guerilla marketing? fair enough.
but the setfocus crowd here is like what, 3 or 4? maybe 6?
we don't sound like regular Gamedev posters because we're not. Well, i kinda sorta am, but not so any more every since I decided to change my career from game development to .Net/IT mainstream business development.

The only thing I have left to say is this:
SetFocus will pay for a roundtrip ticket (up to $350) for you to visit their headquarters in Parsippany. I've seen maybe half a dozen or more such prospective students during our class/lab periods.

I personally didn't take the offer because i didnt need to see it for myself. But I did ask for a $350 reimbursement on my tuition since I didnt take that offer.

So go take that offer, and talk to the students for yourself. If after all that you still happen to think it's a scam or a marketing gimmic, then there's really nothing else I can say to convince you otherwise.

ps - Don't be surprised to meet SetFocus alumni from the .Net IT sector. My 1st tech. interviewer was a SetFocus alumni. just an fyi.

This thread is hilarious. It's blatantly obvious who the Setfocus employees/Marketing Reps are. You read like spam bots...

After taking a look at the SetFocus material I am not too impressed. Most people with enough dedication can learn the same stuff they are teaching. Along with being proficient at it, I think a college or university is a much better investment. The amount of money they are asking for is also rather ridiculous. Most technical training while teaching you some thing, often proves to be less then useful. It might get you a job but that doesn't mean you will have your dream job.

It should be also noted that a lot of these type of schools tend to be somewhat more business orientated. What I mean by that is they only want to make money, while this is true for all universities technical schools are notorious for leaving people in a rut paying debts off.

[Edited by - DevLiquidKnight on December 23, 2006 8:43:30 PM]

Maybe that's part of the job they get with setfocus if they choose that instead of paying the full tuition...

"Okay everyone ... Joe, today you are on GameDev.Net ... Larry, you take netscape ... Suzy, you hit SlashDot ... Ready, SetFocus, Go!"

Seriously, GekkoCube -- maybe your first hiring manager went to setfocus, but certainly I would be surprised if my next hiring manager came from there. For one thing, SetFocus hasn't been around all that long, and for another most hiring managers did not go to set focus.

Just to add a bit of reality check in here, I've had at least half a dozen contracts at fortune 500 companies in Information technology. Each of them put me through an interview loop that consists of 3 to 6 people. So, I have had more than 30 technical interviews and thats just counting the jobs that I landed. It's probably closer to 50 or 60 or more interviews if you include the jobs where the employer chose another candidate.

This is not abnormal, and in fact I probably represent the average Developer or Quality Assurance person that lives in my area for as long as I've lived out here.

None of them were SetFocus alumni.

A good number of them were graduates of Ivy league colleges. I never went to such a college, so I relied on other credentials to get an interview and land a job.

I don't know much about setfocus, and honestly I don't much care because it doesn't apply to me.

I just want this message to be here, so that people reading this thread can see that they don't need to go into huge debt just to learn a skill like programming.

Here is some advice for those people:

Take 1 or 2 years of night classes at a community college in computer science. Work hard, and do well. After that you can work at Microsoft or some other big company just fine. After you get some experience, you can move to a smaller more interesting company if that suits you.

If you really want to work for a specific company, then move to the area where that company is, and get any kind of job that you can there. Then talk to the manager, make friends, and convince them of your strong desire and motivation. If they are a helpful good manager then they'll want you to succeed and that can go a long way in helping your career.

Of course, in the end you make your own decision, and I sincerely hope that you take the path that is easiest for you.

If you have more money then time, then by all means pay for the best education that you can. Just remember that a very abundant number of computer science professionals "learned it themselves in there spare time."

Anyway, Good luck

I found this while looking for information on SetFocus, to confirm my initial reading of it as a scam.

Thankfully, I've also checked other places, because the shear number of advertisers here is daunting. After my experienc3e with SetFocus, I'd have to say they border on being criminal, if only for their underhanded recruiting schemes.

That said, I talked with a recruiter I know, who is established in the Northeastern United States and regularly places people. This is what he had to say about SetFocus:

"I work in technical recruiting, and I know SetFocus quite well. I didn't know how they lie to people to get them to enroll in their program, but it gets even better than that.

After "graduating," they tell people to put SetFocus as actual job experience instead of schooling, how to put things on their resume to get hired (even if people don't have the skills they list), and how to interview to cover up the lack of knowledge.

In the end, some people end up getting hired because of lying and most of the time fall flat on their faces, and the rest of the time, don't even come close to passing a technical interview.

It's gotten to the point now that many companies I work with won't even look at people who have SetFocus on their resume, and we rarely even bother trying to get those people jobs, since they're almost guaranteed to be lying to us."

On a personal note: Anything that wants you to pay them for help finding a job is a SCAM. Anything that advertises work and then wants you to pay for classes (and will then 'help you look for a job') is a SCAM.

Money should flow towards the employee, not towards the 'employer'.

If you want to check my topic on this subject (it is on a different forum) go to this URL: http://www.sluggy.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6852

Well good to you guys for thinking. You guys are definitely smarter than me. I took the chance knowing it was a risk.

Quote:Original post by Shans
I am new to this forum. I just registered. I have applied to SetFocus and been accepted. I am going to take their Object Oriented Programming class since my It background is mainframe. Then if I pass that, they say I can get into their Master's Program. It just seems to me that they are bending over backwards to accommodate me. If they have as many applicants as they say and are turning people away as they claim, why would they go to such trouble to try and recruit me? I have applied for a student loan. If I can't get a job when I graduate I won't be able to pay off my loan. Any comments? I don't want to commit to something that won't pay off.

Shans,

My IT background is also in Mainframe development. Have you attend the Master's program yet? How much it cost? Would you please let me know.

Thanks,
Tiger.

ok, i finally got into the program after a long time of researching and testing setfocus' legitimacy. I took their 1stt test twice and intentionally didnt do well the second time so i failed that. It seems like not all pass their 1st test. I've come across setfocus about 2yrs ago but didn't pay attention bcoz it sounds to good to be true. however, i'll take the risk. I managed to contact a few of their students, which one them was disgruntled, and asked questions about the training. I waited for them to finish the program first then contacted them again. Now i made my decision and currently through the first week of the program. First impression about their staff and environment is so far so good. I felt better now after speaking with fellow students who were skeptical like me but also willing to take the risk rather than just sit down and think which accomplishes nothin. One of them also found setfocus through careerbuilder site. one heard it from a friend while others recommended the program. I'm aiming for their network of companies which could hopefully at least provide me job leads after completion. For someone with no real world experience like me and until now cant find an IT job, i needed this.$17k is huge adding it to my previous student loan(BS in IT). Im nervous plus still a little skeptical entering this class and still am. Well, just hope the best for me. I'll keep everyone updated with my fate. Lets keep the faith.

laters