Non-Doomsday Codesmith Take

Thanks for sharing a thoughtful post for the whole community to benefit!

I see both sides of this working with alumni who are also conflicted. I agree with OP that it's not something trained as the key to success officially, it's more something people do because they see alumni do it and succeed, or they get stuck on the job hunt for months and day by day massage the resume a little more. Some people do intentionally pride themselves in bs'ing their OSP under pressure and passing interviews, but not many. I think the reason it's important to talk about is that it's a tool in a toolbelt. And when we talk about people tend to go to extremes defending or attacking this strategy. There are consequences to a lot of things in this world and there are consequences to this strategy. I think it's important people understand their tools and use them effectively instead of being sold on a magical hammer that can fix everything with no effort.

One of the problems with this though is it is very non inclusive. /u/-procrastinate- I'm not sure if you have comments on diversity but it takes someone who is reasonable successful in a prior to job to have the money and/or support system in place to do 11 hour days + saturdays + extra study time for 3 months. Sure the people who put in the effort get rewarded, but statistically those people tend to be less diverse demographically and this kind of approach can make tech LESS DIVERSE long term. For example, mothers are still more often primary caregivers to their children, and with these hours it's very hard to be a primary caregiver and do Codesmith (or Hack Reactor) without savings for childcare, or a supportive family to help. Bloomtech publishes diversity numbers and 75% of graduates identify as Male. Codesmith doesn't publish diversity numbers but I've hear they are dominated Male as well. I heard unsubstantiated rumors from people that this was a concern to staff and they were being looser on the bar for diverse candidates and much stricter for white/asian males. So maybe this has improved in the past year.

I PERSONALLY agree, but I still want to deeply understand why people who also agree have gone down this path after thinking they wouldn't. I feel it leaves me with a nuanced understanding to help people navigate... but this my job and my prerogative I find the way that Codesmith itself defends the mid-level and senior target roles more bothersome because it puts pressure on people to do this and they too have seen thousands of people go through the program and deeply understand why they are doing it.