[00:00:00] Zubin: hey guys, welcome back to the Easier Said Than Done podcast. Now I am actually recording this Less like a typical episode that I would do where I cover certain topics and more a way to give people another way to understand what it is that the Future Coders Inner Circle program is all about.
[00:00:15] I get a lot of questions from people who, haven't looked through the FAQs or haven't, Really done any research on me and rather than answering these emails, think like an engineer, how would I scale this process for people to understand more about what I do? Because one of the big things I keep telling people is just don't take my word for what I'm saying.
[00:00:35] Go and think for yourself, do your research, Find the people who've actually done the kinds of things you're trying to do and then see if you can learn from them and how you do that is a combination of skill and technique and expertise and your own credibility in the market, your own level of drive and your intrinsic motivation, as I call it.
[00:00:53] And if you don't know how to do that, then you know, that's the kind of thing the Inner Circle program covers as well, because I should say right at the outset, the Inner Circle program is not just about the coding,
[00:01:02] honestly, the coding is a result of the right actions.
[00:01:05] Or rather to be very specific, nobody just wants to learn to code, right? People actually wanna learn to code so that they can get hired or to build a startup .
[00:01:13] Welcome to Easier Said Than Done with me, Zubin Pratap, where I share with you the tens of thousands of dollars worth of self development that I did on my journey from 37 year old lawyer to professional software engineer. The goal of this podcast is to show you how to actually do those things that are easier said than done.
[00:01:32] Zubin: For me, for example, I ended up forcing myself to learn to code when my fractional CTO, my part time CTO ended up quitting because he had a baby and I had to keep the startup alive. And I was bleeding cash like you wouldn't believe. I was bleeding so much money at that point in time from the startup.
[00:01:47] It was really struggling. Eventually it failed, but I learned enough to go to keep it alive for another few months and honor some of the contracts. So that was my story of what The actual urgency was to learn to code though. I tried and failed for four years The truth is I didn't try properly. I didn't have the right system.
[00:02:01] I didn't have the right plan I had the wrong expectations and for those of you who follow my podcast, you know I have a very strong philosophy based on my personal experience around this There are only three reasons why anybody fails at anything.
[00:02:11] It's not just about coding anything in life, and i've actually covered this in a previous episode I saw this when I was a lawyer. I saw this when I was in management I see this now as an engineering tech lead a there's only three reasons. One, you have the wrong plan or no plan. Two, you have the you have the right plan, but you have terrible execution, poor execution, a weak execution or inadequate execution compared to what your goals require.
[00:02:32] And the third reason is wrong expectations that could include things like,
[00:02:35] I only need to learn these languages, or I only need to do a couple of tutorials or, some SQL or something is enough, or, it's going to take me this amount of time. Time or it's going to be easier or there's a perfect magic bullet course out there.
[00:02:47] That's right for me These are all the wrong expectations of what coding is
[00:02:50] and what the real life or getting professional level skills in coding is and these are the only reasons why people fail. So the inner circle program is a lot more than this. Most people are just obsessed with the learning to code but there's no point just learning to code
[00:03:01] if you're not going to get the job,
[00:03:03] so for me Any successful goal that I've hit in my life in any of my careers has quite simply been
[00:03:10] Being very clear about who I need to become right there has to be a personal transformation
[00:03:16] a self development journey That underpins the success that you're going to get because quite simply the law of cause and effect is a law in physics and chemistry And in real life to produce the effect you want in the world around you and in your career your personal life You've got to change.
[00:03:31] You've got to be the cause. And if you're not the cause, you won't get the result, because cause and effect is an immutable, unchangeable, unyielding law, right?
[00:03:40] For me, personal transformation has always been the core of any successful journey. And that's what makes The Inner Circle this different is I work with very few people for a full year, which is a very long time for me to personally invest into other people.
[00:03:56] And I'm sure they're investing their time, energy and stuff, and obviously they're to pay for the program. So there's, they're investing their money too, and they have to go through the transformation journey. There's just no way out of this. And so I really, truly view the inner circle as a community.
