Writing Code is What We Do
So bring a laptop!
The most important measurable to progress towards working in hi-tech is LOC = Lines Of Codes. Usually it'll take between 10000 and 50000 LOC to go from the ground to an entry level position as a developer.
Thus, the entire purpose of our meetups is to get you moving through your LOC on your way to getting hired. By having a room full of coders coding the same code, we can make sure everyone gets through their lines and understands them as much as possible. Lessons have been livestreamed for stay-at-home and foreign audiences - however, it is without a doubt a stronger result when we code together!
Each 2-3 hour meetup consists of a code-along of prepared content - ranging from 100 LOC to as much as 400. Once we've gotten through the prepared notes we get to be creative! Sometimes we'll pass the keyboard around the room and practice pair coding as a group. Sometimes once everyone has gotten through their mileage, we keep the party going with the instructor on the keyboard, taking all challenges from the room (until we run out of rugelach of course).
The most important thing is for everyone to be comfortable asking everyone when they don't understand, and for everyone to get practice rising up to the responsibility of mentorship
Getting hired is the goal
Every workshop has an end goal of a deployable internet feature. Sometimes it's a website, sometimes it's an API - but it always goes on our GitHub. That way we'll have plenty to talk about in our technical internviews!
Besides for getting our Github swole - most people who haven't read tech CVs don't really know what to write, because they don't know what we're looking for. CV review and GitHub practice sessions are the most straightforward paths to increasing positive outcomes in job interviews.
"But what about those tricky job interview coding tasks?" you may ask. Of course! Tricky coding tasks are half the fun! The trick about tricks is that you can't prepare for tricks. At Code Israel, we take the John Wooden approach to acing interviews: to be a great basketball player, first master tying your shoes. Alternatively Dijkstra says: to be a great programmer, first master your mother tongue. Spending time working through katas (repeatedly mastering simple tasks) builds the actual fundamental skills we're looking for when we watch you code live in a video-interview or on a whiteboard.
Work your way up
In the right environment, every student is a teacher. MMS The Lubavitcher Rebbe says: If all you know is aleph - so go out in the world and teach aleph!
With a little encouragement, and confidence with material - every student will become a teacher. This has two benefits (at least) - the student will progress faster with material when they are relied upon and take on the responsibility of knowledge; secondly, we have an opportunity to hire them and get them their first tech work for their CV.
The big goal at the end of the road is for our students to get hired, make a lot of money, and pay taxes! Besides opportunities to be recruited at events by host companies and partner recruiters, we have our own independent contracting work, and our students' hourly rate is only ever going to go up! If you see the opportunity here, I'm sure you're as excited as I am to teach as many students as much javascript as possible.
