Colleges are predatory, putting kids deep into debt that they may never be able to repay and can't even remove with bankruptcy. And said debt has exploded in recent decades with no corresponding improvement in outcomes.<p>Whereas Lambda aligns their interests with the student. If their students don't get a job, Lambda doesn't get paid. Why is a better model being attacked like this?
As someone who used to work in this industry, I'm kind of torn on Lambda School.<p>It's clear that Austen lied in the past about outcomes and the company perhaps preferred growth over customer experience early on. However college education is so broken in the US that any alternative can look good in comparison.<p>Long term I'm bullish on Lambda, they're in a rapidly growing market, signing good partnerships like this, and I think they can continue to work on their training quality.<p>Just don't trust the marketing. ;)
A few Twitter bots brought this submission to attention. If you don't have much background, here are some good starting points:<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21131848/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-isa-tuition-cost-free" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21131848/lambda-school-co...</a><p><a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-placement-rate-is-lower-than-claimed.html" rel="nofollow">https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-p...</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25415017" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25415017</a>
Agreed. Austen Allred is notoriously terrible on Twitter, too. Constant snark, immediately blocking people who point out the predatory business model, and shamelessly holding himself up like some gift to could-be coders.<p>Dude’s just a thief. Even the way they handle their comms internally is hilariously bad to read about. Gives me the same vibes as the chick from AWAY that finally was forced to step down.
My friend is doing course in Lambda School.. occasionally asks for my help with some of the course work. Almost all of the Lambda school's sample code is terrible. They proudly claim that their bootcamp enables people from other trades (plumbers, janitors, etc) to become programmers. And their example data to teach the concept of array/index would look something like array=[1,2,3,4,5], index of 1 is 0, and index of 2 is 1. The concept of an index starting at zero is so native to regular programmers, but for someone who has done their first helloworld in their life, imagine the confusion caused by the above example code.<p>I get furious when looking at each of their examples. At some point, I advised my friend to dropout of course, but Lambda School has penalty of around $20k-$30 if she drops out in middle of course. I wish they either update their course to be beginner friendly, or just get banned for ruining the fun of learning programming.
What's so bad about selling the debt to hedge funds? It's a way for Lambda to reduce temporal risk by paying a risk premium as compensation to the hedge fund.
Lambda School seems questionable for a few reasons I was already aware of as a semi-habitual hirer of bootcampers: trying to scale too fast & degrading the product, possibly disaligned incentives if ISAs are sold off immediately, etc. If I weren't aware of these issues, this tweet/thread would not have taught me about them.<p>However -- "Naturally they're partnered with Amazon"...to get people jobs as programmers at Amazon(who are evil I guess?? The unspoken assumption?) does not seem like a problem.<p>It is difficult for me to imagine thinking an entry-level FAANG(even Amazon dot com, the lowliest FAANG where few HN posters would deign to work) programming job is not a golden ticket 99th percentile outcome for any bootcamper.<p>The twootist subsequently implies Austen is out of touch for thinking there are towns where an Amazon FC job @$15/hr + healthcare is a "holy shit amazing" job. This is true tons of places. It's double minimum wage! Affordable healthcare!<p>If Amazon FC isn't a good job, and Amazon Programmer isn't a good job, what is? Are there bootcamps putting people directly into Netflix, Stripe, Jane Street, etc?
I had a family member do lambda school recently, they got an “apprentice software engineer” job immediately after graduation, and this is someone who probably would NOT have done well going to college. YMMV
So they are charging Oxford level tuition fees but it's it worth those prices? Do you get a similar recognition with your Lambda School paper/diploma? Assuming you need to pay the international Oxford fees.<p>Personally, I am not convinced it's worth it
I’ve had experience with both Lambda and Amazon.<p>Everyone working as an Associate in an Amazon distribution/fulfilment Center from 20 or more years ago would have accrued well over $5m in stock options and units today.<p>That’s for unskilled entry level work, at a much lower than current hourly wage, and assuming the stock wasn’t sold early(which it almost always was from my perspective).<p>Everyone attending Lambda has an opportunity to learn and up skill, but it is extremely rough and messy, much like Amazon’s early days.<p>Turnover/attrition for both Amazon and Lambda would be quite high.<p>So the dream is real, but the reality is considerable challenge.<p>Amazon’s full-time headcount growth is still extremely high(1.3m compared to 575k just 2 years ago).<p>Lambda has had a few students get hired by Amazon, so it’s in their best interest to link their brand to big tech brands.<p>People like sausages, but watching how sausages get made can be distasteful for some or many.
Oh no I actually thought it was a really good idea to give people a chance to work hard and get a better life.<p>I still dont completely write it off as a bad idea.<p>I mentioned it to my son but he was sceptical.
I’m not sure who this works is or why his seemingly shallow tweets are important to pay attention to. Can someone explain? Surely criticizing Lambda is far less useful than criticizing the university system, which provides far worse outcomes for far more money?
HN constantly attacks Tesla and Elon so you shouldn't be surprised. In fact, I've associated negative attacks from HN as an indicator that the company/person being attacked is probably doing something good.
I think part of the problem is the funnel. They don't charge students until a month in. They start off with a large number of student who they anticipate will drop before the ISA kicks in, then they prorate the ISA, although not evenly. The count should probably start once the ISA kicks in, even if the student doesn't get through the entire program. Fair enough right? Otherwise do not charge students unless they graduate. I think they aren't transparent about how the count/ outcomes are measured.<p>My biggest concern with the program, however, is the instruction and the lack of one on one feedback with qualified people.<p>The other concern is will their desire to fill diversity quotas. Perhaps this is coming from the market, demanding certain races in hiring, but in my personal experience, highly qualified people who can easily pass the entry exam were denied the female scholarship and given to racially diverse woman who couldn't pass the entry exam.
Also, the founder tweeted out that over 50% of their students surveyed were LGBTQ like that was a goal of some kind.<p>I think Lambda is more concerned with racial quotas than training software engineers. So if you want a token hire look towards Lambda.