How to apply to the bootcamp
I firmly believe that within the legal and moral framework of our society, education is by far the most potent transformational force that enables socioeconomic mobility. Therefore, we're working hard to make our bootcamp easily accessible for everyone, and to help our participants unlock professional and economic opportunities though education. In other words, we teach you something that has the potential to take you to the next level in your professional career.
In an ideal world, Pipeline Academy would have a suitable offering for everyone interested in data engineering regardless of geography, existing skills, preferred learning method etc., but we're not there yet. But how do you measure access to a school, and how do you communicate that?
Un/Restricted access
If you take a look at the key performance indicators that educational institutions like to use to showcase their superiority, you might stumble upon some organisations priding themselves in how low their acceptance rates are (e.g. "only 4.7% of applicants are accepted to Harvard"). When high demand faces scarcity, without intervention the result will inevitably be an increased price. Approaching it from an economic point of view, it only makes sense for a business to capitalise on the reputation it built for itself through years of impactful outcomes (successful graduates), and turn its offering into a product of exclusivity. But let's just take a step back:
Is our society across the board benefitting from making the highest quality education a luxury good?
Is building fences around knowledge not counterproductive to our shared welfare and reducing our future opportunities for the sake of short-term profits?
Is this trend not solidifying socioeconomic inequality?
My point: you're never going to see us pride ourselves in excluding people. A low acceptance rate at a bootcamp should only be acceptable if there is no way of scaling the number of seats without sacrificing the quality of the service. Otherwise it is a likely indicator of people trying to cash in, instead of trying to help others. Preselection is absolutely necessary, but it seems like we've forgotten why we're doing it, and today it only serves schools instead of students.
How to apply
We've designed our application process with one principle in mind: how can we make sure that we include everyone who is seeking opportunity and willing to put in the work. The steps don't include anything unexpected, it's more about how we deal with our applicants:
We're doing our best to stay easily approachable so the folks who are interested in joining Pipeline Academy can talk to us, ask questions and get a good feeling for what to expect. You can schedule a call right here anytime even without submitting an application.
Communicating the prerequisites of our bootcamp is supposed to help you figure out what you need to do in order to get admitted, not to discourage you. We would like to be very clear on what is expected from you before and during the program, and make sure you get some initial guidance before you get started.
After filling out the application form on our website you'll receive an email as a response (potentially with some answers to your questions you've shared via the form) that includes a link so you can select a slot in our calendar for a call that usually takes about 20-30 minutes.
During the admissions call we like to learn about your motivation and attitude besides your professional experience: our goal is to understand why and how you can make this happen instead of comparing you to other candidates. Usually we ask you about the organisations and the teams you've worked with in the past, the technologies you are familiar with and some projects you were involved in. We don't do any coding tests (yet) though. We get back to you within a couple of days after the call with the decision about your admission.
We will always encourage everyone to learn more, even if this means that you're not going to be spending money with us. We are happy to point you towards online programs or other alternatives to our bootcamp if we can't admit you for some reason. Again, the goal is to help you on your path of becoming a data engineer. Period.
Our school and your peers remain accessible for you even after the bootcamp. You'll get invited to our events if you want to, and we help you with your job search even well after the training.
That's pretty much it. There is no magic, no secret test, no tricky coding challenge to filter you out. Nevertheless, the expectations are high, and we promise that your time at Pipeline Academy won't be boring.
Other actions we proudly take to ensure everybody has a chance to get closer to the craft of data engineering and our coding bootcamp:
Communicating our approach and actions in a very transparent manner,
Design our curriculum to be accessible for applicants with different levels of experience and skills,
Guiding rookies just as experienced professionals who approach us with questions,
Supporting the data engineering community actively with events and professional input in various formats,
Offering multiple financing options and in some cases even scholarships,
…
If you consider applying to Pipeline Academy, we encourage you to do your research (the blog is a great starting point) and check if data engineering is a career path you'd like to embark upon. If you feel motivated but have some doubts, just talk to us to see if there is a way we can support you on your journey.