[00:04:11] personal transformation journey, you need to change the kind of person you are. You need to change the kind of things you do, how you use your time, how you think about problems, how you approach problems,
[00:04:21] how you develop resilience, how you develop your communication skills to convince a market,
[00:04:26] a set of people who are not going to want you in their midst because you're an outsider.
[00:04:29] How do you actually convince them? To give you a chance to let you into their industry. You cannot do that without having some really strong skills. And it's not the coding because that
[00:04:39] everybody else that's speaking to them has that. Non career changes have plenty of coding skills. So if you, as a career changer, want to show your coding skills and only stop at that
[00:04:48] You're not going to get the opportunity because you're just like everybody else.
[00:04:51] And in fact, you're far riskier. So you're not like everybody else, in that sense.
[00:04:54] Sure. You may know how to code. They're not even going to give you a chance to show that to prove that to them.
[00:04:59] Let me go through my FAQs for the inner circle program with you. And that way you guys, now you can see the screen for those of you who are on YouTube, you can see the screen.
[00:05:09] These, this is the FAQ page, right? Match fit mastery, one word. com slash future coders. Again, one word slash FAQs. Okay. That's where all the FAQs live.
[00:05:18] Now, let me go through them one by one. And I'm going to try not to read off the screen, because there's nothing more annoying.
[00:05:23] But here it is. First question, right? And there are a whole bunch of them that I've answered here. First question, what is the future coders in a circle? And what I've said here is that it's a personalized Coaching and mentorship program for people who are typically busy career professionals have already got busy jobs Not a ton of free time and you want to get professional grade coding skills Whether it is to launch your own startup to be your own tech co founder.
[00:05:48] By the way, I wrote a A blog once. Let me see if I can find it here. How do you become your own tech co founder? I'm not sure why I'm in caps lock there, but there you go. So I wrote this in LinkedIn five years ago. I've also written another one here on free code campus, why career changes have an advantage in the tech world.
[00:06:08] You can see this stuff if you want, right? I talk about why I became my own tech co founder and the math I did to convince me and show me that was the better path and it proved to be correct. So you can see this. It was written in March 15, 2019. Huh? Interesting. That was pretty much two months before I started my first, coding role and by this time i'd shut down the startup.
[00:06:29] So it was more a retrospective, right? Anyway What is the future coders in a program in a circle program? It's a mentorship program It's a personalized coaching program for busy professionals, right? And the goal is to give you the roadmap the training the shift in identity Remember how I said you need to change all of that within 6 to 12 months while you hold on to your job So you don't have to take crazy risks because here's the truth guys Nobody, not even the Fed, knows what the economy is going to look like in six months, whether it's going to go up or down.
[00:06:57] We just don't know. Right now, everyone's saying the economy's down. This is my third recession. I'm not too worried. Having been through a few, I'm not too worried because I know how this game works, right? You have to think of this as an endurance sport. This is not a sprint, which means You need to keep your powder dry.
[00:07:11] What does that actually mean? It means do not squander your resources on things that take away your longevity. It is strategic for you to play the long game, right? So do not give up your jobs. Yes. You have to take on additional burden. Yes. You have to make more sacrifice and effort. Sorry, but that's how it works Or you can do the easier thing and jump into coding bootcamp for three or four months get rushed through a curriculum And then come out the other end and not have a job which is what's happening most of the time In fact about 40 percent of my students are ex bootcamp graduates, right?
[00:07:43] In fact right now I think at this moment, I think 70% of them are.
[00:07:46] Anyway, the point is If you do that unsustainable way, you will blow up money and keep in mind It's not just about the cost of the bootcamp. Okay. It's not like my program is free It's cheaper than the average top shelf bootcamp, but it's the cost of lost income.
[00:08:01] Okay. It's not that the bootcamp cost 20 grand It's that the bootcamp cost 20 grand plus the monthly salary that you lost for that time In fact the monthly salary that you gave up the entire time you're looking for new work, which typically is about a year, right? You And then most people give up. It's not like after the year they get a job.
[00:08:17] Most people give up well before that time. So my approach to this is don't be crazy and don't cut off your income. Hold on to your income.
