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Boom Or Bust: The Lowdown On Code Academies
snydeq writes "Programming boot camps are on the rise, but can a crash course in coding truly pay off for students and employers alike? InfoWorld's Dan Tynan discusses the relative (and perceived) value of code academies with founders, alumni, recruiters, and hiring managers. Early impressions and experiences are mixed, but the hacker school trend seems certain to stick. 'Many businesses that are looking at a shortfall of more than a million programmers by the year 2020 are more than willing to give inexperienced grads a chance, even if some are destined to fail. The zero-to-hero success stories may be relatively rare, but they happen often enough to ensure that the boom in quick-and-dirty coding schools is only likely to accelerate.'"
Advertising much?
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
They'll work only if they aren't a sloppy, slapped together gimmick designed to rubber stamp "programmers" and install them in cubicles like spare parts.
In 2014, it is shameful that we still don't have an adequate statewide computer curriculum in the state that gave birth to Apple, Google and Blizzard.
And no, buying iPads for everyone and teaching them how to use Word is not a computer curriculum. When a 2.0 high school graduate can explain in 50 words or less what a computer is then we will have success.
The fact that someone hasn't already taken all the throwaway PCs, installed Linux on them and equipped every school in the state with a 50-desktop computer lab (at zero cost) is only further proof of our failure in technology.
This is the same public education problem. If you provide universal education--that is, provide for a way for everyone to buy into education on their own--then what you get is market speculation by students, which often fails. For example: now again we have a need for programmers because things like Roku are becoming popular and we want to build more Android and iOS apps for phones and smart TVs; everyone in the world will want to be a programmer for those $90k, $110k, $150k salaries, and then in 5 years there will be so many programmers that none of them can get a job because some 10% of them filled all the slots and got $60k salaries out of it to boot.
The summary directly acknowledges that, short on a crop of self-made resources, businesses are buying into low-experience, low-training wannabe poor kids who can't afford college degrees and then supplying career development. Which is something I've said again and again: universal access to education doesn't provide greater upward mobility for the poor; it forces them to speculate, which gives them a hit-or-miss chance of success if they bother putting in the hard work to become career-worthy, which only the rich can manage to absorb in the case of landing in the "not useful because saturated market" bin. Government-backed loans and government-provided vocational education is bad for the poor.
I mean christ, I'm looking right at it. Right here. Do you see this? This is what happens when not enough people can get an education: the businesses need these educated kids to succeed, and not enough rich kids have those degrees and those skills, so the businesses grab anyone who can absorb those skills and makes sure they get it. Because hell if I'm going to lose market share to that goat fucker Cogswell when he publishes an iOS app selling his cogs to a huge market I can't reach.
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Not anyone can be a coder, just not not anyone can be a doctor, lawyer or executive.
Businesses decided they didn't like the leverage coders had on them, so they tried all kinds of nasty tricks, including outsourcing, no-poaching agreements, removing stock options, and even Agile methodologies attempt to commoditize a position. Instead of fostering R&D, they RIF'd a ton of people in the early 2000s after the dot bomb. The result? The number of CS/MIS applicants were cut in 1/2 for half a decade.
You reap what you sew, assholes. Time to pay up, bitches.
I'd be happy to see 1% of those 1000000 jobs.... were are they as I can't seem to be able to find them...
Where are all the no experience needed programming jobs then? Everywhere I look 3 years of X 5 years of Y extensive knowledge of Z.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
It's Boom and Bust.
There's no OR about it, one precedes the other.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The rise of the code academies is people trying to profit. Nothing more. Same thing happened 15 years ago.
There's so much information out there for free now - tutorials, books, references, open source, computers (damn near free), operating systems - the types of personalities that will excel have the tools available.
The money would be vastly better spent in providing access to maker spaces, and programming spaces with fat connections and coffee so people can network and work on ideas. Find a way to mix in some entrepreneurial types and you've got something.
Buy iPads? Why not buy them all a copy of the art of computer programming instead. Even if you don't understand it, it sets a stage. I remember getting my hands on a copy when I was very young, but I didn't understand it very well. Not understanding it bothered me the same way not understanding how the radios I took apart worked. 20 years later I know how both things.
