Futurecode NYC x Codesmith program

1. It's free for you so that's amazing, you are basically getting Codesmith's immersive and more for free. CONCERNS 1. The job market is terrible right now and this program requires you to have zero experience to get in. Unless they have hiring partners guaranteeing jobs, I would be cautious about planning to get a job at the end, just like any bootcamp. 2. Codesmith grads tend to portray their group projects and past work experience as close to software engineer work experience as possible in your resumes, many resumes leaving it up to the reader to realize these things are not actually SWE experience because they look like it. I'm going to be watching these people like a hawk because all Future Code people have zero SWE experience and if the majority of resumes indicate otherwise at the end of this program that will be a huge concern and they might get into legal trouble with the City of NY. 3. My partner taught a free program IN PERSON prior to our current company... a ton of people will randomly ghost, dropout, be late, etc... because they have zero on the line to be there. Remote is going to be even harder. When people get stuck, they are going to just leave. 4. Now because the curriculum is just Codesmith plus 1 unit of basic JavaScript AND because people have zero prior experience, AND the teacher has no SWE work experience, I suspect many people will get stuck when material gets hard and they will leave. 5. While the program is free, it's 8 hours a day for 6 months and that's $20K of lost wages at minimum wage in NYC, so don't sign up because you are just curious about being an engineer. 6. Putting this all together... Codesmith's main superpower is their community and not their education. This group is going to have a much tougher time building community with and it might cost Codesmith a ton of extra money to hire people and have events just to maintain the level of community with this group that they have normally. WHO I RECOMMEND GOING 1. You have a ton of work experience but not as a SWE or SWE adjacent but you actually programmed on the job a bit and are familiar with it. This is technically allowed by the program, but not in the spirit of the program. 2. You would have done Codesmith anyways and paid for it and see this kind of like a scholarship. 3. You have a strong support system for the rest of your life (family, stable rent/living situation) - it's going to be tough and without that you are at a higher risk of dropping out