[00:08:25] Hi, if you want a no BS insight into how to change your career, whether to code or something else and how to actually get job opportunities in tech, then please subscribe and like.
[00:08:34] It's no BS because I have zero incentive to mislead you. I just want to help you and give you tons of value so that you will consider working with me to get to your next career.
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[00:09:08] Zubin: So my approach to this is don't be crazy and don't cut off your income. Hold on to your income.
[00:09:14] So what if it takes you another five months? So what if you go slower? As long as the direction is correct, as long as you'll be able to endure the time it takes and put in the effort, sure, it may take you Six months, 10 months, 12 months, 15 months.
[00:09:26] Do you really care? Honestly, do you really care how long it takes you as long as it's not an insanely long period of time? It can't be okay. Because if it's going to take you five years, what you know is going to be outdated. Anyway, you have to move faster than the market, but not so fast that you put yourself at risk and lose income.
[00:09:42] Especially those of you have families, don't be irresponsible, be sensible, take the hits, take the sacrifice, right? Take on the extra work for a period of six months to one year, but keep yourself and your family safe. That's the approach I took and it works for anybody, especially people who are, in their 30s.
[00:09:58] Okay. So that's what the inner circle program is. I've linked to a bunch of other things that you can look at. If you want to see, let me see what the next question is. Here you go. How big are the classes or cohort? So I don't do cohorts. I don't do classes. I don't do a standard course. No two people get the same curriculum.
[00:10:15] I individually coach people or I give them individualized mentorship for the entire period. And that's the only way I want to work because I don't want to create this giant business where I'm able to serve 600 students in a year and have these crazy numbers. Okay. That's not what I want to do. I tried that doing the standardized courses and
[00:10:32] I stopped doing the standardized courses that were much cheaper. So didn't take any of my time other than making and maintaining the course because frankly, they don't get the results. Even if it's the perfect material, it's not going to give you the results because the reality is most of us aren't very good at doing all the things we need to do.
[00:10:49] To get to the goal, right? We will do some of the things for example, I'm very guilty of this I would love to keep my weight down. I'm not an overweight person. I'm pretty fit for someone who's 43 but I know that I do only half the job. I'm pretty good about going to the gym and getting exercise regularly, right?
[00:11:09] I'm, not so great with my diet. I could be a lot better, right? There have been times when i've tried to lose five kilos And I just won't do it. I won't give up the chocolate. So I won't do everything necessary for my goal, right?
[00:11:21] Most people think going to the gym is enough for a six pack. It's really not.
[00:11:24] My job as a coach is to make sure you know, all the things you need to do for your goal. So you can get to your goal if you have the full recipe. And that's my job as your coach. Now, what recipe is it that is there? It's not the same for everybody, right? Just the same way London is not north for everybody or just the same way.
[00:11:43] If you and I go to the same interview, we're not going to get the same results. Even if we had the same textbook, we sit the same exam. We're not going to get the same results. Chances are, even if we had the same teacher. It's because the recipe has to change per individual. That's why it's highly individualized.
[00:11:56] Okay, which means a lot of personal attention for me and a lot of honest keeping it real from me to you, right? I have a no bullshit policy. So you will sometimes hear uncomfortable truths. And. That'll actually make you better. And if I'm wrong, I will tell you I'm wrong because I'll very quickly find out if I'm wrong, right?
[00:12:12] We use a lot of data to guide our decisions in the program. Okay. Now, how is that different from bootcamp or a course? I covered that already. It's I call it the anti bootcamp and the bootcamps really get angry about this because they try to do as many students as they can to be as profitable as they can.
[00:12:27] I'm really not into that game. I still work full time as an engineer for me it's not about the profit for me It's about the opportunity to change people's lives because it's not just about getting your job I frankly don't care about your first job because I take for granted that's going to happen For me what I care about is the generational wealth, right?
[00:12:43] I was very lucky in that. I had a single mom who Really invested in my education At a time when it was really hard for her to do and that really changed my life, right? So I realized that a good education changes the life of future generations. I can pass on that a lot to you, right? Because I had a good education.
