1) Pick a place. Let's say Paris.
2) Go to hostelworld.com, sort by highest review, choose the first hostel in your price range, book a week stay.
3) Sit at a large table in the common room, nurse a beer or coffee, work on your laptop, wait for others to wander by.
4) Strike up conversation, ask about where they've been, what they've done, and what they recommend.
I traveled for 3 months in SE Asia in this way. Everybody is in the same frame of mind as you, ready to meet new people, share stories.
Congratulations to David, Christian, Charles, and of course the graduates of Hackbright!
I remember visiting your classroom when the Summer cohort was just starting to take those first uncertain steps. Seeing them now, successfully working and growing in their first dev jobs is truly inspiring!
From one dev training program to another, keep up the good work!
Congratulations to Shawn and Tony for launching this new venture! I know you guys have taken big personal and professional risks to follow this dream (you know, quitting your jobs, putting up your life savings, professional reputations on the line, etc). From the hard work and pure hustle I've seen so far, I've got great confidence that you will be successful. Huzzah!
Peep Code, Destroy All Software, Railscasts... It's like watching over the shoulders of some of the best programmers in the world as they teach you everything they know.
Your opinion is based on a small group of people you met briefly 10 years ago who had gone through programs in no way related to what is being discussed here.
I'm sorry if I'm being snarky (I admit I am), but I'm so tired of this negativity. HN has a huge anti-beginner bias. Since before I even started this program people have been telling me it will never work, I'm wasting my money, I'm joining a cult, etc. I'm glad I didn't listen.
I hope that you will take the time to learn a little more about what is going on here. If you'd like the real story see my comment below: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4415088
Finster, You have a very good point with the Windows 2000 MCSE bootcamps, though the comparison to Dev Bootcamp is not a perfect analogy. I speak from experience. I spent 10 yrs in the IT Industry. I actually went through the process of getting the Windows 2003 MCSE certification. I did it over a two yr period of working as an IT administrator.
I also just completed the last Dev Bootcamp class last week.
Having an MCSE is supposed to denote a large amount of IT knowledge, if not being an expert. So people that spend a week, get an MCSE and then claim to be experts aren't going to fly very well in a production environment.
At Dev Boot camp we spent 75 hrs a week learning for 10 weeks. The motto here is that we are 'World Class Beginners'. So we spent about 10-15 times longer and then claim to be 'beginners' not experts.
We all spent last Friday meeting 30 companies that want to hire us, being very upfront about our knowledge. In just the last two days I've gotten 8 interviews for companies looking for Jr Developers. I'm going in this week for technical interviews with these companies. They are going to know exactly what I know and what I don't very fast. I'm not alone here, I know many of my classmates are also getting this many interviews.
I've also been told that about 94% of people from the last class got jobs. I've personally met about half of the last class and know they are all working at very respectable places. Actually some are at amazing places.
So with a lot of knowledge on this subject I'm very confident that this program is nothing like an MCSE bootacmp.
No, what he's saying is well known about those certification boot camps. They are notorious. This is not just his experience. It is well known, you could google and find probably a lot of articles about it.
