Coding Bootcamps

If your income can flow from any place on the globe, and you can earn your money on the Internet, the question for individuals and startup teams alike increasingly is: where do I go? In the tech industry the answer more often than not has been Silicon Valley. For many people and companies that is still true, says Sten Tamkivi, CEO and co-founder of Teleport.org, but it’s not a simple binary answer any more. “It’s more a question of when, and how often do you spend time in Silicon Valley?” he says. And of course, why?

Quality, cost, and opportunity, those are the key elements to consider when deciding where in the world you want to be when you are starting a career -- and starting a company. In this segment of the pod, Tamkivi relates his own experience as an executive at Skype, and how he thought about its global workforce and what made it work so well. He also describes what he’s learned from starting his own far-flung company Teleport.org, which is in the business of helping people decide where in the world the best place for their career and company is. 

a16z Podcast: Software and Overcoming the Randomness of Birthplace

Albrey Brown, is a Berkeley native who does not take ‘No’ for an answer. He was rejected on his first attempt to becoming a Hack Reactor graduate and went on to become a founder of Telegraph Academy. Most importantly, he found a love for teaching and is an educator that has completely changed the career trajectories for hundreds of students. Although he never graduated from college, he always knew that he was going to be a teacher. He grew up in a single family home where his mom raised him to become the man who he is today.

Key Points:
1. When you’re learning a new skill, it’s good to have resources (see below), but try to find someone to double check if you’re doing the steps “correctly”

2. Bootcamps need to be more accessible and there are resources like Telegraph Prep and Climb that are working to democratize this form of education

3. You’re always going to find another bug (another hill to climb, a new thing to conquer) so don’t be afraid of that. Take risks.

4. Mentorship comes through various channels. If someone invests time into helping you, the best thing that you can do is succeed.

SHOW NOTES (FOCUS ON THE  STEPPING STONES):
[1:12] – Albrey grew up in Berkeley, CA in a single family home with his mother and his aunt. He had no idea of what a startup was.

[3:15] Albrey’s mother got diagnosed with Cancer during his sophomore year and he took a couple of years off after he graduated high school (never graduated college)

 [5:32] Beginner Resources – What resources did you use to learn how to code? First, a mentor. Then, he started with The Odin Project and Learn Ruby the Hard Way

[6:35] What was your motivation to learning how to code?

[10:47] What led you to choose Hack Reactor instead of all the other bootcamps?

[11:52] How did you do with Hack Reactor’s Interview Process?

[15:10] Don’t let money stop you from acquiring a new skill – How did you pay for your tuition ($18,000)? When he passed his interview and got accepted into Hack Reactor he needed to figure out how to pay tuition. He had no more money and used a crowdfunding platform called GoFundMe to raise $18,000 in 30 days

[18:19] Tell us more about the Bootcamp Model as a new model for education

[19:06] What makes Telegraph Academy different from all of the other Bootcamps?

 [21:40] Take a Bootcamp Preparation Program if you are starting from scratch and need someone to guide you  

[22:22] What financing packages are available at Telegraph Academy? 

[24:58] What are some of the outcomes for Telegraph Academy?

[26:17] What do the demographics look like at Telegraph Academy? 

[29:00] How did you put this all together? He is a big advocate of taking the road less traveled. 

[30:40] What do you have planned for the future? Thoughts on education in general? 

[33:37] The Lightning Round
1. How would you get back to this point in your career if you were dropped into a new city with only $100? (assuming your food and shelter is taken care of)

Albrey: Become a Lyft or Uber Driver to get a car (here’s the Uber option), make money, learn about your city, and meet people

2. When you ran into roadblocks or struggles, was there any piece of music or a movie that you watched that helped you get over that situation?

Albrey: Always Be Closing by Glengarry Glen Ross

3. Looking back, what is one piece of advice that you would give to someone now that you’ve been through this journey?

Albrey: The best resource that you can have is a mentor

4. Have you been able to speak with anyone that Sponsored your GoFundMe now that you have executed on your promise to start a school?
Yes; His cousin Brian Tippens, who never told him what he did when he originally contributed. Now that Albrey reconnected with him after the launch of Telegraph Academy, he just realized Brian is the Head of Diversity

#1: Albrey Brown - Self-taught Engineer who founded Telegraph Academy to teach people how to code.

Emily Racioppi is an artist at heart. After talking to her dad, she realized that in order to be a successful artist you need to be your own brand so she followed his footsteps to become an Account Representative in the Sales Department at Cisco WebEx. Prior to that she was a representative at an infrastructure startup called Instart Logic. On this episode she talks about the different roles in sales, the interview process, salaries, the importance of on target earnings, metrics, and more!

Key Points:
1. When you’re in sales, you’ve got to be confident and competitive. Startups are pickier in terms of hiring people so there is no room for slacking.

