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 😵‍💫

@codingmum I tweeted them and they said keep an eye out this evening and tomorrow and towards the end of this week.
Even the sponsored places look to be location dependent as nothing is near enough to me AND in the data pathway.
Good luck to you too!

@codingmum
I'm waiting to see if they put anymore up, I want to apply this round but if there is nothing nearby then I can't, it's really frustrating as I'm based in a location where I can easily commute to several main cities, none of which seem to come up on CFG. London would be possible(maybe) depending on exactly where, I could get the fast train and be in Kings cross in 45 mins but then there is the commute out of kings cross to wherever so I'm hesitant to apply to one of them and then find out it would be a 2 hour commute or something.

@ThisIsTrifficult
That's one of my worries, that if there isn't an actual role at the end of it where does that leave you. Another thing I might have to ask CFG is what happens if you fail the degree, I know you're not liable for any costs but what happens? Would the company potentially still hire you, would you have to re-do the exam until you pass and if you don't then what? Can you apply for a different sponsored place at a later date and restart the degree, so many unknowns!

@ccamelCase @cocodingmum well I did it. They have backups if they don't think you're suited to the role you've opted for, so I made sure to say that I wanted to apply asap while I had a free day and ideally I'd like a job at the end, or at least an interview.
I've gone through the application form, and was invited for the tech test.
I opted to do that in the data pathway and the closing window said I passed, although the email I received said it was still being vetted. Fingers crossed the window was right!

I hadn't even thought about not passing, but they don't have to hire you. They might offer you a lesser spec job and train you up, but perhaps depends on the type of fail iykwim.

I work for a company that has hired via CFG... I was also a student with them (albeit a long time ago) and now looking at being an instructor.

There are loads of tech bootcamps, charging into the thousands, so by getting it for free you already have a leg up over other people. It's a not training contract like law or accountancy, there is no guaranteed job. Even for a sponsored place, of course it differs depending on company , but we had our own interviews still prior to the job offer.

I would only advise people to do this, and take the 'coding' route (although I see they now have things like product management) if they are truly passionate about it, and willing to put in all the hours of self-learning. Again, unlike the professions mentioned above there is no syllabus for people to 'train you up', you basically get thrown into things, pick it up as you go and do lots of your own learning to catch up.

You are also going to be competing (once you've been hired for 'diversity') with people who live and breathe the stuff.

Other routes are tech apprenticeships (not just for school leavers!), or going directly into 'non-technical' roles like project manager, data governance etc. These are easier routes if you have transferable skills.

If you want to learn to code the OU has a free introductory course.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/simple-coding/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab

They also developed a follow on course
https://www.futurelearn.com/microcredentials/cisco-python-programming?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=openu&utm_campaign=openu_hubpage

But that costs £250

All the content from the £250 course can be accessed absolutely free from here. The OU just rebadge it and make you do an assignment to get the credits.

@ThisIsTrifficult Good luck with your application, I hope you get a place!

@AscensionToCheese
I know all too well about other bootcamps that charge crazy amounts, I got sucked into one that I'm still paying off now😔so I really appreciate that CFG don't charge a penny, it's amazing!

It's interesting you say there is no guarantee of a job, is that across all places or just the obvious ones that say things like "sponsored places with mentoring". Take for example the current opportunities there is one with carnival uk that states they are sponsoring 2 places with roles available upon successful completion of the CFG degree. Does that mean even after you apply and hopefully gain a place they could still rescind the job offer at the end even if you pass the course?

In your opinion is it truly for career switchers? Or is it mostly for people who are already in the industry without a relevant degree and/or those who are already very proficient with code(and/or have a lot of experience) and again just don't have the right background? I think what I'm asking is at what point would someone be good enough to make it through the degree which comes back to my earlier pondering about what happens if you fail the degree, do you get the chance to apply again or is it a one-shot thing. I've been working through a few different courses and have a few more lined up and if there is nothing suitable in this cohort that's fine, I'll happily keep learning different things from different places(CFG, Udemy, Codecademy). I really enjoy it but maybe I'm kidding myself that I will ever be suitable for one of the roles/be able to pass the degree.

Different companies have different processes but we had a series of assessment centres for generic 'entry level' roles (a bit like our graduate scheme). Some people upon passing this were offered a sponsored place on the CF:G degree. But we also had unsponsored people who had already completed a CF:G program, interview with us.

So I think if you got a sponsored place you'd have a job offer upon completing the course. I don't think you can 'fail' this, unless you did no work at all. However if you didn't get a sponsored place you still get the opportunity to interview, with questions tailored for you, not assuming experience etc.

Of course every contract will include wording such as 'if offered a job' but as I said our sponsored candidates had already passed all the requirements so there's no reason not to offer them a job, unless the number of roles had to be cut or similar. We have never had this happen.

Also.. not all the roles are coding. Product management/data is really not. Yes they teach you some things like SQL but that is not really programming/technical. Being a data analyst, Tableau developer etc you need to be able to put data sources together but it is stitching things together more than end-to-end ground up, if it makes sense.

Women generally underrate themselves. Don't worry about being 'good enough' if you have done that many courses and build something on your own, with no prompting you are. I did CF:G in uni (before they had sponsors etc). Got a humanities degree, got into a support role on grad scheme, pestered the devs to let me 'help'. I love programming, love digging into things, spend a lot of my own time.

However.. not everyone like this, and we have an equal number of non-technical roles. Service manager, governance, project manager. These are just as vital! A lot of people (anecdotally, mainly women) move on to these from 'technical' roles because they like it better. Fair enough.

