lack of leadership - Anonymous employee Learners Guild Employee Review

Good hearted people. Excellent mission.

Bad execution. Poor selection criteria.

The idea that the guild was built upon is truly amazing. Bring people from diverse backgrounds together and build a community of mutual learning and teaching. In a guild there aren't really teachers, but members with varying experience. The members share knowledge and in effect "teach" each other. This, combined with a few talented senior level engineers to oversee members' progress revived an older style of educational community that hasn't been seen for generations. I learned so much just from being immersed in a community of people with similar passions for technology.

The majority of the people that flocked to Learners Guild seemed to not understand what a guild actually is. And most of the people who enrolled had little to no previous experience. There was a requirement for 50+ hours of minimum experience, but I don't believe half of the people had that. The guild went from a great idea that needed a few tweaks, to being completely over hauled into a coding school for the people who went into a panic when the familiar structure of an American school wasn't there. There was a lot of entitlement in the learners there, people wanted to sign up and walk out with a job without really considering the reality of it all. It isn't easy to teach a bunch of people who didn't know what http was how to be capable developers while also paying them money to sustain themselves. It's even harder to maintain a business and continue to get money from investors for a business idea that is more about creating something for people to change their lives than it is for one strictly about draining money from people. I personally had a hard time with the members who had a sense of entitlement and inability to look at reality.