j3, I just wanted to say that I find your approach inspiring anyway. At least you and LS are doing something about this. Becasue it is an issue. All the companies want perfect candidates, but none is willing to take passionate people and just plain teach them.
What about the relocation expenses? Are you offering a relocation package?
As someone who has attempted a country switch a year ago I got myself into trouble when I had to arrange a place to stay - a proper place to stay, because the company back then could arrange me a room in a small apartment with 6 other people sharing a kitchen and due to issues that forced me to pay 3 nights in a hotel. Luckily I found a room to rent through a colleague, right on the first day in the office.
Point being, as much as I adore the idea of dedicating my whole life into learning software engineering and web development, get hands-on experience in a real company and do what I consider meaningful impact in the world, abstract things in the offer like "money", "relocation package" (if any) and apartment are going to keep me "trapped in Greece" for now.
You should probably talk straight to the HR people who have all the expertise/knowledge about these things. Email them at hungryacademy at livingsocial dot com.
Do you wear contacts? I've had the same problem with dozens of floaters swooshing around and got to the point where I had custom dark-background stylesheets for everywhere, but found that I could mostly tolerate white backgrounds again with glasses.
Needless to say I still use a dark background in my editor.
A few days ago I decided to pick up a bash book from O'reilly and, truth be told, the guys in a room in Freenode knew how to help me in any question I made, no matter how silly I might felt for even asking (specifically I remember asking them about case insensitive shell expanding of wildcards which ended up being a locale issue in my installation).
That doesn't mean that they're all saints, I just find it comforting that there are people out there who will gladly assist a complete stranger (in my case, me).
I agree with you and what really takes the cake away from taking their research as reliable and valid is not only that they skimmed over any kind of educational background and programming concepts (for the sake of the argument I'll assume that they consider them as granted) but calling out loud that engineers that work for Microsoft are worse than the rest is to my eyes a sad generalization that is used just to pinch nerves and win smiles from people who consciously and for reasons of their own don't like Microsoft products (myself being one of them).
This is exactly what Sal, the founder of Khan Academy, believes. What strengthens this argument is that, if you miss a few logical steps you end up even more baffled when you encounter concepts that are build upon the concepts on which you neglected to learn, mostly because you were either embarrassed to ask in class or because you thought that you got it right in the first place.
This, adding the fact that it's "socially acceptable" to claim that a person might not be smart enough and give up entirely, is what makes children fail in the end and deemed to be "stupid".
Personally I can't tell how thankful I am about Khan Academy because there are really mathematical concepts that I simply couldn't digest back when I was in high school mostly because I either got lost in 1-2 chapters (back then) and instead of understanding the concepts I ended up drowning in them.
You know what is even funnier? That after learning the logic behind programming I was able to perceive mathematical concepts under a whole different view and had so many fulfilling "oh that!" moments so far!
That is why our educational system should be based on capability and progress, not age, from grade one. Kids shouldn't be put in a situation where they will drown as it only sets them up for more difficulty later.
Don't let this be intimidating to you - instead of asking yourself "how come I don't know this?" ask yourself "how can I learn more about this?". This might sound cheesy and simplified but it's as simple as "nobody was born knowing this". I'm 31 and I wish I had the money to go back in education and learn all of this with the official way but for now I'm just picking resources on the web and who knows? It just might happen...
Enough about me. If you want it, go get it. Period.
