Timeline

Oh so it's Meta then. Yeah Meta doesn't take bullshit, and maybe that's why I'm equally firm about calling out bullshit. Meta is particularly sensitive about levelling and people who are mis levelled are generally laid off instead of adjusted or supported. Also most of the people were contractors via 3rd party and those are throwaway at Meta and not a path to full time work. I wrote a letter to Codesmith about this because one student lied (he apparently APPARENTLY STARTED WORKING AT CODESMITH BEFORE HE EVEN WENT TO CODESMITH on his LinkedIn) and I suspected this was to meet the YOE requirement at Meta. Codesmith defended it and wrote a blog about him.

Let's start with looking at an AMA I did 3 months ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/1jz5i0h/ama\_im\_michael\_exmeta\_principal\_engineer\_1\_code/](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/1jz5i0h/ama_im_michael_exmeta_principal_engineer_1_code/) Normal comments, normal replies. Now let's look at a Codesmith AMA from 3 months ago: [https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1ilpihd/im\_ayleen\_a\_software\_engineer\_and\_current/](https://www.reddit.com/r/codesmith/comments/1ilpihd/im_ayleen_a_software_engineer_and_current/) Notice how **EVERY SINGLE COMMENT IS DELETED OR COLLAPSED BY REDDIT** except for the OP's comments and ONE question. Most of their other AMAs - similar thing. I'm not saying it's a fact that Codesmith is responsible, but like something they are doing on Reddit is very sketchy. I have reems of similar documentation of this kind of…

I dunno, you seem to now want to be collaborative and that's on you. You never mentioned anything about stating that we do this to make money and I hope that's your opinion and you aren't starting that as a fact because it's provably untrue on our side and I can't see how you have facts to prove that yourself. So if you had this opinion the whole time, you are debating disingenuously. I started the conversation with 'I'll talk to you if you accept the facts' because the facts are important. The average person we work with has 5 years of industry work experience as a SWE. Why would they put a mentorship community Fellowship on their LinkedIn as a job or resume when they currently work at Google or Amazon? It makes no sense whatsoever and why would they not do Formation if the name changed? Like the facts are abundantly clear that very few percentage of people put Formation publicly…

I'll share your feedback with our team to consider it, that's what I mean about gaslighting, like I'm not saying you are crazy and I see where you are coming from and I'm arguing that I don't agree and I don't think it's a problem and why I think that. Like it's a good debate and if a lot of people feel that way we might change it so your feedback is important to share and note so we can pay attention to it. We improve through feedback and accept it.

Here is what AI says to the question: "Is Formation Fellowship a paid job" "No — Formation is not a paid job, nor does it offer employment. It’s a paid fellowship/training program (focused on interview prep and career coaching), not a salaried position." Here is what it thinks about Codesmith: "are oslabs engineers paid?" "Yes - OSLabs does pay engineers in at least one of its key programs" Like I don't think you'll find anything anywhere that would make a reasonable person think Formation Fellows are paid roles - but acknowledge that edge case people might be confused because of the multiple definitions. But in Codesmith's case like everything is blatantly twisted to appear that way. This discrepancy is one of the 3 primary reasons I've been going after Codesmith. Dictionary definitions aside, what the leaders of these companies do and stand for and their integrity matte…

The official on the record answer - we used the word Fellow because our industry doesn't have many competitors: Interview Kickstart and Pathrise. Pathris used the word Fellows so we copied them and used the word Fellow. So that our customers could compare the two familiarly. I'm not trying to gaslight you but I Googled Fellow and this is the dictionary definition it presented and not any of them say anything about being paid. The definition for "Fellowship" has two meanings, none of them saying anything about being paid either (I can only attached one screenshot, but pasted:) 1. friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests."they valued fun and good fellowship as the cement of the community" 2. the status of a fellow of a college or society."she held the Faulkner fellowship" Formation is not affiliated with education/schools/universities and no where in our…

I'll give you the straight up facts on this if you are willing to accept them. I can prove every one of these statements. Formation has flaws and this isn't one of them. FORMATION: 1. A small fraction of Fellows at Formation put it on their LinkedIn. 2. No one says it's paid anywhere. Of the ones that do it's abundantly clear that it's a mentorship program for high performance and not a job. 3. We have not received a single request for a background check for anyone that I'm aware of in the past 5 years for anyone claiming they were employed by Formation. 3. The people who say 2-3+ years have genuinely been at Formation that time and actively participating. Maybe it's terrible they didn't get a job yet, but the timeframe is correct from what I'm aware of. CODESMITH: 1. In my [reporting end of 2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/18cpq98/analysis_of_52_most_recen…

Google wasn't down because the team has incompetent engineering practices. CIRR also has incompetent processes and deserves equal criticism. In my opinion Codesmith is full of liars and exaggerators. For god's sake the founding advisor's own sign had a LinkedIn and resume full of lies and exaggerations. I meant that this was the last straw about engineering practices because I had been privately telling them all kinds of problems for a while now and they keep telling me how great their engineers are.

I suspect you'll get messages from Codesmith people telling you I'm crazy, all you have to do is ask how many people were placed in 2025. They were very upfront about that number in 2024 and they currently list 102 offers between August 2024 and January 2025. Ask them how many offers that have reported in 2025 and if they won't give you a number, don't give them your dollars. Just look at their own data carefully, look at the "percentage of people not reporting salaries" spiking on their reports. Look at the dropping salaries. By all objective measures the data is falling off a cliff - and this data is trailing reality. They know very well what's going on internally and it's offensive to me that they gaslight the public to the contrary in my opinion by still quoting old data combined "recent placements at Amazon and Meta" (yes, like 4 people... and most had tangential experience). Don…

Shame on you OP - according to Codesmith's website, you work there on staff and didn't disclose that anywhere in your post or comments. This is an ad for Codesmith and it's really not cool to manipulate people like this. Everyone reading this, please don't fall for this kind of fake-organic advertising.

# ⚠️ SCAMMER ALERT This thread is full of Codesmith planted questions that are not disclosed. **Your LinkedIn is full of lies - you apparently already have 3 years of "software engineering experience".** So you are lying there or you are lying here. Sounds like you are just like the majority of Codesmith grads who lie cheat and steal your way to a SWE job. Check out all the recent alumni who get jobs, open each of their LinkedIns and see how many months or years of experience are listed for their 3-4 week long project.

I used deep research and deep research sources some reddit threads but I feel like "serious allegations of unethical practices" is a bit extreme, the content was: 1. discussing outcomes 2. discussing resume practices and applying for jobs for people I'll update the screenshot - I honestly only looked at the IK column and didn't read the others, including Formation hahaha, I'll give it a look and update in a few mins