{"id":7996,"date":"2016-10-17T17:07:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T10:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/?page_id=7996"},"modified":"2021-03-19T16:28:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T09:28:08","slug":"get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;The best thing about working for a startup is seeing your code deployed the same day you write it.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Charles Lee, co-founder of CoderSchool.vn<\/p>\n<p>Read our interview with Charles Lee, Silicon Valley&nbsp;coder and co-founder of CoderSchool.vn, to learn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Advantages and disadvantages of working at a big company or a startup.<\/li>\n<li>Actionable tips you can use to improve your coding.<\/li>\n<li>How you can benefit from a free Swift, Ruby or Android course at CoderSchool.vn.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[<a href=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/cach-giup-ban-cai-thien-ky-nang-coding\/\">\u0110\u1ecdc ti\u1ebfng vi\u1ec7t<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Charles Lee is an American developer. He has a lot of experience working in large and small companies in Silicon Valley. He also loves to teach developers how to improve their skills.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What did you study in university?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I got my Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why did you choose a career in computer science?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As a kid I was always obsessed with computers. I played games all the time. Then I decided to make a game of my own. It was a tank battle game. I found I enjoyed writing code to calculate game graphics. After that I was hooked.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What was your first job?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I joined Palm Computing for 2 years after university. Palm&nbsp;made handheld computers, kind of like the iPhone but before the iPhone and not as good. I mostly worked on code that handled how the device found and connected to wifi networks.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>And your second job?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>After Palm I spent 3 years at Volkswagen. I wrote code that integrated Google Earth into the navigation system for Volkswagen cars.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What did you learn in your first 2 jobs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The biggest thing I learned was &#8220;Be less theoretical and more practical.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example. At Palm I spent a TON of time writing a super efficient algorithm to find and optimize the wifi connections for the device. My boss wondered what was taking me so long.<\/p>\n<p>He took one look at my code and said &#8220;What are you doing!? Our users will have&nbsp;lots of &nbsp;wifi networks available. Your code is great, but we don&#8217;t need anything like that.&#8221; Then he threw away my code.<\/p>\n<p>That experience showed me that simplicity and practicality are often more valuable than elegance.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6460 size-large\" src=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/10572223_437751779752693_1834647380552196594_o-e1458562485514-640x349.jpg\" alt=\"10572223_437751779752693_1834647380552196594_o\" width=\"640\" height=\"349\"><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Then you left the big company life and went to some startups.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yes. It was back when Facebook games were beginning to take off.<\/p>\n<p>The first startup I joined was a social media gaming company called &#8220;A Bit Lucky.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I spent a year there. Then I left with one of my colleagues to another new company called &#8220;Luvocracy.&#8221; It was a &#8220;social buying&#8221; service.<\/p>\n<p>I was one of the first 5 people at Luvocracy. It was very different to go to a tiny startup after working at Volkswagen and&nbsp;Palm. When I started we didn&#8217;t even have furniture in the office. We sat on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>It was a super intense experience. We raised $16 million and went from zero to 1+ million users in about a year.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How was working in a startup different from working in a big company?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Oh wow, they are totally different.<\/p>\n<p>Here are 3 big differences I found:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>More ownership.<\/strong> You will get a lot more ownership at a small company. By &#8220;ownership&#8221; I mean you are much closer to decision-making and can influence decisions. Your work is also more important at a small company. In a big company if you screw up it doesn&#8217;t matter much. But in a startup if you screw up it can cause huge problems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Less mentoring.<\/strong> Big companies always have someone more senior than you that you can learn from. At startups sometimes you will be forced to handle a project you&#8217;re just not ready for. At Luvocracy I was in charge of scaling the database from zero to millions of users. I didn&#8217;t know what I was doing.&nbsp;I wasn&#8217;t ready to do that but I learned a ton.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Everyone does everything.<\/strong> At a big company people will say &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s not my job.&#8221; But at a small company you just can&#8217;t say that. Things need to be done that are no one&#8217;s job! You must have an attitude like &#8220;Ok, don&#8217;t know anything about that but I&#8217;ll take care of it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6461 size-large\" src=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/coderschool_lab-e1458562935923-640x312.jpg\" alt=\"coderschool_lab\" width=\"640\" height=\"312\"><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What are some&nbsp;resources you&#8217;ve found useful in your coding career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hacker News<\/a>. It&#8217;s a great place to learn about new coding developments. New frameworks are there first.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/37signals.com\/rework\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rework<\/a>. This is a book about business process. I found it really helpful to understand better how to work with people and inside a team. People and soft skills are so important for coders.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/\/www.davidrock.net\/books\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Your Brain at Work<\/a>. This book taught me more about how our brains work. It helped me work more effectively.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It&#8217;s not a resource, but I&#8217;d also add that <a href=\"https:\/\/smartbear.com\/learn\/code-review\/what-is-code-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">code review<\/a>&nbsp;&#8212; getting others to review your code and give you feedback &#8212; is a GREAT way to improve your code. Also reviewing others&#8217; code. None of us likes to get criticism, but it&#8217;s so helpful.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"\/\/www.coderschool.vn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-6470\" src=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screenshot-2016-03-21-17.48.14-640x393.