u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
I agree with most of this, two comments:
1. I completely agree when you zoom out, 12 week Coding Bootcamps make absolutely no sense to make you think you'll get a job. For every 10 bootcampers that get a job, I estimate that 8 out of 10 have problems keeping it. Could be an unstable company, could be you are in over your head, could be you fake it until you make it and leave before not making it. It keeps me employed because bootcampers tend to have a lot of problems later on... and we only focus on interview skills - one part of the problem.
It's questionable when bootcamps like Codesmith tell people they have the "capacities" to be a "mid level or senior engineer" with ZERO work experience just by going through a 12 week program.
If you fall for the marketing and believe it, you should watch some MLM videos, crypto scam videos, and cult documentaries about areas you aren't familiar with and see how others might perceive YOU before blindly pushing back on me.
But it's absurd giant middle finger to the industry that when pushed back on, Codesmith doubles down, throws out a handful of edge case grads who had great career trajectories and goes all in on the message, and then pays some guy on Upwork to post bad things about you on Reddit relentlessly, resulting in dozens of accounts being permanently suspended.
Places like this should shut down because that passion and effort driving the team is better placed on other products.
2. I disagree on Harvard. The top schools absolutely generate profits from their brands (e.g. Edx bootcamps, pay for play "continuing education", selling sweatshirts, etc... and you can argue that their brands are worth more by intentionally limiting enrollment than they would be if they scaled. You can't VC back public colleges, but Harvard has a $54B endowment that gets invested in things, so people are 'investing' in it indirectly.
VCs can back products that start up market and go down market responsibly, and doesn't have to only for the masses. There are a ton of examples around this in all industries from fitness to wine to restaurants to online courses to dating sites, etc...