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Futurecode NYC x Codesmith program

5 of Michael's comments in this thread · View thread on Reddit ↗

u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
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

u/Apprehensive_Ant_783 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

Thank you for the amazing insights! I wanted to go to codesmith's immersive program but the cost is still too high. I am familiar with coding since I have coded before and all my friends are SWEs (they have been morally supportive). Been lurking around this subreddit for a long t

u/michaelnovati replied ·
Yeah that sounds like a good reason to go for it yeah!

u/InspectionOk1736 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

I took the CS50 Introduction to computer science course on EDX last year. Would they consider that enough coding experience to not allow me in the program?

u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I think they will allow you in as long as you don't have paid work experience doing programming and don't have a CS degree. I was also confused about this because Codesmith claims people who did CSX are junior engineer hirable so therefore they shouldn't be eligible but they assured me that someone who did CSX could do this as long as they weren't paid SWEs.

u/Money-Lavishness3460 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

created new acc to maintain my anonymity. I’m past most of the screenings. I’m becoming apprehensive about it though. Context: we’re all in a slack groupchat & out of curiosity, I looked up some of my potential cohort members on google. A lot of ppl are lying about their experi

u/michaelnovati replied · DELETED · archived copy
Can you DM me? I want to help

u/Codesmith-Demi wrote (the comment Michael replied to):

Hey, this is Demi from the Codesmith team!  Wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a few pieces here regarding eligibility, but you can also reach out to the Future Code team directly at [futurecode@codesmth.io](mailto:futurecode@codesmth.io) if you want to chat through any s

u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
1. What documentation is required for "Limited or no prior experience with the basics of coding and no paid professional web development, software engineering, or similar experience"? If someone is lying to you and the city but went to a bootcamp and has an extensive portfolio, will they be allowed in? 2. Did the City of New York sign off on having people publicly post personal creative pieces to an unofficial non-Codesmith controlled sub-reddit? Your CEO made it sound like this is part of the application that is required: "I also want to shout out the amazing creative applications I’m seeing for Future Code on the sub."https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1dnmohm/comment/la3kxr7/