Re: Wondering About Flatiron School

On Dec 16, 2012, at 1:41 AM, Jan E. <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Hi,
>=20
> promising to "turn you into a web developer" in 12 weeks (even if
> you have no previous experience) is just laughable and stinks of snake
> oil.

That might be a bit of an upsell, but 12 weeks of intensive training can
get you _very_ far.

> Learning to program takes *years* of practicing. Just ask the guys in
> this forum. In Germany, for example, becoming a "programmer" takes 3
> years. And that's some pretty intense training, which consists of both
> working at a company and going to school. Many companies even require
> you to have solid programming skills beforehand.

Just because the formal apprenticeship takes 3 years to complete doesn't
mean that you need 3 years to learn "programming". Quite frankly, most =
of
the curriculum in Germany for programming apprenticeships is pretty=20
laughable.
For universities, there is a common joke: "Students know Java very well, =
all
you have to do is teach them programming."

I know more than one apprentice that were perfectly good and productive
team-mates in bigger projects after the first 2 month if you knew about =
what
they were good at and what they lacked and allowed for some time for =
self-training
on each tasks.

Also, the number of non-"certified" programmers in good positions in =
Germany
shows that programming itself is nothing that you have to be tought to =
work in
that field. Formal education certainly helps, but for many tasks, you =
don't need it.

> So after those 12 weeks you will *not* be a web developer who's =
actually
> fit for the job. If they're good, they'll give you a basic overview of
> different techniques. If they are bad, they'll teach you nothing but a=20=

> bunch of buzzwords and tell you that you're a "Ruby rockstar" now.

Someone that can do many basic tasks is already a valuable asset if you =
know
how to treat that relationship right. It will certainly not make you a =
"i am a ninja
and get a lot of cash"-Programmer, but getting to a decent productivity =
level
for basic tasks in 12 weeks is certainly possible. Have him do landing =
page
for 3 weeks, you can never have enough of them :).

Also, the concept of having such intensive courses is pretty usual: =
pretty much
every database vendor sells you DB knowledge in 4 days or less (and =
you'd be
surprised how good some of these are) and most european universities =
have
courses on top of their studies that teach skills at a decent level in 3 =
months.

> So I'd be very sceptical about this. Personally, all this hipster-talk=20=

> alone makes we wanna close the page immediately.

Thats true, trust is another thing. I wouldn't accept an applicant just =
by merit of
having finished such a school alone, but thats a question of how the =
applicant
sells himself. Being upfront about "I am switching professions and took =
a course"
goes a long way.=