CFG degree

[btwin]

Has anyone completed the CFG degree? Considering putting in an application for the next cohort and having a bit of a wobble about the time commitment 😵‍💫

Congratulations @evilharpy and thank you.😊

Thanks @SqlEqual I am feeling a little bruised by rejection this morning.
However I was nervous about timing in the summer, and also I want to do some more mini courses etc. I also did a bootcamp recently (terrible one it turned out) and I do wonder whether referring to that was a mistake in my interview.
I suspect I sounded really wooden as well.
It will indeed give me time to prepare for next time!

And yes please do update if you can, would really appreciate it (especially after my disaster experience!)

@SqlEqual That's amazing news well done!!

@GenevieveTrompke
Same here, my company interview was not good, 1 of the panel I think liked me and really liked my answers (he said great/good answer a few times), another was impressed that I knew so much about the company (she said half the staff couldn't even name 1 of their values) but the third absolutely did not like me and actually pulled a face at one of my answers because I didn't fully understand one technical aspect (despite CFG reassuring me there would be no technical questions). I mean it's hard to explain something when you have no real knowledge of it, it's like asking someone who's never written a single line of code before what CSS is/does. I don't think I explained myself very well in terms of my tech background and I think I must have used the words amazing and exciting about a thousand times to express how I felt about both the company and coding in general, so I'm expecting a rejection email sometime next week. Have you heard anything more from CFG or the company?

@Rosti1981
Sorry to hear that, do you mean the interview with CFG? Did they not give you any feedback? During my confidence interview with them I was given some pointers about how to improve, like knowing a bit more about the company and their values (which I did, I was literally driving to the interview repeating their values, facts about the company etc like a little mantra so I could remember it all). From what you say about the summer timing/doing more courses it may be better going for the autumn cohort.

@evilharpy That's great news, well done!

I didn't have a company interview, but I put Parliament as my choice and I think they sponsor places and then possibly place people. I'm a civil servant and I'd hoped some of my experience workint around the system might have helped. But actually I think going forward I want to focus on the code rather than organisation as it's the code I'm interested in, and I want a proper full career change.

So I didn't get a place based on my CFG recorded interview IYSWIM.

@camelCase have you got a place even without the company?

Well done to everyone who has got a place, hope it goes well!

@evilharpy - Congratulations! And well done :)

@Rosti1981 sorry to hear you didn't get a place. But you got experience and next time you won't have to go through the tech interview again, so that's good

@CamelCase good luck! Two out of three liked you so it's a good sign :)

Interesting to know your interview was in person. Mine was over teams. I haven't heard back yet but the panel said at the end that I will hear by the end of next week and from CFG rather than them. I also had my interview after an early shift at work, so din't think that particularly helped :( The interviewers were really nice though, there were only two of them and two men. They sort of put me at ease and were trying to help me with some questions, as I got a bit lost and had like three attempts to answer one of the questions 😱

The questions were mostly situational but I found them really tricky, not one of these typical ones that you can easily find on any list of questions, but a bit more specific. It also didn't help that I had a massive cough attack in the middle of the interview. ;(

I didn't really have any technical questions, I was expecting at least one. But each company is different I guess.

@evilharpy - Congratulations! And well done :)

@Rosti1981 sorry to hear you didn't get a place. But you got experience and next time you won't have to go through the tech interview again, so that's good

@CamelCase good luck! Two out of three liked you so it's a good sign :)

Interesting to know your interview was in person. Mine was over teams. I haven't heard back yet but the panel said at the end that I will hear by the end of next week and from CFG rather than them. I also had my interview after an early shift at work, so din't think that particularly helped :( The interviewers were really nice though, there were only two of them and two men. They sort of put me at ease and were trying to help me with some questions, as I got a bit lost and had like three attempts to answer one of the questions 😱

The questions were mostly situational but I found them really tricky, not one of these typical ones that you can easily find on any list of questions, but a bit more specific. It also didn't help that I had a massive cough attack in the middle of the interview. ;(

I didn't really have any technical questions, I was expecting at least one. But each company is different I guess.

@Rosti1981
I would have thought you'd be an ideal candidate for the parliament one with already being a civil servant, it's a shame CFG haven't given you any kind of feedback, definitely re-apply in the autumn cohort. I haven't been offered anything so far from the company or CFG, I think the deadline is this Friday for final decisions.

@GenevieveTrompke
Yeah, it was strange that the interview was face-to-face, even CFG were surprised by that but it gave me the chance to see what the drive would be like, really straightforward (although quite far).

I actually spent a couple of hours on glassdoor looking up prior interview questions so I had an idea of what they might ask (although some of the reviews were terrible so that made me more nervous). They did stick to most of the questions others had mentioned on glassdoor but some of them really threw me and I think I waffled on and didn't really get to my point a lot. Looking back I really didn't explain my background properly or strictly stick to the star model, I tried but some of the questions didn't really give me the opportunity to do that properly.

Has anyone been in touch with CFG? I have a degree-related question I really need them to answer before I can accept my place, but they don't seem to be answering emails.