..don't panic
We all know this is every HR drone's wet dream. They probably buy the graduation list right from the coding academy and make low ball offers to these obviously desperate coders.
Just because somebody has learned the syntax of one language doesn't mean that that person is a Software Engineer.
I've had experiences with foreign students that got a MASTERS DEGREE in Computer Science from a respected State University (not your run of the mill private diploma mill) that "waived" the CompSci basics background requirement because they're full-fare students and most of those "Software Engineers" are crap. They don't know how compilers work, don't know how a program is linked, haven't taken any of the basic CS theory (algorithms, data structures, etc, etc.) and as a result write code that is not suitable for the type of embedded development that the company that I work for does. They're smart people, just crap Software Engineers but maybe a good physicist, or economist or whatever their foreign undergraduate degree was in.
I can see how a "code academy" would generate the same type of useless Software Engineer. However, at least they don't have a "But I've got a master's degree in CS" attitude.
We need all types of programmers, as eventually all jobs, no matter how menial, will require some programming skills.
Most technological device use is what was once called programming, but is not considered programming anymore. Think about the complex things millions of people do with their telephones. In the 1980's only a select group of the world's most skilled programmers could do some of those things. Is it really so different to do something with five button presses than doing something with 500 lines of code? You're still programming, just at a higher level. That 500 lines of code has been written and it's what makes an operation feel more natural but still be programming.
Maybe we need classes in modern devices, and to get away from the word programming. When you play your favorite smartphone app, you're programming. Take it to the next level and write an app yourself. Not everyone has to write industrial grade banking software.
My employer, faced with an outsized number of draftsmen, machinists, technicians, etc. and had need for programmers had a program many years ago to turn those non-programming employees into useful developers. I can't speak statistically on how successful the program was, but I can say that one of my former coworkers had gone through the program and became a successful developer.
I don't think statewide computer curriculum had anything to do with Apple/Google - there were plenty of people in those classes when I was a kid but the only people that really learned anything were the ones who also had computers at home and spent a lot of time programming.
The code academies are a good start in making training available to those really interested in programming, for a much more affordable approach than getting an engineering or CS degree from most colleges. It's really just a more programming oriented trade school, and I see nothing wrong with that.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How come I cant find a job here in Australia despite looking for one for 3 years or more? .NET or J2EE or whatever technology they are using.
Everyone wants 3 years commercial experience with
I can't think of much anything bad about the rise of coding schools in the past few years, I think it's a great idea. All institutions of learning position themselves from an ROI standpoint to make it easier to convince people that it's a good investment, but the skills are needed pretty much across all industries. I like to think that coding schools are a good start, but the only thing that really teaches a person is working on coding projects. Some things you can't teach.
Daddy looks at his useless 18 year old spawn who is glued to the TV while slopping on the couch. Daddy is well aware that no place in the world really wants anything to do with his teen. Daddy also has a big ego. Daddy knows damn well that any school that is willing to get the brat out of his home is going to grab 50K a year. And daddy also likes his money. So here is what daddy will do. Daddy will send his worthless teen to a school that gives him high grades. After all if the useless kid flunks out he will be back on daddy's couch again. Daddy will talk to other parents with useless spawn and find out which glorious, so-called, college will keep the brat happy and give him credentials that will probably assure some job that will keep the brat from ever living at home. If things get bad enough daddy will give the school about half the price of a new gymnasium as insurance that his spawn can do no wrong. Once the spawn has credentials he can progress to a position of authority over others where he inflict his useless self upon the lives of people that actually know how to get a job done. It is not just the education system that is smoke and mirrors but the entire society is hollow and largely not worth the air they breath.
(To be fair this new hire has a PhD in a neuroscience, so she's no dummy. I'm not saying just anyone can be a programmer, but I am saying that I've seen evidence that a smart person can get entry-level skills from such a program.)
Apple does it, I believe Adobe does it.
And even Google does it with Chromebooks.
New things are always on the horizon