[00:13:02] I ended up working in some of the most elite law firms in the world. I worked at Google. As a software engineer, I worked at 40 billion companies. I've done some really incredible things in my career and met some amazing leaders, and I've learned so much from them over 25 years of being in the workforce that
[00:13:19] I realized that privilege was part luck, part hard work, part my background, part, just circumstance and just incredible amounts of hard work. And the only thing that separates anybody from anybody else is the information they have about what they need to do. But information is not enough.
[00:13:36] Sometimes you need a bit of a butt kicking. Sometimes you need a customized plan. And sometimes you just need someone to tell you like I will. That in your current circumstances, you're not going to be able to do what you need to do. And I've told hundreds of people that. Every year, I'll be like, okay, I've analyzed your circumstances.
[00:13:52] Don't join the Inner Circle Program unless you have more time or unless you're willing to give this up in your life, because quite simply your competitors are driving at 60 miles an hour. And if you're not able to do 15, 20 hours a week, and you only can do five or 10 hours a week, and you think you're going to make a career change.
[00:14:08] You're driving at 10 miles an hour. They're driving at 50. How the heck are you going to overtake them? Like it's just math, right? So i'm very direct with people and that's how i'm different from bootcamp. I'm not telling you. yeah anything is possible I in fact tell you as I have on this channel on my podcast over and over again coding is not for everybody It's not about a good or better or smart or stupid thing I don't think that's it Anybody can learn to code but most people should not because it's probably not aligned with their goals And i'm very goals focused because I can tell you guys You I was very goals focused without being values driven as well.
[00:14:41] And I achieved a lot of goals in my life, especially my career in the law. I stayed on for 15 years as a senior lawyer, because I thought that's what would get me the happiness and the values. And it did not. That's why I ended up giving it up in my late 30s was because I wasn't as goal focused as I should have been.
[00:14:59] I was focusing on the wrong goals rather than the goals that made sense for me. And so when I work with somebody, before I even let them into the program, I spend time talking to them , this is my time for free saying, Hey, this Do you even want to do this and let me really stress test that for you Let me really find out what your true goals are because Rather than devote a huge amount of time for something you don't want Let's find out what you do want And is there another way to get that outcome ?
[00:15:22] So a lot of people come to me and say look I need to double my income and i'm like have you coded before? No, but I believe you can do it fast. That's a myth. You can't do it fast You cannot get advanced skills that pay so much money fast guys in which world is this computing for you. Like why would you think that right?
[00:15:38] That's such marketing BS So I tell a lot of people you know What if you genuinely want to get rich or at least get to six figures faster? You can probably if you're quite an outward personality You can probably do sales like I will talk to them about something else that they can do but coding requires A lot of discipline, a lot of craftsmanship.
[00:15:57] Okay. It's kind of like learning to play the guitar, right? A lot of people talk about, Oh, I want to be a rock star. I want to be able to play the guitar and sing songs and stuff. And then when they start their fingers start to bleed, I've been playing for years now, so my fingers don't, but I'll tell you what, it's a lot of not sexy, not fun stuff that you end up doing to get good at the craft.
[00:16:15] And coding is like that. It's a craft. It's a craft. And unlike other skills, it can take a bit more time. Yeah, it's not for example, learning digital marketing, which to get good at takes time, but less time than coding. You can get really good at digital marketing in two months and understand all the tools that you need in about two months, it's unlikely that you'll get professional grade coding skills in anything less than 700 hours is my estimation.
[00:16:38] That's the minimum, right? So that's why I'm different from a bootcamp or a course. And I'm not a course because I'm not standardized. Like I said, every student of mine gets a very different plan. It's individualized to them, it's individualized to which city they're looking at, which country they're in, what level of education they have, what professional background they have, what age they are, do they have kids, do they not have kids, do they have family, do they not have family, do they have dependents, how much time do they have do they have health conditions, like everything has to be taken into account, because your environment is more of a predictor of success, as is your geography, Being close to opportunity matters more than how much effort you put in, right?
