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Linuxgruven Deorbits
An Anonymous Coward writes: "There's a story at Newsforge about some of the weirdness happening at Linuxgruven. Several ex-employees and students are telling what happened to them. It's not pretty." Considering the skeptical reports for months from readers about Linuxgruven's employment practices (and that we had a short story about those as well as one about the recent layoffs), this doesn't come as a complete surprise -- it's still a shame that employees are stuck with empty bank accounts because of management, though.
Linuxgruven's business failure means:
Well, there goes another warning about Linux certification. I've always Linux certifications were overrated.
The way I figure, if you want to learn Linux and networking, you can set up a 2 node network for under $200, if you look through the classifieds and garage sales. Another $100 for documentation and $20 for network cards and $50 for a printer, and you can learn more hands on with your small home network than you ever could in a classroom.
If I were a hiring manager, any wannabee Linux administrator that did not have a network at home would get a big strike against them. If you can't spend a few hundred and some time at home to polish your skills, how are you going to stay current in the office?
For me, this sentence neatly sums up all of the inspired entertainment the entire ".com" phenomenon has provided over the past two years. Honestly: Linuxgruven comes up with a business model straight out of "The Carpetbaggers", innocent 20-somethings fall for it in droves, then the wounded themselves feel sorry for the con artists who started the whole thing because the poor babies had to suffer the consequences of their own decisions and actions. The indignity of it all! Friends, geeks, fellow cynics: this is an innocence to be cherished! This is a naievete to be wrapped in silk and put away for special occasions down the road! This is a Kodak moment! :)
That would be so great! I could live on 60% of my income for 6 months, no problem. Plus a "3 salaries" severance check -- I could go to Jamaica, hang out on the beach for a couple of months, smoke pot every day, get a great tan, then go back to work.
In fact, I could set up a company, hire my buddies, work for six months, go bankrupt, then six months later, one of them could set up a contracting company, hire me for six months, go bankrupt, then one of my other budz could set up the company... Man! we could do that for ages!
Where can I sign up? Oh, do we have to speak German?
I knew nothing about Linuxgruven until the recent /. story about SAIR's disapproval of their training practices. At that time I posted that I thought that the people who thought that they could get a $45K job for just passing a test were setting themselves up, because a company that does that will never make it, and unfortunately, I was right. And you never do want to be right about something like that.
In my opinion, there needs to be a SWIFT and immediate criminal investigation of Linuxgruven's CEO Matthew Porter and their management. I believe that they were running a ponsi scheme, paying employees out of the money they were getting for "training" new people. Linuxgruven obviously never legitimately did the business they claimed to be doing. If it's not a ponsi scheme, it's close... The article suggests that new employees who jsut passed the tests were then given the job of training new victims... Which is why this smells of a ponsi scheme.
Now people who forked over a considerable amount of money for questionable education are left holding an empty bag. And employees are screwed amd left with bounced checks and bills.
Bouncing paychecks is a serious crime in some locales. I say that Linuxgruven's CEO and management need to see the inside of a jail cell.
In the Newsforge article, these bozos are planning to start a "competing" business. I'd advice everyone to stay the hell away from whatever business that is.
Unethical business practice should not go unpunished.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance