Sunday, May 11, 2014

Learning To Code - 2 Warnings

My number one goal with this blog is to be transparent and to show you how to learn to code and get hired, with that in mind I strive to always have the utmost honesty and character with you.


Which brings me to 2 rather uncomfortable points:  BE CARE FUL of Code school and Skillshare, which I used to highly recommend. Unfortunately things change as time moves on and so we must change or at the very least be honest about what is going on.

When I applied to Dev Bootcamp, one of THE most frustrating things about the entire process at the time was the blatant untruth on their site. Big bold letters "You will get a 'yes' or 'no' answer from us within 2 weeks." Of course as you probably know it took me well over 2 months to get accepted into the program which I later had to decline.

As you know I am making a course due to be out in the next month that will hopefully be a big step in helping people learn how to code, make it easier and more fun. As I applied to Udemy and Skillshare with my course, Udemy has been nothing but nice while Skillshare has in Big bold letters: "We promise to get back to you within 5 days."

2 weeks+ later not a peep from Skillshare nothing. I have been hearing less and less good things about their camp and more and more good things about Udemy, maybe it's just how things go with change.

Which brings me to the question: "Do 80+% of these online monthly membership 'Learn To Code' places really want you to learn or just keep you coming back regardless?" I'm all for making money, but what I learned the hard way is a terrible practice that Codeschool does that I think you all should be made aware of since I have previously highly recommended it.

I would sign up for Codeschool for a month or two then take a break till I saw another course I wanted to take. I know LOTS of developers who love Codeschool and do the same, pay for a month when a cool course comes out to keep their skills current since their material is top notch.


SO...I was quite surprised when I had stopped the Codeschool membership a while back that an email popped into my inbox saying my card would start being automatically charged in less then 3 days if I didn't tell them explicitly NO!

I don't know about you, but that is not right, I don't pay for your course for a month or two and then YOU get to decide when you will AUTOMATICALLY start charging my card???

Sorry folks, I just think they are more interested about getting your money then in giving you a quality education. Yes there material has always been good, and if you are still going to use them then fine, however be very careful of what card you give and watch your emails like a hawk.... unless $30 bucks doesn't bother you in which case you can send it my way :-)

Otherwise life is good, JavaScript learning is going great, my course is kick butt awesome and I got an email this past week from an amazing well know developer who I didn't know had been watching my career and sent me this note:


This note made my month, I felt taller after reading it :-) My book is coming out as a professionally done audio book very soon, which I am tickled pink about. 

Sorry today's post wasn't as upbeat I hate to be a negative downer, but I promise to always keep my eyes open for you guys.

Keep coding peeps!  =-)