[00:17:11] You could put in a lot of effort and be in the middle of, unfortunately, places like Pakistan where they can't get access to opportunities globally, even though they're incredibly hardworking and really capable and great engineers. That's the lack of geography. That's, how the cookie crumbles for some people.
[00:17:25] It's sad. And that's how the world is. So you have to know this. I get a lot of people saying, Oh, can I earn 200, 000 US? And I'm like, you could, If you were in the U S or, if you've been to a top FANG company, like I was, and I'm the first one to say, getting to a place like FANG, like when I got into Google and had interviews with Amazon and Facebook and stuff like at least 50 percent is luck.
[00:17:45] I just don't know which 50%, right? At least 50 percent is luck because yes, I had to work hard to get the referral. Yes. I had to really prove myself over a number of years to get the referral. I had to build my resume a certain way. I had to have conversations a certain way. And I had to really work hard for the DSA stuff, which I didn't do before that for my previous dev job.
[00:18:01] DSA wasn't important and it's not important for 80 percent of jobs, by the way. Anyway I ended up doing a lot of work for the Fang interviews and on the day I got lucky I got a nice interviewer who was not a total douche bag to me. In fact, I had really great interviews. On the day I got lucky also because people who are better than me, and I'm sure there are thousands of engineers way better than me, didn't know about the job, didn't apply for the job, didn't get as far as I didn't compete with me.
[00:18:24] That's luck. Luck matters in life, right? I was born to a very loving mother, even though she's a single mom. That's luck. Not everybody has that, so I recognize that completely. So the luck plays a role That's why I'm different than a boot camp or a course is I keep it real with you guys because even if I give you the marketing bullshit I know you'll want to believe it But there's a part of you that knows it's not true, right and that makes your anxiety higher That makes the ability to trust even lower and I don't want to do that because I've been in your shoes It took me five years to learn to code because I was trusting in all these tools Stupid marketing things and the wrong advice and doing completely pointless things like codecademy and all the rest of that Which just teaches you the absolute superficial stuff And frankly the computer science folks gave me the worst advice I ever had because they'd never changed career And I got really clear I did a boot camp right for about a week and then I quit and lost a lot of money I left my family in australia went to the US went to San Francisco Got into a top ranking boot camp and I quit at the end of one week I've talked about this on my channel as well You Because I wanted to change my career to code. I didn't just want to learn to code So these are all the reasons why i've designed the inner circle program the way it is It's a lot of labor for me, but it's a labor of love and it's no bullshit labor of love Like it's not for everybody and I will probably say no to most people because that's just how it works and I need to only keep it down to very few people for a long period of time to get the results I do so Well, how will the inner circle help me?
[00:19:44] I think I covered all of that, so, I don't think I should spend much more time on this. I've gone ahead of myself a little bit. I will say that I do talk about the seven stages of career change, and I want to be really clear. I'm going to try and bring it up here.
[00:19:56] Very quickly, you probably can't see this too well, but there are seven stages of do any sort of career change, including to code. And here on the screen, I covered them, right? This is on the mashfordmastery. com site as well at a slash FC slash comparisons, because I compared down with bootcamps at the bottom as well.
[00:20:12] I may do another video on this another time. Anyway, the point is I don't just focus on the coding stuff, which is step two and three, right? I, I. Focus on getting advanced professional competitive level coding Not dsa if it's not needed in fact avoid dsa because it's a huge time sink if you don't need it And really the key point is getting interviews guys.
[00:20:30] What's the point of being all dressed up with no date, right? No point learning to code if you're not going to get interviews, right? So you might as well focus on the interview thing Early as well. And that's a big part of the customized plan. And all of that depends on your personality and your ability to network, build relationships, put yourself out there if need be, but not in a way that's too attention grabby.
[00:20:50] Like I've seen that not work on LinkedIn. People get a lot of followers, but no jobs, right? There's certain people I've seen recently who really, marketed themselves aggressively on LinkedIn, but unfortunately didn't get anything out of it because they did the wrong things. They were talking about personal brand instead of showing that they could Fill in the hiring manager's role for an engineer without actually
[00:21:10] adding risk to the company and its engineering goals.