2. In sales, you have to be a team player. There are times when you close deals on your own but there may also be other times that you need to work with different people such as engineers to get those deals done.

3. If you’re considering breaking into a sales role at a startup, do enough research about the company, their product, and their competitors. Ask questions about your role and how quickly that role progresses within the company.

4. As an inside sales representative, you have to be a closer. Take all the knowledge you have with you as a sales development rep, learn how to manage your time, and be able to qualify your deals.

SHOW NOTES (FOCUS ON THE  STEPPING STONES):

[1:05]  Growing up in Santa Cruz, California, Emily knew she wanted to come in the Bay Area due to its proximity to her family. She also draws major inspiration from her dad.

[2:04]  Being more artistic most of her life growing up and her dream of becoming a curator in The Louvre in France.

[2:51] The power of asking questions 

[4:13]  Emily shared her struggles of doing door-to-door sales and what she learned from them.

[6:19]  Factors for choosing the jobs she applied for: Location + Opportunities

[6:48] How to handle interview questions 

[7:48]  Qualities of a good candidate 

[9:04]  Emily’s advice on how to break in 

[9:42] Getting promoted from a sales development rep to an inside sales role

[11:37] What motivated Emily to switch over to a smaller company

[13:55] How Emily prepared for her interview process at the startup company

[15:37] How Emily dealt with frustrations and turning them into best practices

[17:34]  Crafting your pitch 

[19:36] Tonality is key

[22:45]  How to handle the interview process at a startup 

[24:25]  Resources to help you get ready for these types of interviews 

[25:01]  Knowledge is Power

[26:28]  How the salary/commission scheme works at a startup versus a corporate environment (On Target Earnings of $40-$60k for beginning sales role)

[30:47]  Key questions to ask as you try to break into a sales role 

[32:17]  What metrics are you evaluated on

[33:37] The next steps as you get promoted from a sales development rep (SDR) to an inside sales rep: Knowledge application, time management, qualifying deals, asking for help

[35:10] Emily’s plans for the future

[39:14] The Lightning Round

1. Imagine if you had to start over again and you had a $100. You get dropped in a completely new city, what would you do and where would you start?

2. Was there any music or movies or blogs that you read or someone that you talked to that you inspired to get through that frustration?

3. What is the one advice that you would give our listeners?

4. What is one thing that you fundamentally believed in that you changed your mind on after this process?

5. But is there any books that you’d be like, this is the best sales book I’ve ever read?

#2: Emily Racioppi - Sales Account Executive compares sales in startups vs. corporate

Kush Patel is the Founder of App Academy, which is considered to be the MIT of coding bootcamps. Prior to breaking into startup, Kush previously worked at hedge funds until he finally decided to pursue his passion for learning how to code through and joined the first coding class of Dev Bootcamp. 

Seeing the huge gap between the amount of software engineers produced each year and the amount of software engineers needed in Silicon Valley and through the US, Kush, alongside co-founder Ned Ruggeri, saw great opportunity in the bootcamp space, thus the birth of App Academy.

#15: Kush Patel - Founder of App Academy

Haseeb Qureshi is a Texas-native who dominated the poker world and decided to pursue his dream of becoming a software engineer. He started playing poker at 16 years old and was able to turn $50 to $100,000. He eventually became one of the world’s best no-limit hold-em poker players at 19 but he was not fulfilled. So, Haseeb left the poker world and decided to start over from scratch by giving all of his money away. After hearing about coding bootcamps from a friend, he decided to break into tech and join App Academy. Haseeb learned quickly, became an instructor after two months, and eventually became the Head of Product. He really wanted to work as a software engineer and his recruiting process was tough. On this interview he shares how he got his position at Airbnb by applying lessons from poker and proving that with confidence, deliberate practice, negotiating skills, and an altruistic heart, you can always rise above any challenges you meet along the way.

Key Points:
1. When you’re trying to learn something,you need to give yourself feedback when you make a mistake. This is the idea of deliberate practice. Try to find the smallest possible thing that could be critiqued and then get feedback on it and then try to iterate on it.

2. The biggest difference between boot camps is not the curriculum, the teachers, or the network. The biggest difference is your peers and the rate of intensity with which you’re going to be learning around them.
3. When facing rejections, remember that you have no control over things no matter how good you are. Also, pain is transient. You might feel awful today but you will feel better the next day and the next, until you can barely even remember. Besides, people can’t say no forever.
Consider plugging into your network for job search referrals throughinformational interviewing. Reach out to anyone in your network, sit down with them, ask them about their company and experience, and get referrals.
4. A large part about negotiation is power. Be mindful of it, where it comes from, and how to maintain it. Have leverage in your negotiations by having the ability to not accept it because you have another offer. Interviewers can’t read your mind. It’s not a zero-sum game.


