I am a nobody, have never worked at any high profile tech darlings, was not returning to another job, have no money myself, and contribute nothing to diversity (white cis male).
I thought I had no chance.
I was accepted and had a great time.
Hope this helps.
Yet, it goes without saying that they're just a fancy recruitment service. Have a good day!
This is probably too vague... for better or for worse RC applications are about culture fit like everything else. Just saying "I want to get better" is probably not good enough. Everyone wants to get better!
> Traits of an awesome Recurser
> Here are three principles we believe in. If you're living up to these principles, you're doing well at the Recurse Center.
> Be rigorous. Understand how and why your code works. Understand your tools. If you're working with a framework (like Sinatra or Flask), learning to use it is just scratching the surface. Go deeper. Learn how it works.
> Strive for greatness. You're all at the Recurse Center because we believe you can be great programmers. Becoming great takes a lot of work. All of us who work at the Recurse Center are trying to become great, too. We don't think we're there yet.
> Reflect on your progress. We're all getting better at programming, but we should also be getting better at learning. Reflecting looks different for different people, but we recommend two primary things. First, write a blog! Even if no one else reads it, writing prose is a great way to crystallize concepts in your mind and deepen your understanding. Second, get code review! It's so much easier to get better when you're getting feedback and advice.
Ie. "I want to get better" is a core value of the Recurse Center.
There was no interview call. Rejected even before that. In fact my measurements show the application was rejected even before reading the application. :-)
That obviously won't net RC any money.
That likely didn't fit their business model.