[00:21:12] How soon can I become a coder? It's Honestly, it's really hard to tell right many of my students Like I say here are ex bootcamp grads or computer science backgrounds and they can't build anything So I need to assess this. So in general I say Six months if you've already done a boot camp of at least four months Because there's a lot of other stuff we need to do around getting your interviews getting your market ready getting you interview ready There are 9 to 14 different types of interviews that i've seen coding interviews That is and if you don't know which type of interview you're going to get you're going to prepare for the wrong kind And you're going to not do well So there's all the strategy stuff that we need to talk about So honestly, I can't give you an answer for this and I actually think it's the wrong question, right?
[00:21:50] I know I get this question a lot. That's why I put it here I think the question is does it really matter? Let's say it took you six months or it took you 18 months, right? A year and a half Would you only do it if it was going to take you six months and not 18 months? Because if that is your attitude, then I would say you can't actually control when you're going to get paid An opportunity depends a lot on you, but it also depends a lot on your geography the market how consistent you are?
[00:22:16] Are you in a recession? Are you in a growing market? It's going to grow soon There's no doubt about It's very clear that it's going to happen because that's always how cycles work and like I said I've been through this three times This recession stuff three times, so i'm not worried about it and you shouldn't be either It's a great time to prepare now so that when the recession ends because it always does Then you're really well prepared to ride the next big wave, right?
[00:22:35] So in that sense now is a great time to be preparing for a new career having said that No one actually knows how long it's going to take you to prepare to get you interview ready and market ready. If you've never done any coding before, it's quite a substantial chunk of time, guys, especially if you're working full time and, I break that down for you.
[00:22:52] So I don't have a clear answer. I've seen anything between four months and, 18 months. Like I said, like that, that can happen too. I've seen people like me and there's a 37 year old lawyer from Russia that I taught how to change their career to code. And. Went from zero, literally zero to four offers in eight months, but they had a work ethic that I think was right up there.
[00:23:13] Quite intense similar to mine in that sense. And I don't think everyone can do that, nor should they try if it's not their nature. And of course he had a supportive partner, which makes a huge difference, doesn't it? It really makes a huge difference. And his kid, one kid was a little bit older, so not a toddler again,
[00:23:29] environment factors matter, so I'd say that's the answer to how soon I can become a coder. Not the right question. If you're thinking if you're in a rush, then don't do it because you can't control the outcome. Then why start? But if you're willing to do with it, as Rudyard Kipling, the poet said, success and failure, you treat both impostors exactly the same.
[00:23:47] I'd say if it doesn't make a difference to you, whether it's six months or 18 months, other than your personal pain. preference and convenience, which I can understand the impatience. If you're the sort of person who's I'd really like to do this in six, but hey, if it takes me 18, I'm not going to stop.
[00:24:00] Then you're the kind of person I'll work with because that's the right attitude to have that we don't actually know how long it's going to take. All right, so our timings and training is fixed and flexible. It's a bit of both. Because I do a lot of calls and individualized coaching and stuff like that.
[00:24:13] Those timings can be fixed, but they're pretty minimal because my philosophy is I teach you how to fish. I don't just give you the fish because that's what the real world is but I also need to monitor and keep you accountable. And I'd say fixed timings are about an hour a week and the rest of it is all what we call asynchronous.
[00:24:31] And now I work globally remotely as an engineer have for many years, but before that, even as a lawyer, I was routinely working multinationally with very remote global teams, around the world. And so I've really gotten good at understanding asynchronous working and creating systems and processes so that people can continue to maintain momentum, even if they're not face to face, right?
[00:24:50] It doesn't need to be that way. This is the 21st century after all. And employees expecting people to be very good at autonomously and asynchronously working and getting unblocked as it's known. So I try to simulate a real life working environment as well in the program, because all of this is training.
[00:25:06] All of it is training, right? Because my job is to get you ready for the market My job is not to teach you to learn to code. My job is to teach you how to be a professional coder so the whole thing is designed around that.