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 2016-03-21 17.48.14\" width=\"640\" height=\"393\"><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<h3><strong>You founded CoderSchool.vn. What is it?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>CoderSchool.vn is a school for developers in Vietnam. We teach free 8 week courses in Swift, iOS and Android.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why did you found it?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always loved learning new coding languages. After Luvocracy was acquired by Wal Mart, I began getting involved in training Wal Mart developers. I really enjoyed it.<\/p>\n<p>When I visited Vietnam a few years ago people told me &#8220;Hey, Vietnam really needs something like that!&#8221; I liked the country and people. And I love teaching code. So I decided to move here and open CoderSchool.vn. I modeled it on CodePath.com, which is a training company I really admire in the US.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Is it really free?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>[Laughs] Yes. It&#8217;s really free for developers. We make our money through company sponsors.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What kind of developers should consider applying to CoderSchool.vn?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We look for coders with minimum 2 years of experience. They should be curious and want to learn. We&#8217;ll give them awesome skills in Android, Ruby and Swift\/iOS!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6459 size-large\" src=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/C7D4452-copy-640x426.jpg\" alt=\"_C7D4452 copy\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\"><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What&#8217;s involved in the course?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Courses are 8 weeks. We meet several days a week from 7-9pm at night. Total time commitment is 10-20 hours each week.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Can anyone apply?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>CoderSchool.vn is open to everyone. There is a selective application process though. We ask applicants to build a basic app. If they show us good work and show us they are serious students, it&#8217;s likely we&#8217;ll admit them.<\/p>\n<p>We teach only in English though. Students must be able to speak and write English.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How has the CoderSchool.vn course helped its graduates?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>CoderSchool.vn gives students skills that are in demand.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example. Last year at the end of our course we had a &#8220;Swift Demo Day.&#8221; Our student teams displayed the applications they had created during the course.<\/p>\n<p>One team made a <a href=\"\/\/marketapp.strikingly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">buying app<\/a>. A man in the audience that day had hired an outsourcing company to make a similar app, but it had failed. The man hired our team on the spot!<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How should our readers apply?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Just come to CoderSchool.vn&nbsp;<a href=\"\/\/www.coderschool.vn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">right now and apply<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Or&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:sang@coderschool.vn\">email me<\/a>. I&#8217;m always around to answer questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The best thing about working for a startup is seeing your code deployed the same day you write it.&#8221; &#8211; Charles Lee, co-founder of CoderSchool.vn Read our interview with Charles Lee, Silicon Valley&nbsp;coder and co-founder of CoderSchool.vn, to learn: Advantages and disadvantages of working at a big company or a startup. Actionable tips you can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-7996","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn - ITviec Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read our interview with Charles Lee, Silicon Valley\u00a0coder and co-founder of CoderSchool.vn, to learn: Advantages and disadvantages of working at a big company\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"vi_VN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;The best thing about working for a startup is seeing your code deployed the same day you write it.&quot; - Charles Lee, co-founder of CoderSchool.vn Read our\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ITviec Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ITviec\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-19T09:28:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/10572223_437751779752693_1834647380552196594_o-e1458562485514-640x349.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ITviec\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u01af\u1edbc t\u00ednh th\u1eddi gian \u0111\u1ecdc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 ph\u00fat\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn - ITviec Blog","description":"Read our interview with Charles Lee, Silicon Valley\u00a0coder and co-founder of CoderSchool.vn, to learn: Advantages and disadvantages of working at a big company","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/","og_locale":"vi_VN","og_type":"article","og_title":"Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn","og_description":"\"The best thing about working for a startup is seeing your code deployed the same day you write it.\" - Charles Lee, co-founder of CoderSchool.vn Read our","og_url":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/","og_site_name":"ITviec Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ITviec","article_modified_time":"2021-03-19T09:28:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/10572223_437751779752693_1834647380552196594_o-e1458562485514-640x349.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@ITviec","twitter_misc":{"\u01af\u1edbc t\u00ednh th\u1eddi gian \u0111\u1ecdc":"6 ph\u00fat"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/","url":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/","name":"Get Your (Free) Startup Coder Skills at CoderSchool.vn - ITviec Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-17T10:07:07+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-19T09:28:08+00:00","description":"Read our interview with Charles Lee, Silicon Valley\u00a0coder and co-founder of CoderSchool.vn, to learn: Advantages and disadvantages of working at a big company","inLanguage":"vi","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/get-your-free-startup-coder-skills-at-coderschool-vn\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/","name":"ITviec Blog","description":"IT Jobs &amp; People in Vietnam","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"vi"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"ITviec","url":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"vi","@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/itviec-black-square-facebook.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/itviec-black-square-facebook.png","width":1800,"height":1800,"caption":"ITviec"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ITviec","https:\/\/x.com\/ITviec","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/itviec","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCYthAQ3bcGr57M_ag5gHDvQ"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itviec.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}