Something I have noticed about good managers: They hire projects not people. They don't give a shit if you went to Harvard or not. They just want to know you can code. Build something awesome with their API over the course of two months and you will have a much better chance at getting the job than some random guy from a prestigious school. (Note: the prestigious school guy will build something cool too, so he still has a better chance than you. But, the point still stands. Build stuff, show it off, and you will be employed.)

From my initial investigation, it does appear that there is quite a shortage of RoR developers and no real way to bridge that gap. If not Code Academy then who or how???

I've earned enough to retire (I'm young thirties and can't bear the thought!!) and now looking for a new mountain to climb. Talked with my buddy in Stanford CS who recommended Ruby on Rails and I have committed to take two years to learn it. I've burned up most the walk through tutorials in three weeks (try ruby/treehouse/udemy/bloc/code year) and looking for the next step.

Any directional feedback will help.

Rails for Zombies then get this book http://ruby.railstutorial.org/

It helped me bunches.

Honestly highly unlikely unless the candidate is strong in unrelated categories. In essence a candidate putting down they went through Codeacademy is going to count for very little on a resume from my perspective. I'd view it the same as taking an intro class to programming or possibly less.

I get that. That would be my natural assumption.

It seems people respond to what you have built more than a course.

If companies truly care more about what a person has built, why don't more of them say so? When I look at job advertisements most of them say they want x degree minimum with a high GPA, x years of professional experience minimum, and so on.

I would say that if all you have is self-taught (which can be a viable path) then you should have a portfolio that knocks people's socks off.

Agreed. I don't care where you learned what or how long it took you. I care what you can do, and the best way to prove that is by what you've done.

I get this....I just wonder how to "break in" to a great learning platform (or job). Can you really teach yourself to become great???

Are there any alternatives to Code Academy...by that I mean other informal schools ???

> would you hire a Code Academy grad?

This depends entirely on the rest of grad's resume.

Is it really intensive? I thought it was only a few hours a week.

"intensive" as a university term (shortened classes)

I've been doing a little research. It's much more than is advertised. I believe it like 10 hours a week of just class time, but according to the "my time at code academy" type blogs there is way more learning going on outside of the class room than in it.

It appears they have a community mentor they meet with weekly and a group of thirty people that have put there lives aside to learn collectively.

One guy put it "more intensive than the 45 hour a week dev job I had coming into this"

Fuck no.

I thought so...thanks for speaking the truth!