u/Alarming-Moment4088 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
You need to elaborate!
u/michaelnovatireplied·★ FEATURED
I've spoken with several people who are currently in Codemsith or recent graduates concerned about identifying themselves for fear of being removed and shutoff from the community. Codesmith staff monitor this sub closely and if you give any info that could identify your cohort or OSP project and they find you, you might get in trouble. There was a mega AMA thread recently that disclosed a ton of numbers and info that was allowed but it was very positive.
So I agree this won't be useful without the why, but the OP might have reasons.
u/hidraulik wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I am just a lurker on this subreddit. I have to say that I’m noticing if one redditor rants against one bootcamp, then will not be long before another redditor posts a rant against a bootcamp competitor to the first bootcamp. I don’t know if it is some crazy coincidence but it
u/michaelnovatireplied·
It's number 5 from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/1226i27/bootcamp_predictions_for_the_rest_of_2023/
Happy to elaborate more
u/Relevant_ToneMaker wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
That...is...really fucking weird wow.
Codesmith oddness kinda bleeds through when you pay attention (the fact that they monitor the CSX slack to see how often you try to pair program or whatever, so much surveillance and judging based on the findings of said surveillance. That s
u/michaelnovatireplied·· edited★ FEATURED
Yeah the OSP posts that get tons of engagement have also been controversial. On the one hand, an incredibly supportive and engaged community. On the other hand, Codemsith steers that raw awesomeness and it comes across people spending almost more time promoting their OSP with posts, websites etc.. than they actually spend on the OSP itself and then get celebrated for it.
I also think some of that fear above is misplaced. Like it's very very very rare someone disappears out of the community (from what I've heard) but people seem to really really want to do what Codemsith tells them to do because the community is so close and the remote possibility of losing touch is so scary that people are super cautious.
I mean why the community is abnormally strong is for you to decide. Some say it's a family who have "family dinners" every week and some say it's unintentionally cult like.
I watched a recording of a session where everyone was snapping all the time. "Snaps for Laura, everyone!" the teacher (a former student) said. So I can see how these kinds of tight knit cultural norms can come across both ways.
u/PositiveCar4047 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I'm a codesmith alumni chiming in to say I understand OP not wanting to give specifics while in the program. CS promotes an extremely positive culture and takes protecting their brand very seriously. Any negative discussion about the program amongst the cohort is frowned upon and
u/michaelnovatireplied·★ FEATURED
Hi, can you confirm that the number for a reference on an OSP is actually a Codesmith phone number? My understanding is since June of last year, OS Labs Inc was forked as is an independent official charity that can't have conflicts of interest with Codesmith and must be run entirely separate by independent board members. The letters of reference I've seen are signed by Philip Troutman, Board Member of OS Labs and don't say Codesmith anywhere on them.
u/PositiveCar4047 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
We were given a number that would connect to Philip, whom I may have incorrectly assumed was part of Codesmith senior leadership. If he's taken a step back from Codesmith to be more independent, that's a great sign. While I was there it seemed like he was still very involved with
u/michaelnovatireplied·★ FEATURED
Hmm Philip Troutman is still listed as Head Instructor and Chief Academic Officer and most recently as a Senior Software Engineer as of Dec 2022, which was after this fork. I doubt they would do such a crazy legal risk without vetting it with an experienced lawyer or they just don't know the consequences of what they are doing.
u/michaelnovatireplied·★ FEATURED
I flagged this post for logging and it's insane how the upvote/downvote count is being attempted to be manipulated. Reddit has algorithms to prevent abuse and the way the upvote and downvotes are changing by +/- 10 when you reload the page is an indication that a lot of sketchy accounts are attempting to manipulate the post.
u/InTheDarkDancing wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I downvoted the thread because I find it a bit silly. OP basically made a post saying "Codesmith bad" and refuses to provide any context. It's an objectively bad thread, and the amount of replies to this low effort prompt comes across as a lot of projection and bias. I'm assuming
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Yeah I'm not hypothesizing why because I have no idea, I just haven't seen a post go from +1 to -1 to +8 to +2 on subsequent page reloads. Super weird. Like the fuzzy vote algorithm usually is +/- 1 or 2 or 3
u/cContest wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Lol I said one bad thing about codesmith and their alumni downvoted my comment into oblivion. They’re the worst 😂
u/michaelnovatireplied·· edited★ FEATURED
I've worked with (bias disclosure, co-founder of a coaching program for experienced engineers) a wide range of alumni from right after Codesmith, during Codesmith, down the road, people who work at Codesmith, and everyone is super professional, polite, hard working, and driven.
I've been the target of several attacks (where people have told me that posts were shared in both official internal slacks and unofficial discords) where alumni, staff, etc... have said some pretty mean things personal things about me but I think it's a very small number of peopel. Codesmith has been extremely defensive to things that I've called out. I criticized their "sponsored talks" for a lack of proper referencing of content and they staunchly defended that telling the entire student base that I'm wrong and incorrectly quoted laws that don't apply. All of that because a student blatantly copied the code samples in their presentation and I told him them reference it next time. They still don't have proper referencing of material but instead of trying to learn about how to properly reference things from this their staff has been incredibly defensive and several students mocked me for being "wrong" - according to Codesmith leaders and not their own research
u/Tigloki wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Pardon my ignorance...OSP?
u/michaelnovatireplied·★ FEATURED
Open Source Project. 4 weeks at Codesmith are spent coming up with a group project, building the project, releasing it as a new open source project OR releasing a new version of an existing project, marketing the project, and then updating your resume to reflect the project.
The controversy around them is
1. Most people list the project as a company and as a Software Engineer (with very fine print "Project supported by a accelerator OSLabs")
2. Most people list the time spent on it as 3 to 18 months (the average being about 6)
3. The average person only committed 2 to 3 commits on the projects over 2 to 3 weeks in a sample of 200 GitHub profiles analyzed a year ago
4. The projects are supervised by a former student as a mentor who typically don't have any or much industry experience, but the projects claim they are "mid to senior level work equivalent"
Don't get me wrong, the projects are great compared to most bootcamps and I love them! I just don't think it's fair how they are represented or framed, specifically as number 4 above, where employees reinforce this several times.
u/michaelnovatireplied·
/u/Spirited-Singer-8188 do you have any updates now that you graduated?
u/Spirited-Singer-8188 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Did I already graduate
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Sorry, I assumed you did but if you are in the part time remote immersive then you probably didnt yeah.
Do you have any updates either way?
u/Spirited-Singer-8188 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):