SHOW NOTES (FOCUS ON THE  STEPPING STONES):
[1:33] Growing up in Dallas, Texas 
[2:47] Starting to play poker at the age of 16 with $50 
[11:51] Advice on picking a bootcamp – The biggest difference between great bootcamps and a not-so-great bootcamps: Peers + Rate & Intensity level (with which you’re going to be learning around them)
 [19:12] Deliberate Practice – Haseeb’s secret sauce for being world-class in poker and his boot camp journey (Feedback mechanism is key!) – Working on Codewars, massive practice, going back over and over to fix mistakes, and understanding the pattern
[27:42] Dealing with self-doubt: Haseeb doubted his vision of the world and this picture of himself being somebody who could just walk into an interview and nail it and have all these offers
[28:31] How to deal with rejections:
You have absolutely no control. No matter how great you are, no matter if you’re the best player in the world, there’s always a chance that you’ll lose.
Any pain is transient. What you feel today will be softer the next morning and the next.
Keep going. People can’t say no forever.
[35:05] Haseeb’s approach to the negotiation process
 [37:57] Overcoming recruiter tactics that take away your leverage during negotiation:
 [39:41] Exploding Offers – What are they? How do you deal with these?
[45:56] How to prepare for interviews

#4: Haseeb Qureshi - Professional Poker Player turned Software Engineer

An East Coast native, Richard Purcell travelled cross country and courageously took the risk of taking an entry level job even though he was overqualified because it meant a chance to break into tech. Through persistence and overcoming objections, he landed his first tech sales job in Palo Alto at Medallia Inc. Currently, he serves as the Sales Director at Performance Horizon. 

Having a multi ethnic background gives Richard an interesting perspective on race and privilege. He firmly believes that talent is universal and opportunity is not. That’s why he co-founded Medallia Medley to help give access to opportunity to underrepresented talent.

#11: Richard Purcell - Sales Director who worked his way up from an entry level role

Shawn Drost is the Co-Founder of Hack Reactor, a coding bootcamp founded in 2012 along with his college friends Tony Phillips, Marcus Phillips, and Douglas Calhoun with the primary motive to set people up for success as software engineers. 

They envision themselves transforming higher education to be more transparent, accessible and outcomes-driven. 

Hack Reactor’s community involvement is remarkable as they continue to offer curriculum, volunteer support and training to their nonprofit partners in their conscious effort to bridge the gap between underserved communities and the tech industry.

#12: Shawn Drost - Founder of Hack Reactor

With a huge appreciation for writing and journalism, Elaina Koros majored in Government and English Studies while attending Georgetown University. Today, Elaina works as a Content Strategist at Facebook. During this chat, Elaina discusses the importance of building relationships and having mentors which helped her tremendously in getting an internship that eventually led to a full-time offer.

#13: Elaina Koros - Content Strategist who hustled her way into Facebook

Rodney Urquhart grew up in a North Philly neighborhood ridden with gang violence and effects of the crack epidemic. After seeing people around him get involved with gangs and crime, he realized that staying in high school would result in getting arrested or shot. 

At 16, Rodney dropped out of high school and moved in with his grand mother. Being a high school dropout and having no college degree, Rodney had his fair share of companies casting doubt on his ability. But his willingness to learn and work well with others was what got him to create an impressive company portfolio including Comcast, Microsoft’s Yammer, and ThoughtWorks. He didn’t just want to survive, he wanted to thrive. 

Rodney currently heads the test infrastructure team at Slack. He is also part of a program called /dev/color, a non-profit organization that aims to maximize the impact of Black software engineers in the tech space.

#28: Rodney Urquhart - How a 16-year-old High School Dropout became a Software Engineer at Slack

The Breaking Into Startups Podcast is a platform where we feature stories of people who broke into tech from non-traditional backgrounds. Curious about how startups work, how to get a job without a degree or what technical and non-technical careers are out there? We have news for you - tech fields are booming and you don’t need the best technical degree in information technology to break in and get a six figure job in technology. 

Our podcast gives you an inside look at the most disruptive startups by sharing success stories of people from all walks of life, including college drop outs, professional and student athletes, army veterans, teen parents, corporate folks, investment bankers, consultants, venture capitalists who acquired new skills and found jobs in technology. 

Our guests attended coding bootcamps and immersive programs like Hack Reactor, App Academy, General Assembly, Dev Bootcamp, Flatiron School, Iron Yard, Tradecraft and more. After graduating they found well paying jobs in big time startups focusing on education, medicine, financial services, healthcare, AI, machine learning, automation, sharing economy and more. If you listen to 500 Startups, Learn to Code With Me, Twenty Minute VC, This Week In Startups, Startup Radio, Startup Podcast, The Tim Ferris show, Startup School Radio, Course Report or other tech stuff news, then this podcast is for you my friend.

#4: Haseeb Qureshi - Professional Poker Player turned Software Engineer

Breaking Into Startups

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