I had a similar realization many years ago but I have a very different (and lonely) perspective. Nobody seems to get it, maybe someone here will.
I realized this (unfair income) in 2011 as a junior in university, right after I got an internship at Facebook. They paid me $6000 / month and I had only been coding for one year (literally). Previously I dabbled in multiple other majors and my internship offer was higher than the full time salary of my peers in other majors (whom I respected deeply).
I saw this as an opportunity. During my internship and my senior year, I taught my highschool friend how to code while he completed his major in econ. I figured if it only took me one year to get into facebook, he could do it in two. A year after I got a job at a startup, he got a job (105k base).
My girlfriend at the time graduated with a stats degree and was doing customer support. I thought maybe I could get her into coding too, and I did. A year later she got a job (115k base).
Then I had an idea.… could I teach anybody coding? I reached out to a kid I knew back in high school who had a 2.0 GPA. I figured his life sucked and it did (he was a uber driver). Things didn’t turn out so well, I got impatient and I used my power as a senior engineer to get him onto my team at (105k base). Today, he is a much better software engineer making 190k base with alot of RSUs.
During my time at Google I decided to revisit my original question, could I teach anybody coding, no matter their background? So while I was working I reached out to my local community to see if people wanted to learn coding. 12 students showed up and I could no longer focus on my work so I left Google to teach full time.
Then things got interesting. Students wanted to quit because they needed to support their families. So I started paying them, 2000 / month. 7 students were paid, the remaining I made sure to tell them that I can help if they needed money. Thankfully, they did not need my money.
Within a year (2017-2018) I went bankrupt. I needed to answer the question, “could anybody learn coding, no matter their background?”, so I painfully cleared out my 401k. Thankfully, my wife got a job as a software engineer (135k base) so I was able to find a job myself.
Eventually, all the students got a job. Every single one, from one who is 40 years old without coding background to another without a college degree. The lowest offer was around 115k.
My RSUs are coming up in 4 months (90k). In addition to my salary, I’m going to use it to accomplish my goal in 2020: to create a coding bootcamp at public libraries so that anybody regardless of race and background could have a safe place to learn how to code and build cool things together as a community.
After I finish I will write about the experience, but not now. I just wanted to share my journey so far because I think it is important to know that you don’t have to spend what you earn. You can help the people you care about, only if its one person at a time.
The idea of paying your students for studying sounds fantastic! Maybe you could make a contract with them that they will return you the money if they get a software development job (similar to how Lambda School does it, except they don’t pay their students, only teach them for free).
Maybe you could make a contract with them that they will return you the money if they get a software development job
No offense, but I don’t like that idea and the answer will always be no. Why should somebody whom society left behind be expected to pay in their pursuit to have a normal life like everybody else? These people are just getting their lives started, I don’t want them to have a looming payment hanging over their heads. If you have been in debt before you know how stressful it feels to be indebted.
These guys should pay: Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal, Apple, etc. etc.
My goal that I’m working towards is to lead sustainable open source projects and negotiate a direct employment contract from companies because the engineers we produce are of such good quality.
Its an ambitious journey (I know), but it makes the most sense to me.
Why should somebody whom society left behind be expected to pay in their pursuit to have a normal life like everybody else? These people are just getting their lives started, I don’t want them to have a looming payment hanging over their heads.
Do as you wish, of course; it’s your (potential) money and your time. My perspective was that maybe having some of the money back would allow you to teach more people. Like, that you can afford to donate money to ten people, but you could loan money to hundred people; and although getting a gift is better than getting a loan, hundred is also more than ten. On the other hand, if money is not the bottleneck but your time is, then this doesn’t make sense. No “should’s” were involved in the calculation.
Also, payments in style of Lambda School are not that bad. They are limited in time (unlike school loans), and you only pay if you get a well-paying job. That means that having the new job and the debt is already an improvement over having the old job (and then the debt expires so it becomes even better), and if you fail to get the promised new job, then there is no payment.
My perspective was that maybe having some of the money back would allow you to teach more people.
I understand where you are coming from. From my perspective, I don’t see the point of helping “more” people. Doing so lowers the quality for the existing students and creates more burden on myself. If you were in my shoes, what would be the inspiration for helping more? For me, I’m just looking for a balance. One person at a time, when a student leaves I’ll get one or two more to fill the spot depending on budget.
payments in style of Lambda School are not that bad… and if you fail to get the promised new job, then there is no payment
I really hope you are right. Personally, the students who are the slowest have severe self confidence issues and they don’t communicate their emotions very well. It breaks my heart to imagine the emotional turmoil they might feel if they fail. Part of what I spend most of my time doing is to make sure nobody fails. I’m extra committed to make sure nobody gets left behind. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe not.