[00:25:18] Now next question is: I have zero coding background. Can I still succeed? I've already given you an example of that.
[00:25:22] Hey I'm an example of that like I have I had zero coding background and a year after my first dev job, I joined google and had FANG offes, right? Okay, how much does the personal mentorship cost now? This is something that I need to talk to you about on a one on one call because it's individualized. It's a little bit hard for me to completely answer this, but for a full year I'm significantly cheaper than the top rated bootcamps anywhere in the world. Okay. And that's because I I don't need to hire all the staff.
[00:25:48] It's me. Maybe one or two other people that I get to help out with some of the admin because I also work full time as an engineer And because I work with so few people I don't need to worry about scaling my business operations so it's it is cheaper than bootcamps. It isn't always going to be the current price though And I will be increasing it because I find more and more people are getting interested, which is a good thing.
[00:26:10] The reality is I need to keep the demand balanced against my availability. And this is a principle I saw at Google as well, by the way. And in fact, in previous roles, and when I, read history, it's very clear over time, the standard raises for everybody, right? So Google's engineering interviews now are harder than they were 20 years ago, right?
[00:26:30] Because there's so much more competition, because people are such good tools to learn, because there's so many people more motivated to get in and so on. So they keep raising the bar in all tech companies every year. And similarly, I keep raising the bar for myself for the inner circle, because I need to
[00:26:42] keep abreast of the market or exceed the market in terms of, the kind of skills I'm imparting to the students. Likewise, I raised the bar in terms of the kind of students I expect to have in the program because I'd like to win. I like to be successful in what I do, because otherwise it's a giant waste of my time and energy, right?
[00:26:58] I spend my nights and weekends and a lot of other time just doing this. So for it to be what my time and effort as well, I need to raise the bar.
[00:27:06] So in that sense, I would say that's the answer to the question, the mentorship costs. I'll have to assess that on the call, but it is cheaper than the top rated bootcamps. Okay. And I'll, I probably always keep it that way. I don't think I'll ever exceed the top rated bootcamps.
[00:27:20] Plus I'm a full year, whereas most operated bootcamps are about four months. Some of them are six. So at the very least, you're getting double the value for less the price. If you consider time to be the value now, I don't agree with that ultimately value is value Okay, price is price. They're two different things and time is time three different things.
[00:27:37] Okay, that's a bit of an overview.
[00:27:39] Why can I not enroll online because as I mentioned earlier, I do speak to every student and the program is by invite only, which means when you speak to me or one of my team members, we will be spending a considerable amount of time with you to work out whether we can actually help you because we like to succeed.
[00:27:58] I certainly like to succeed. Plus I want to maintain my standard really high and I want to make sure that you will benefit from being in the program, right? I cannot count the number of times. I've pointed out to people that they really don't need to learn to code or they don't need to be with me There are other opportunities for them, right?
[00:28:15] There are other ways to achieve their goals because I really want to help you guys achieve your real goal Not what you may think is the goal based on what marketing has told you. Okay, so No point in rolling online because I don't just accept anybody. I don't care how much you pay me. I'm not going to accept you if I don't think it's the right fit.
[00:28:33] It's as simple as that. Okay. That's why there's no online enrollment. And is there a guarantee? Yes. If you want one, sure. But I'll be the first one to say it's rubbish, right? Cause how can anyone actually guarantee your job? It's not the way the world works, right? What I can do is I can give you money back.
[00:28:48] If you feel that you did all the work and you didn't get the results. So far, zero people have claimed it. Okay. And that's because. You're not going to need it if you do the work. It's as simple as that guys. Okay, but hey If you want one sure go for it. I'll give you your money back. Okay, not a problem Do the work and you don't get the results You can ask me money back.
[00:29:07] No problems. I don't want it.
[00:29:09] my methodology is very much focused on the minimum effective dose. Which is something that I don't talk about too much. I have spoken about it a bit in social media, because people misunderstand what it is. Really what it comes down to is, for any person to get from A to B, we need to calculate not just the distance, but the speed at which they're moving to that.
