Had a jam session today with some other @LambdaSchool grads who have been fortunate enough to hit escape velocity and land new jobs in the industry since COVID hit... some informal and anecdotal trends

1. Over half of us had done some kind of stint as a team leader, Lambda’s title for teacher assistants during core curriculum and tech leads for the 8 week capstone phase

Being a TL extends the already lengthy Lamba experience by 8-16 weeks but really seems to solidify the technical skills and confidence that help land a role

2. Most fondly remembered Lambda’s CS capstone puzzle where you program a REST service that does graph traversals in a text based multi user dungeon to find blockchain coins... but agreed that it didn’t really translate well or reinforce credibility when brought up with employers

From what I hear they’ve refined the CS curriculum to be a little more nuts-and-bolts. Definitely enjoyed the nerdy whimsy of the old stuff, but Lambda student personas slant more toward a more practical “grind toward economic success” and I think the change is welcome

3. Very few in the group found their opportunity through a cold application, the rest were from some kind of serendipitous second or third hand reference based on reputation built up elsewhere online / in developer communities

Not sure how to read that. “Networking” is always important to finding new work, but this might also be an indicator that you’ve really got to get “lucky” to find something in this environment. Putting yourself out there repeatedly is a good way to manufacture more luck though

4. 80% had a college degree of some kind, none of which were in computer science though. No one really felt like the degree made a difference in the application/interview process but it’s hard to judge where biases come in. Should let the data speak here.

@LambdaSchool definitely positions itself as a replacement for a 4 year degree. I’m definitely a believer but employers are the real arbiters here and I haven’t seen the data yet on how outcomes vary based on previous educational attainment

5. Folks had between 5 and 15 years experience in previous careers — everything from military, to professional poker, to school teaching. Folks agreed being a more professionally mature candidate and drawing connections to a previous career helped in the interview process

6. And this is kinda funny... people generally agreed that Lambda was more structured (in terms of expectations) and more demanding (in terms of time investment) than their actual job now

I don’t think this is a bad thing lol. Lambda almost feels like being an athlete in training. Successive challenges designed to stretch the limits of your abilities... so you can go out there and run your race with confidence and ease.

I’m not surprised the school assignment were better thought out and came with more guidance than work assignments. Running businesses that respond to market forces is really hard

I was in the minority here. I’m on a two man development team in an extremely early stage company and definitely feel like I’m burning the candle at both ends still lol. Was glad to hear everyone else has hit a stride though

Any one else from my Lambda fam get placed recently and want to share thoughts?