Why We Offer Software Development Training

We’re often asked why we decided to offer training, and not just focus all our energies on custom software development. We’re passionate about software development, but we’re equally passionate about training other software developers, and ensuring that we train them well.

Creating professional-level courses with complete and accurate information takes time and effort. And if we felt, in good conscience, that we could just point you to other consistent sources of accurate, up-to-date, affordable, and effective training, we would just point you there.

But we chose instead to take the time to develop courses for you, because of what we have seen on the software development training landscape.

You have many choices for software development training.

• The Internet is chock full of low-cost and no-cost web sites, courses, videos, e-books, etc.
• YouTube is packed with training videos, many claiming to teach every conceivable concept and skill in a matter of minutes or hours.
• Bookstores, both online and brick-and-mortar, are brimming with volumes that claim to turn you into an expert within 3 weeks, 7 days, 24 hours, or even 10 minutes.
• Live training and events promise you everything from instant expertise to actual employment.

It sounds like you already have everything you need.

But do you really?

Here’s what we have observed about existing training resources:

• We have been consistently amazed at and incredibly disappointed by how much of the information available online, in books, and in live courses, contains blatant inaccuracies and out-of-date material. Unless you’re already an expert in the field, it can be virtually impossible to judge the quality of the information presented to you. You often don’t know that the information you’re being fed is flawed.
• While we believe that the vast majority of people who attempt to teach this material are well-intentioned, we’ve discovered that many (not all, but many) of these people:
  • Might have taken just one course and/or read just one book, and then declared themselves experts who are ready to teach you.
  • Don’t fully understand the material themselves, and thus aren’t able to explain it clearly. And, unfortunately, in many cases, it appears that they don’t have any idea what they don’t know.
  • Fill in gaps in their knowledge by simply making up "facts" that are completely false and misleading. They actually realize what they don’t know, and decide to fill in the blanks with fabrications, rather than taking on the responsibility of researching and delivering the right information to you.
  • Might understand the material, but don’t have the communication and/or teaching skills to convey it effectively to you.
  • Have little or no practical industry experience with what they are teaching you, which can severely limit and distort the advice they provide.
  • Do you more harm than good, by using and demonstrating poor coding style, unreliable techniques, use of the wrong tools for the job, and misuse of the tools. Later on, when you discover there’s problem, you may have some “unlearning“ to do.

Our conclusion

Even if someone has written a book, produced a video, written a blog, or received an advanced degree, it doesn’t mean they have the practical, real-world knowledge, experience, and skills to effectively teach software development to you.

• We want you to have access to accurate, up-to-date, professional-quality training.
• We have a passion for software development, and for igniting and maintaining that passion in others, through our courses.
• We know we can do a great job training you — after successfully training thousands of students at all levels — from complete beginners to working engineers.
• We want to pass along what we have learned in our real-world projects, so that you can benefit from our experience and advice.

Our goal is to bring you high-quality, professional technical training that is always:

• Highly accurate
• Up-to-date
• Filled with industry best practices
• Practical
• Memorable and fun

We practice what we preach and preach what we practice.