They spend the first part of the episode discussing Missy's transition into software. She comes from a background in fine arts and went through several difficult, low paying, and, as she described, dead-end jobs. Even so, the decision to leave fine arts and transition into software development was challenging. She gives a very candid and level-headed perspective on the ups and downs of the core curriculum, Capstone, and the job hunt.

During the rest of the episode, Missy shares what it's like to work for New Relic, a massive company with over 500 engineers. She's part of a small team of 6 working on internal tools for the company, where she spends a lot of time debugging and relying on the fundamentals that she built at Launch School. She also gives insight into how she fits into the company as a Launch School grad and what her day to day is like.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Working at a corporate giant like Starbucks, Felicia is in an ever-changing environment where she's constantly required to learn new tools. She shares how drawing from mental models and foundations that she built at Launch School helps her continue to learn and thrive in her company. This episode gives great insight into how having a lifelong learning mentality can lead to opportunities, resulting in not just high-paying jobs, but a gratifying and healthy career too. Whether you're a few days into the core curriculum, or about to start your job hunt, you're likely to learn something from Felicia.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Alex had a full career before he transitioned into machine learning. He has a PhD in history and spent over 15 years doing research in Afghanistan. When he was ready for a change, he found Launch School and spent over three years going through core and Capstone. He shares his experience participating in Capstone from Pakistan, where he had a nocturnal schedule to work with his team. He also gives perspective on doing a job hunt in Europe.

For much of the interview, they discuss the state of the machine learning field. Alex is working as an ML Engineer at ZenML, on an open-source code base. They touch on what it's like working in a relatively new field and how Alex has incorporated into his team.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Chris starts the episode with a recap of the story of Launch School, and how his journey into teaching software over 10 years ago led to the Launch School curriculum as we know it now. This story explains how the curriculum is chosen and why adding assessments was a necessary step in the evolution of his teaching platform.

The story of Launch School gives a lot of insight into why things are the way they are now, but there were still questions to be answered. Chris spends the last hour of the episode answering questions that we see again and again, whether it's from current students, potential students, or those who've chosen a different path for their education journey.

This episode highlights how intentional every piece of Launch School is. It's an educational system built with an engineering mindset. We hope you come away with a better understanding of Launch School, and as always, we're happy to answer your questions or hear your ideas.

1:19 - The History of Launch School
22:43 - Why do students have to participate in interview assessments?
28:40 - Why is there a limit on the number of ‘Not Yet’s a student can get?
36:11 - Why is the standard or required grade to pass an assessment so high?
43:45 - Why can’t students test out of the core curriculum if they already have experience?
55:15 - How do you decide what content and the level of difficulty of the core curriculum?
58:51 - Why doesn’t the Launch School curriculum have a portfolio?
1:02:59 - Why are the community guidelines so strict?
1:08:15 - Why isn’t there any support to help core grads get jobs?

Now, she's working on the Delta Live Tables team at Databricks in a hybrid, but mostly in-person role. She talks about the connection she can see in hindsight from the early grind of the core curriculum, through her efforts in Capstone, to where she is now as a professional engineer working on a team. She has great advice for current students who feel unsure of their abilities.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Jon was part of the 2019 fall cohort and began his job hunt at the start of Covid. Between being based in Ohio and the challenges that came with Covid, Jon had a tough job hunt. He shares insight into the experience of landing his first role during this time. After almost two years, Jon moved on to Datadog, where he works alongside ex-FAANG engineers.

The conversation also touches on his day-to-day at work, the technical details of working as a site reliability engineer, and the experience of joining a public company where the customer base is fellow software engineers.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Her Launch School journey was a relatively long one, spending about 2 years working through the core curriculum as a mostly full-time student, with some of her time dedicated to being a TA. After Capstone, it's no surprise that Ginni ended up with a company just as passionate about writing as she is, now working on a small team developing a text editing interface that integrates AI to help writers write. Ginni gives great insight into what it's like to apply for jobs as someone without any prior experience in tech as well as a refreshing perspective on the tough job market. As someone used to donning many hats, it's clear that Ginni is open to new experiences and putting in the work it takes to do a job well, and her time through Launch School, Capstone, and now her new career, are no exceptions.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Because the Capstone Salaries page is discussed in depth it might be a good idea to have launchschool.com/salaries open as you listen to this episode.

to listen to the podcast click on the play button above the RSS and SHARE buttons

Introduction
Salaries Page Discussion
Conclusion & Karis Sign-off
Announcements

Show Notes

• Capstone Salaries Page
• Article: Our New 2021 Salaries Page
• Winter holiday forum announcement
• Do you want to be a TA? Information Post
• Capstone Presentation Videos

Fill out our form below if you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond. Your question could be answered in our next episode!

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