I'm trying to figure out what the relevant criteria should be for the decision of whether to go to a code school or not. I have a friend that sees how hot the market for talent is and wants to get in on it. I showed him mhartl's Rails tutorial but he's too busy to really dig in and when he does ends up burning a lot of time spinning his wheels.
I suggested two Atlanta-area code schools, both of whom have been around several years and are well-connected with the development community. The problem with a code school is the same reason why there's a market for code schools at all. The market for talent is so hot that the people you want to be instructors can make way more money elsewhere than you could ever pay them. So you should know you're signing up for sub-standard instruction even before you start looking for one.
I still think my friend would be well-served at one of these spots, I've offered to help him out, but he's just too busy, he needs a situation that will force him to focus that has people on hand to help him cut through the noise. Then his natural intelligence will start coming through and he'll be able to make progress on learning.
Code school is an option, but you still really need to be resourceful and able to pick stuff up on your own because your instructor is pretty much guaranteed to be of the amateur-hobbyist variety.
"So you should know you're signing up for sub-standard instruction even before you start looking for one... your instructor is pretty much guaranteed to be of the amateur-hobbyist variety"
I don't think this is a fair assessment, especially at the more established code schools.
For one, the instructors are probably making more than you think they are, so the difference between what they could get for a full-time gig and what they could get as instructors likely isn't that differently.
You also need a very special skill set to be an instructor at these kind of schools. You need to know the code very well, but you also need to be a good instructor which is a completely different skill set (communication, patience, understanding of how and when to introduce concepts). A vast bulk of the talent at the very top end you're referring to who would be completely unaffordable for the coding schools may not have that second component.
But, you're right in your suggestion that you choose a good school. The number of code schools, in my opinion, has become far too crowded and I expect that within the year we'll start to see most of the schools either go under or merge.
(As a disclaimer, I (until recently) worked at General Assembly which runs coding schools in several cities, but I don't speak for them and I never worked directly on the Web Development Immersive program during my time at GA, though I did take it and was happy with the outcome.)
(oh btw a disclaimer at the bottom of a post like oh I may be biased or still work there but....)
I am a founder at Coding House.
We have the instructor (co founder) who wrote the RoR curriculum for General Assembly 3.5 years ago (that they still uses to date) and was there lead instructor. He also wrote the curriculum for Nashville Software School, and Flat Iron School. That they all still uses!
There is not an instructor out there that has more experiences.
Comments
I'm trying to figure out what the relevant criteria should be for the decision of whether to go to a code school or not. I have a friend that sees how hot the market for talent is and wants to get in on it. I showed him mhartl's Rails tutorial but he's too busy to really dig in and when he does ends up burning a lot of time spinning his wheels.
I suggested two Atlanta-area code schools, both of whom have been around several years and are well-connected with the development community. The problem with a code school is the same reason why there's a market for code schools at all. The market for talent is so hot that the people you want to be instructors can make way more money elsewhere than you could ever pay them. So you should know you're signing up for sub-standard instruction even before you start looking for one.
I still think my friend would be well-served at one of these spots, I've offered to help him out, but he's just too busy, he needs a situation that will force him to focus that has people on hand to help him cut through the noise. Then his natural intelligence will start coming through and he'll be able to make progress on learning.
Code school is an option, but you still really need to be resourceful and able to pick stuff up on your own because your instructor is pretty much guaranteed to be of the amateur-hobbyist variety.
"So you should know you're signing up for sub-standard instruction even before you start looking for one... your instructor is pretty much guaranteed to be of the amateur-hobbyist variety"
I don't think this is a fair assessment, especially at the more established code schools.
For one, the instructors are probably making more than you think they are, so the difference between what they could get for a full-time gig and what they could get as instructors likely isn't that differently.
You also need a very special skill set to be an instructor at these kind of schools. You need to know the code very well, but you also need to be a good instructor which is a completely different skill set (communication, patience, understanding of how and when to introduce concepts). A vast bulk of the talent at the very top end you're referring to who would be completely unaffordable for the coding schools may not have that second component.
But, you're right in your suggestion that you choose a good school. The number of code schools, in my opinion, has become far too crowded and I expect that within the year we'll start to see most of the schools either go under or merge.
(As a disclaimer, I (until recently) worked at General Assembly which runs coding schools in several cities, but I don't speak for them and I never worked directly on the Web Development Immersive program during my time at GA, though I did take it and was happy with the outcome.)
Somewhat agreed:
(oh btw a disclaimer at the bottom of a post like oh I may be biased or still work there but....)
I am a founder at Coding House.
We have the instructor (co founder) who wrote the RoR curriculum for General Assembly 3.5 years ago (that they still uses to date) and was there lead instructor. He also wrote the curriculum for Nashville Software School, and Flat Iron School. That they all still uses!
There is not an instructor out there that has more experiences.
http://codinghouse.co/#!team?team=chyld-medford