If people just want a better career but don't like programming I would advise going for a non-technical role, you need to know enough tech to deal with 'technical' people but not do it yourself. I don't know why the media and everything keeps pushing 'coding coding coding' for career changers, yes we have a shortage but on an individual level that is not the best path because of the massive, multi-year commitment it takes to get to the level after which you can put your feet up and coast. Whether you are a bootcamp grad or CompSci graduate... because really university teaches nothing much about wrangling tech in practice.

Also @camelCase I don't mean to put you off! Again, not everyone knows everything. Even my boss (20 year experience) Googles things on meetings. You know more than you think you do, if you have built your own stuff not just followed tutorials you are way ahead of many people.

I am just coming from the perspective that many people hear that tech gives you a nice 9-5, once you pass a bootcamp you can have this nice well paid job, spend time with the kids.

That's not true, Even with a supportive team like I had I spent many hours of learning on my own. After 2+ years I started to feel comfortable, and now I had a base.

It's perfectly fine to not be a master coder. Get into a 'technical' role with an eye to moving out.

@AscensionToCheese Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of that, it is such valuable info and I agree with you there seems to be a lot of push as tech being an easy route to a cushy well-paid job from home. These ads never mention that it's not always remote or hybrid working or that you have to keep learning, that tech is always evolving and what you learned 6 months ago could already be out of date. Even the courses I'm doing now I always check when they were last updated and try to find as up-to-date as possible to save being in a situation where the software version being used in the course is no longer in date, or something has been depreciated (had that with node, had to use --watch instead of whatever the tutor said as the video was from 2 years ago and their version no longer worked, or you had to install something extra, I can't remember exactly which).

Ha google is my friend, I use stack overflow a lot, normally because I know what I want to do / how to do it but I may have forgotten exactly what it is, especially when moving from one language to another. I'm 10 days into Python and I've lost track of how many times I've typed else if instead of elif, although I do appreciate the similarities, makes it easier to pick it up.

Hey all, thought I would join in on this!

I applied for the degree for summer and didn't get an interview. Even tho I passed the tech assessment and the video interview. Turned out the location I picked only had 2 spaces and a lot of people apply, so didn't make the cut to get an interview.

I have applied again for Autumn. The place I originally applied said 22 places in two locations that I would be happy to apply to, so was happy with that. Then later the advert changed to 10 places across 3 locations and only 1 I could commute to! So worried this will happen again and I don't get an interview! Will see what happens! I didn't have to do the tech assessment again but have opted to do the video interview again. Still need to do that! Probably Friday when I am at home and have a spare moment in peace!

Good luck everyone!

Hi folks, just to mention that it appears more places have been added for the CFG degree Summer cohort today 🙂(with jobs attached). I just had a browse. There are some UK-wide ones too.

@SqlEqual Thanks for the heads up, still nothing suitable for me unfortunately so I'll just have to wait until the next cohort, I'll be keeping busy with multiple courses between now and then.

@JustAnotherUsey Good luck with your application!

I'm worried about the locations as well so I'm not applying, I've seen a couple that I would apply to but the description says they require travel across different locations, 1 of which is 3 hours from me so it's a no-go.

Hello @mrsbargain I've just applied for the data pathway. Congratulations on getting in and getting a job with it!!

I applied as soon as it opened even though the spaces weren't exactly what I wanted, knowing there would be more. I've had emails almost bugging me to complete my video questionnaire (passed the tech) and I've done it. What's the time scale between submitting the video questions and hearing back, can you remember?? Thank you.

I would love to know the time scale between video submission and decision, save me pressing refresh on my emails constantly for the next 6 weeks!

@murderbythebook same here! Submitted Thursday Eve... Good luck!

No worries - good luck.
Also if you spoke about stuff like this to me... checking the version, etc I would definitely hire you. This is what I do 90% of the time.
Syntax etc doesn't matter... that's what an IDE is for :)

@AscensionToCheese Thanks, that means a lot, I just hope the next interview I have I get someone who thinks like you 😊

For those wondering about the timescales, I submitted my video on 24th March (I think the deadline for video submissions was the end of March) and I received an email on 12th April to say I was through to the company interview. I had my company interview late April and then had the rejection email on 5th May (which I believe was the deadline for informing people of outcomes).

You should have some info in your submission emails with dates but I can see the application deadline is 7th July. My guess would be the video submission deadlines will probably be mid to end of July with company interviews between then and late August and final outcome end of August/first few days of September before the course starts.

Good luck 😊

Good luck!

Submitted on Saturday, and I am also wondering about the time scale of the video interview and the results.

For those of you who submitted the application for the second time, how does it actually work? I thought that those who got to the interview stage previously will have guaranteed interviews, and now they're asking us to go through the whole process all over again

Isn't it just skipping the technical assessment really?

I'm going to need to redo my interview because first time I was interviewing for a different employer so my answer definitely wouldn't stand and it was bad, really really bad 😞

That's what they'd sent me previously '
We will not ask you to complete your tech assessment or CFG team interview again as you have already passed these stages. We will only ask you to choose from the new roles and exciting companies we have lined up!'

Pre-recorder interview was meant to be only seen by them, not to be sent to the company. The next stage would be the interview with the company, although I'm not sure if they changed it since the last time, cause now they're saying we might have to redo it

I thought there was a question though about why this employer sponsor... I may be misremembering though. I think I would opt to do the recorded interview again anyway if at all possible. I recorded it in bad light, after a long day at work, and could hear my family squabbling in another room. And I spoke too fast, possibly robotically, too many points I tried to land... and I am fairly sure it probably timed out on a couple of my answers too!
Could do without redoing the technical assessment mind....

My application is about 75% done. Still a few things I want to do on tidying up linkedin/CV/GitHub etc etc etc. Hoping to get it submitted this week.