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Ask HN: Would you pay $3,500 for an Interview Bootcamp?

13 points by streakerbee ↗ HN
In 3 months you are guaranteed placement into top 30 companies or you get money back. (Google, Facebook, Quora, Palantir, etc)

The program lasts for 12 weeks. You need 2 hours per day commitment, everyday.

Any takers?

18 comments

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hawkice
12 * 7 * 2 = 168 total hours of commitment for a program I know nothing about, except that if you ask me to do something I believe is a waste of time I have to burn five figures in billable hours to ride it out and get the refund or sacrifice the $3,500.

I highly recommend you provide details of what precisely you are selling -- you've raised the stakes for all customers, so pitch me that I'll have more success with you than on my own.

streakerbee
>> you ask me to do something I believe is a waste of time

You can see the proof for yourself when you burn through the following two books within the three months. a) http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Interviews-Inside... b) http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-...

You need to spend 4hrs+ on weekends though. You will get to talk to candidates already working in the top companies and will be working in a group of 20+ highly motivated and intelligent peers.

Madmallard
The work required for passing programming interviews is rote practice of solving problems for which you cannot immediately think of a solution.

There's already hundreds of resources available to do this. Top-coder, practice-it, project euler, coding interview books, etc. etc.

Teaching negotiation and soft skills are probably more valuable for the general programming population.

nadocrew
Why not give it away? People come for the bootcamp and after the 12 weeks you represent them during their job search. The companies will pay you $5-15k, depending on the candidate, as a referral fee. No cost to the participants.
lsc
>The companies will pay you $5-15k, depending on the candidate, as a referral fee.

I have tried, and from what I've seen, it is quite difficult to get that sort of a relationship with a company. If you have a recruiting agency that has that sort of relationship with a big company? You can sell your recruiting agency for a lot of money.

If you don't have a relationship with the company doing the hiring, you have to go through recruiters who do, and you will get $0-$2500 per referral. I've placed a lot of people at this level. I've gotten $2500 once. The rest of the time? I get a "thank you" (and the person I placed, often, feels they owe me a favor.)

aspHax0
If you'd take the $3500 fee after I have the job, I think anyone would do it.

I'd even go so far as to say I'd be willing to give you guys 40-50% of my pay for 3 months.

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jgautsch
Interesting idea. Would there be any sort of pre-requisites? I could see something like this being pretty successful at private universities (where parents sometimes have more money than their kids have ambition/drive/talent). It would resonate with the same folks who pay big bucks for SAT and ACT prep classes
streakerbee
The only pre-requisite is that the candidate should be reasonably intelligent. Someone who is already working in a big company/school and is putting off preparation for the interviews is ideal.
arikrak
Interesting idea, but I think it will be difficult for you to find people who can actually land jobs at those companies (and need you to help them do it).

I though of covering interview questions on my site http://www.learneroo.com , but I decided for now to focus on general learning (though there's a lot that's relevant for interviews too).

streakerbee
We are betting on the idea that a reasonably smart person would surprise themselves on how far they can get ahead if they can diligently work in a consistent manner. 2 hours per day may not seem much but over the course of 3 months it is pretty effective in hacking the interview process.

We will actually call/text the candidate before and after study period is over to ensure focus. Kind of like having a personal trainer for interviews.

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8_hours_ago
If I were looking for a job, then yes, I would. A signing bonus would easily cover the 3.5k.

But why not work with the companies directly as a recruiting agency? Or work with already existing recruiting agencies to train their recruits? There is a lot of money to be made in the recruiting business, you definitely could make much more than 3.5k per hire.

thisiswei
Sign me up. I'll commit 6-8 hours, how to contact you?
wodenokoto
I've seen companies offer similar deals in Denmark. It can't possibly be a new concept in the US, can it?

Most often they'll ask for 50%-100% of the first paycheck (hopefully after tax, or else nobody can pay that in Denmark!)

jamilv
I'd commit. However an easier model to attract more people is percentage of income (annually or monthly).

I seen people work with headhunters before, giving up 1 months salary as the commission to land a job they want and in the end it seems like a win/win situation. Both people are happy.