[00:29:30] So it's highly specific to the person. So what's minimum for me is not minimum for you. Maybe I'll need twice the amount of work that you do that happens. It's a different journey for everybody. So the minimum effective dose principle is very easy to describe. It's the minimum necessary to get your first coding role.
[00:29:47] Most people do the mistake of trying to do too much, right? They look at all these technologies and they look at the job description. They're like, Oh my God, I've got to learn all these things. It's overwhelming. I'm going to have to learn all of them to compete. I flipped that philosophy around because when I've been on the hiring side, both in tech and outside of tech, I've always noticed it was not the person with the most skill or knowledge or degrees that got the job.
[00:30:09] It was the person that was least risky and most impactful, and that follows what's known as a power law distribution it's also known as the 80 20 principle, right? 80 percent of your results and your impact comes from 20 percent of your skills or what you know. So I focus on the 20 percent that's going to get you the 80 percent impact or results, right?
[00:30:26] That's what the minimum effective dose is, but it has to be calculated and calibrated for you. So anybody who I invite into the inner circle program goes through some sort of baselining exercise on their coding level. Some people are starting from zero. Some people are starting from 80, who knows?
[00:30:41] So that's the principle behind the MED. And I'm so confident in this methodology because I've built it up over years now for myself and for others, right?
[00:30:49] More than a decade. So I'm confident in the methodology that's why I can offer you the money back guarantee, because I'm pretty sure you follow the process. You're going to get the results. So There is a recipe for you and I will find it and then you've got to do the cooking It's as simple as that then you'll get the results.
[00:31:06] That's why I can offer this guarantee Okay, but I will tell you that don't fall for the stuff about Oh job guarantees and can you get me a placement. In a free market that is a healthy market There is no way an employer is going to tell somebody and i've talked about this on the podcast i've also talked about this extensively on linkedin and you should see some of the amazing comments that Hr people recruiters other engineers give me saying.
[00:31:27] Yeah, this is obviously how reality works Here's the thing a good employer The kind of place you want to join, the kind of place you want to be employed by and get paid by and work for is not going to limit themselves by offering somebody else to take all their graduates. Even Harvard doesn't have a placement guarantee.
[00:31:47] Why? Because that's not the way a healthy marketplace works. Think about it guys, if you were looking for a plumber or an electrician, whatever, a car mechanic, would you guarantee somebody else that you're going to take their mechanical graduates or their plumbing graduates or whatever it is?
[00:32:02] No, you'd go to the marketplace and look for the best person you can find at possibly the lowest or most competitive price you can find And if it's an important thing like your car or your plumbing, you're going to pay a little bit extra to remove risk, right? That's exactly what you do. Why would an employer be different?
[00:32:18] So anybody says oh yeah, we've got a job placement guarantee That means they've got that some sort of commercial arrangement and i'm being really honest with you here. They've got some sort of commercial kickback or something happening in the background There's a commercial arrangement where either you're being used for cheap labor because they can't attract talent in the open market or somebody's Doing something dodgy at the back end.
[00:32:40] Like it just doesn't make sense in a market why a company would just say Yeah, we'll absolutely give all your graduates jobs. They're not going to do that Maybe they'll say okay, we'll take your top two or three for a temporary internship program and suss them out Yeah, that can happen, right?
[00:32:54] But do you really want to be in a situation where you're depending on that and you don't have the skills? To get yourself a role in any market in any country of the world. If I were you, I wouldn't do that because again, there's an old saying, right? It's better to teach a man to fish than to give them the fish.
[00:33:09] And I said, that's very much a guiding principle of my training and my coaching is I never want you to be in a situation where you do not have control. If you let somebody else do the hard work of finding you your role And they use their connections for it and you don't have the skills for it You're in a very vulnerable place because you're one layoff away from being stranded. And you never want to be in a situation where you're laid off and you don't have the skills to get out of it That's also very much a part of the program.
[00:33:35] Okay, so that's a whole lot of conversation about the FAQs. Hope this helps And yeah, you guys know how to reach me on youtube and linkedin if you need to ask any questions. I'll see you later.
[00:33:44] Just subscribe, you know you gotta do it.