@evilharpy no, I only responded to accept my place. I recieved a generic email this morning about their MOOCs but no personal emails.

I found they were quite slow to reply to emails when i applied @evilharpy, I guess they must be receiving a lot of questions around the application process. If it's a general question I might be able to answer it based on my experience of completing the degree?

Congrats to everyone who's been accepted so far, and good luck to everyone still waiting to hear.

Thanks @basilpesto and @SqlEqual

It's about whether I can change my place to the stream I applied for rather than the one they've offered me, I'm not sure I should take the one I've been offered as it's really just not my area of interest. But am a bit conflicted.

Which stream did you do @basilpesto?

I did the data stream. Which one have you been offered and what are you keen to do? There might be some flexibility to switch as you're CFG sponsored, but I guess it depends on class sizes and instructor numbers. As far as I know the first half of the course is the same for all strands, before you then specialise in the second half, so it might be worth doing it either way. I imagine you will learn useful and transferable skills on any of the paths which you could apply to lots of different areas of tech.

I applied for data but was offered full stack. Front end or anything web just really doesn't interest me at all. The first 8 weeks are the same across all streams but the 6 weeks of specialism would be a lot of work and commitment for something I'm just not that into.

I realise this sounds very ungrateful!

It doesn't sound ungrateful, its good to do your research before committing your time and energy. I'm not really interested in the front end side either so I get it. Understanding full stack might be pretty valuable though and you would probably enjoy the backend bits. Javascript is a very useful language to learn. But hopefully they will let you switch to your preference - good luck whatever you decide!

I haven't heard anything from CFG or the company, the deadline is tomorrow so I'm guessing as @basilpesto says they are busy responding to questions, I imagine they are inundated with last-minute questions (and probably people like me who have had company interviews and no response). Last week however they were really quick to respond to my many questions/multiple emails, we've just had a bank holiday so maybe they are also trying to catch up after that.

@camelCase which email address were you using for them last week?

I emailed them last Thursday so it's been a while.

[email protected]

Which I think is just the general email address (when I submitted a ticket before applying that was also the email address I had a response from). Hopefully, you will be able to switch, I don't see why not as they are directly sponsoring you so it's not like there is a separate company expecting you to have done a specific stream and you will obviously get more out of it if you are doing something you want to do rather than having to study something that you have no interest in.

Thanks, yeah that's the one I've used. Hopefully they're just super busy and fingers crossed they let me switch but I'm not sure what to do if I don't hear from them before the deadline which is midday tomorrow.

Rejection email as expected, no CFG-sponsored place either. After chatting with someone else who interviewed at the same place definitely come away with the feeling that what the company wanted and what CFG are offering don't quite match up (as in they wanted someone who was already quite experienced rather than someone new to tech). Hopefully, there will be somewhere suitable in the autumn cohort to apply to.

Sorry @camelCase that's disappointing, but maybe not a bad thing that you didn't end up with a company that wasn't a good match. Hope the autumn cohort works out better for you.

Sorry @camelCase, if you reapply for the autumn cohort let me know, I think I'm going to try again too.
In the meantime what do you most like about coding (great name btw) and what do you think you might do code-wise between now and autumn?

I've decided backend is my thing, it all started falling apart for me when I tried to do webdev!! My plan is to spend 30 mins per day on Angela You 100 day of python course. I almost finished a govt sponsored bootcamp (well I did finish it, but they gutted the course when I was 90% through thereby devaluing the whole thing, which I found was really demoralising). I want to get back into enjoying coding again and for me that is backend languages I think.

Angela Yu. Autocorrect!

Sorry @camelCase , at least you have experience for the next time you're applying. I still haven't heard anything, probably not a good sign :/

@evilharpy The company itself sounds amazing to work for but the actual roles sounded very technical, so much so I double-checked with CFG as I didn't see how someone new to tech would be ready to take on what they wanted after just 4 months. Hopefully, there will be a better match in the autumn but I will certainly be wary of anything that sounds like a bad fit for a relative newbie.

@Rosti1981 I'm definitely going to re-apply (assuming there is a suitable role) and have already signed up for the fast-track option.

I'm not 100% on what my thing is yet, leaning more towards back end but keeping my options open by studying everything. I'm halfway through the full stack course on Codecademy and just over halfway through Dr Angela Yu's complete web development course (I love the way she teaches things in such a relatable and clear way!). I'm also working my way through frontend mentor (the free ones anyway) and doing the daily UI challenge.

That's really bad about the government sponsored course, I did consider doing one of those bootcamps but again as with most of these things, there is a vague "job guarantee/interview" I much prefer CFG's way of doing things.

@GenevieveTrompke Yes it's all experience but I'm going to be a lot more sceptical about what's on offer. I was discussing it with DH last night after hearing another candidate was told that the role would be a lot even for an experienced engineer, I do wonder if there has been a miscommunication somewhere between CFG and the company. Hopefully, you will hear soon and it will be good news, keeping everything crossed for you x