I had a similar realization many years ago but I have a very different (and lonely) perspective. Nobody seems to get it, maybe someone here will.
I realized this (unfair income) in 2011 as a junior in university, right after I got an internship at Facebook. They paid me $6000 / month and I had only been coding for one year (literally). Previously I dabbled in multiple other majors and my internship offer was higher than the full time salary of my peers in other majors (whom I respected deeply).
I saw this as an opportunity. During my internship and my senior year, I taught my highschool friend how to code while he completed his major in econ. I figured if it only took me one year to get into facebook, he could do it in two. A year after I got a job at a startup, he got a job (105k base).
My girlfriend at the time graduated with a stats degree and was doing customer support. I thought maybe I could get her into coding too, and I did. A year later she got a job (115k base).
Then I had an idea.… could I teach anybody coding? I reached out to a kid I knew back in high school who had a 2.0 GPA. I figured his life sucked and it did (he was a uber driver). Things didn’t turn out so well, I got impatient and I used my power as a senior engineer to get him onto my team at (105k base). Today, he is a much better software engineer making 190k base with alot of RSUs.
During my time at Google I decided to revisit my original question, could I teach anybody coding, no matter their background? So while I was working I reached out to my local community to see if people wanted to learn coding. 12 students showed up and I could no longer focus on my work so I left Google to teach full time.
Then things got interesting. Students wanted to quit because they needed to support their families. So I started paying them, 2000 / month. 7 students were paid, the remaining I made sure to tell them that I can help if they needed money. Thankfully, they did not need my money.
Within a year (2017-2018) I went bankrupt. I needed to answer the question, “could anybody learn coding, no matter their background?”, so I painfully cleared out my 401k. Thankfully, my wife got a job as a software engineer (135k base) so I was able to find a job myself.
Eventually, all the students got a job. Every single one, from one who is 40 years old without coding background to another without a college degree. The lowest offer was around 115k.
My RSUs are coming up in 4 months (90k). In addition to my salary, I’m going to use it to accomplish my goal in 2020: to create a coding bootcamp at public libraries so that anybody regardless of race and background could have a safe place to learn how to code and build cool things together as a community.
After I finish I will write about the experience, but not now. I just wanted to share my journey so far because I think it is important to know that you don’t have to spend what you earn. You can help the people you care about, only if its one person at a time.
The idea of paying your students for studying sounds fantastic! Maybe you could make a contract with them that they will return you the money if they get a software development job (similar to how Lambda School does it, except they don’t pay their students, only teach them for free).
I always get this comment:
Maybe you could make a contract with them that they will return you the money if they get a software development job
No offense, but I don’t like that idea and the answer will always be no. Why should somebody whom society left behind be expected to pay in their pursuit to have a normal life like everybody else? These people are just getting their lives started, I don’t want them to have a looming payment hanging over their heads. If you have been in debt before you know how stressful it feels to be indebted.
These guys should pay: Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal, Apple, etc. etc.
My goal that I’m working towards is to lead sustainable open source projects and negotiate a direct employment contract from companies because the engineers we produce are of such good quality.
Its an ambitious journey (I know), but it makes the most sense to me.
Do as you wish, of course; it’s your (potential) money and your time. My perspective was that maybe having some of the money back would allow you to teach more people. Like, that you can afford to donate money to ten people, but you could loan money to hundred people; and although getting a gift is better than getting a loan, hundred is also more than ten. On the other hand, if money is not the bottleneck but your time is, then this doesn’t make sense. No “should’s” were involved in the calculation.
Also, payments in style of Lambda School are not that bad. They are limited in time (unlike school loans), and you only pay if you get a well-paying job. That means that having the new job and the debt is already an improvement over having the old job (and then the debt expires so it becomes even better), and if you fail to get the promised new job, then there is no payment.
I understand where you are coming from. From my perspective, I don’t see the point of helping “more” people. Doing so lowers the quality for the existing students and creates more burden on myself. If you were in my shoes, what would be the inspiration for helping more? For me, I’m just looking for a balance. One person at a time, when a student leaves I’ll get one or two more to fill the spot depending on budget.
I really hope you are right. Personally, the students who are the slowest have severe self confidence issues and they don’t communicate their emotions very well. It breaks my heart to imagine the emotional turmoil they might feel if they fail. Part of what I spend most of my time doing is to make sure nobody fails. I’m extra committed to make sure nobody gets left behind. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe not.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.