Has anything been said about what's happening with the Code Oregon program?

Hey Jeremy,

Apologies for the aspects of the Code Oregon program that are unclear. We've been working on a series of emails that will hopefully clarify many of your questions. Those will be launching by the end of next week if everything goes as planned.

In the meantime, here's some info that I hope will help you:

• Your best bet is to complete a Track on Treehouse based on what job you're preparing for. Each track is designed to take you from beginner to job ready, so completing your Track is a great step towards becoming employable.
• Unlock at least three badges a month to keep your account active.
• Practice by building test projects that incorporate the skills you have learned. This is a great way to put your new knowledge in to practice, and will solidify the concepts that you've been studying. It will also help you to have a portfolio that potential employers can look at.
• Attend local meetups in your area to meet others who are either learning to code or are already experts.

Hope that helps! As mentioned earlier, you'll be hearing from us soon with more details on how to maximize your chances of getting a job. Let me know if there's anything else left unanswered.

Micah

I just received an email after not hearing anything from the program since July. (I joined back in June right after Code Oregon was announced, and at that time WorkSource really didn't have any information to share.)

The email from yesterday was an introduction from Nancy King who just joined the Code Oregon project to help folks with job placement. She recommended that we complete our Track by January 1st, attend meetups, work on a portfolio, and to stay tuned for "a big announcement that will enhance your learning on Treehouse."

I think I heard that there is supposed to be a job fair for Code Oregon in November, but that seems a bit soon given the large learning curve and the lack of information to date. I hope it's been pushed to January so I have time to finish an additional track. I'm looking forward to hearing more from the program. I know so many of us are quite excited about changing careers and are devouring the content as fast as we can.

I also have received an email from Nancy King. My contact at WorkSource can't even tell me whether or not my continued training cost will be covered... let alone any type of career path advice.

My wife keeps asking me what the outcome of all of this will be, and why is it that I have no sort of curriculum to follow...

I have no good answer to any of this questions!

Kevin,

Can you send me your contact's info in addition to the WorkSource location you have been working with? We're doing our best to avoid these types of occurrences for our students.

Curriculum-wise, your best bet is to choose the track that best matches your career goals. Our intention in creating these Tracks is to make a self-guided path to learning a given skill set. You'll want to be sure that you have completed your track and built a few practice projects before the Jobs Fair to increase your chances of getting a job.

In between now and the Jobs Fair, we'll be working with the top performing students to get them in touch with employers.

Hope that helps!

idk, its hard to believe that the top earners earning like 100 badges a week are not just fast forwarding their way though...just saying, maybe im just too new, but 100 badges in a week seems a bit impossible

Hi All,

I know this is an old thread, but just a few things:

The Code Oregon subscription to Treehouse is a "Standard" (not a "Pro") subscription. You do not have access to everything - the main thing left out are some of the workshops.

That's why there are 4 people above my using the "All Time" tabs (Badges and Points) on the Leadersboard page:

https://teamtreehouse.com/community/leaderboards

So basically at #4 I figure I am the top person in terms of both Treehouse points and badges among all those enrolled in the CodeOregon program.

Up above it Mike Shelly suggests:

"More Tracks will lead to more marketability"

I have not found this to be the case.

The job fair for March never happened.

Eventually a Job Fair for CodeOregon happened in Dec of 2015.

There were hundreds of CodeOregon "student" who showed up by only about a dozen

The employer to potential employee ratio ended up being at least 10:1 (and

let's hope you weren't looking for a "Junior Web Developer" position because no one there

was hiring for that --it was mostly Senior level positions (Bachelor's Degree plus

several years experience).

---

Shortly after the job fair a lot of the Codeoregon people got letters saying

Nancy King and her assistant (Matt?), the people who made up the

Career/Jobs team at Treehouse would no longer be assisting the Codeoregon people.

Exactly what they did when they were supposed to be helping people I'm not sure.

They were absolutely no help to me (even though I talked to them both on the phone).

Matt told me" "We are not a job placement agency"

I told him "I wish you were because that's what I need!"

---

My advice to any CodeOregon job seekers in the Portland Metro area:

check out the Portlandtech.org site:

http://portlandtech.org/

It is well curated by David Duncan -- just don't expect to get a job during the Winter of 2015-2016.

The economy is still week, the labor participation rate is still around 60%, and wages aren't really rising.

Even the high tech companies that have moved into large spaces (like Puppet Labs)

are are awash in Venture Capital cash or in pre-IPO status are not hiring huge numbers of people

all at once.

It is "slow" growth with each candidate not only being evaluated for technical skills but for

the mysterious "other qualification: "fit" (sometimes called "culture fit").

This is the fallacy of upon which CodeOregon is based --that

if you simply teach people technical skills then they instantly get a job.

Not so!!!!!

That four year degree does count (more than online learning).

..And your "experience profile" (those first few jobs you got after getting out of college)

can also count a lot more than a few badges/points from some online learning company.

Got agency experience (helpful) and if you are looking for DevOps work (IT in the clouds)

then certifications up the ying yang (AT. MSCE, MSCD, etc) couldn't hurt.

What about portfolios and github projects --minimally nice to have but generally not the deciding factor

when deciding who gets moved to the front of the line for perspective job candidates.

---

It's 2016 and "tempered growth" (I would say "laggardly growth") still reigns.

Those fantastic job growth reports still tend toward lower end, non technical jobs,

There's a lot of "churn" going to happen in retail/hospitality/customer service jobs

as we spend the next 5 - 10 years gradually having baby boomers bow out and

post-Millennials (Gen Y and Z) take over as the majority of the work force.