They are not and I've looked at many of them. Most don't work properly, many have commented our code and terrible practices, mish mashing libraries, no planning, and fellows/mentors who have no experience. Ive done hundreds of interviews and I have yet to see a OSLabs CODEBASE (the ideas for the projects themselves are great) that would pass as a production codebase and any employer impressed by someone actual code contributions didn't look at the code or did so with the understanding it was a 3 week project and not expecting production code.
2. Do you get formal paperwork you were accepted into OSLabs? Do you sign paperwork with OS Labs about your relationship to the company (it's a legally registered corporation in Delaware)? Do you have an IP agreement with them about who owns your code? If the answer to any of these isnt yes then it's not being run legitimately and you are being misled by Codesmith.
3. They explicitly tell people to not lie that they were "paid" but its not not-lying that Philip Troutman signs letters of reference saying you were a "software engineer" at OS Labs for 3 to 4 months and signs it as a board member of OS Labs when no students have a signed relationship with OSLabs and considers themselves a student at Codesmith. I also have direct evidence of Philip Troutman saying in a lecture, where he got upset when someone asked if their projects were production level experience, that the OSP projects were the equivalent of months of mid level work and every graduate should get full credit for the work. Sure, Codesmith doesn't tell you to say you had paid work, but they influence you to misrepresent their projects.