Analysis of 52 most recent Codesmith offers LinkedIns and trends on who is getting a job right now and why. Summary: an average of 11.7 months of experience claimed for 3 week long projects (lacking evidence of additional time spent). Majority claimed to have prior SWE-adjacent experience.

Two reasons. 1. Setting proper expectations The reason I think it's important is that I've seen info sessions where employees straight up tell people that you don't need a degree or any relevant experience to get a job, followed by reading out 10 offers ranging from 80K to 170K, making it feel like anyone on Reddit reading reviews from these people can also get the same outcome. I'm showing my observations that there's a lot more to it than just a line cook at Applebees who was good at math becoming a senior SWE in 4 months making $150K. That people who are successful might not be aware of how background and their representation of their background massively impacts the outcomes, as the people exaggerating the most present live on camera that they aren't exaggerating or aren't benefit from their backgrounds. The unique thing about Codesmith is that the grads who this works for, don't seem super aware of what they are doing, they are so bought into the Codesmith way of doing things, going to "family dinners" and being ingrained in the community, that all of these behaviors get normalized, making it a lot more triggering whenever people talk about it. 2. Setting people up for good careers Codesmith claims to have "hundreds of people at Google, Amazon and Microsoft and top tier companies" and graduates talk about how a lot of people get FAANG offers. We'll some people who have direct access to raw offer and outcomes data find these comments inaccurate and have shared with me contradictory numbers - showing under 100 people out of well over a thousand reporting offers at canonical FAANG directly out of Codesmith. The majority of people instead are getting random (but arguably very good or high paying) SWE jobs at non-tech or tech-adjacent companies and then they get lost in their next career steps if they want to be in the tech industry at top tier companies. The same could be said probably about most bootcamp grads, but most other bootcamps don't make the claims that their graduates place at top tier companies and are "architects of the future" (direct quote). Codesmith tells people they help you for life. I've worked with people who have WORKED AT CODESMITH OR WORK THERE NOW who disagree with the effectiveness of that help and they need a lot of external help in approaching their next career steps. I've also talked to people that adamantly insist Codesmith gives them all they need for life and they are close minded to even considering external advice or help (which is separately bad for one's career in my opinion to be so closed off). Codesmith tells people they know how to navigate complex "FAANG" offers. Well I work with people that have gotten simultaneous advice from us and them (using their lifetime services) and I personally disagree with that statement based on my opinion and experience with FAANG offers. \---- So maybe it is actually more personal and I focus on it way more than I should because of my day to day experience with this is so much stronger than other programs. Thanks for the therapy session Derek haha.