Gearing Up the Workforce: Will the “crash courses in coding” model work in Albuquerque?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this business model since long before seeing this article in the Albuquerque Journal:

http://www.abqjournal.com/386690/news/crash-courses-in-coding.html

The article comes out of an Atlanta paper and primarily deals with two companies in that area, Tech Talent South and The Iron Yard, both of which work on the theory that months of intensive education and mentorship works better than four years and giant debt. They both specifically address coding, which is a solid strategy because the demand for up-to-date coders is pretty much endless at this point. Take it from me: the recruiters frequently ping me for leads for hot recruits. If you want it, it’s there for the taking.

There is one such operation in town, and it looks interesting. But not cheap. None of these are cheap. Among all three schools I’ve mentioned, the class duration is 8 – 12 weeks, and the price is $7000 – 10,000. This is a heck of an investment, though it’s highly likely worthwhile for someone who wants to make a start from scratch.

Most of the hard-core developers I know, and I know a few, are entirely self-taught. But for those less-than-hard-core developers like me, a working familiarity with programming principles and specific languages came slowly. If you’re looking for a job, and you know you can code, the boot-camp school method may be a hot ticket.

I’ve considered opening a shop to do exactly this, though I’m watching the local firm to see how they do. Frankly, however, my emphasis is different. Sure, I do Unix, and coding, and networks and so forth. But I’m deeply interested in security, and I’m deeply interested in teaching. This is handy because a lot of security consists of education.

So if I were going to do this I’d take a careful look at the audience for a security school along a vaguely similar model. My local friends are familiar with the “DoD Order,” which requires local national lab and Air Force base personnel to pursue a continuing education in security. And we have another national lab up the road at Los Alamos, and two more bases and a missile test range down near Alamogordo.

It’s an interesting thought….

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