u/Teeesskay wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
lol I was a codesmith guy and I think Michael’s takes are pretty solid based on my exp.
u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
Thanks, a lot of people see Formation as something Codesmith grads would do in their 2nd, 3rd, etc... transitions if they are leveling up from a solid SWE job to a top tier SWE job and in a lot of ways it could be a great and supportive partnership where we complement each other... imagine that!
For example, Formation Fellows who want to work on projects could help make OSPs better and act as mentors to Codesmith residents. We could help Codesmith with DS&A and SD - two areas they are extremely weak at for top tier companies (but are one of the best at for a zero to 1 bootcamp). We could at a minimum collaborate on public content and sessions.
But for some reason, staff/former staff members report to me that Codesmith's leaders (particularly Eric K and occasionally Will) firmly believe that I'm trying to take down Codesmith and get people to go to Formation and that I'm personally siphoning off 10% of their prospective students. Second, my understanding is they Codesmith to be the one and only place you go to for life. If you every change jobs, come back to Codesmith for negotiation advice. Come back and be a teacher/mentor at Codesmith only, etc...
I'm not sure if this attitude is a long term business strategy to keep people in Codesmith to sell them future add-on courses and/or use them to teach and enforce the Codesmith brand? Or if they just genuinely believe that the two of them have all the advice needed for any engineer and any job at any level?
I don't really care why, I have other things to do, but it's like they think they are playing a game against me, but they are playing it against themselves, even if they win they lose by defeating themselves instead of focusing on what they need to survive in this market - which is changing and improving the program and instruction model.