Radoslav Georgiev
PyConBalkan 2018
Don't only learn single language or framework, but rather a broader spectrum of skills.
Python is the main language for this course. At the end, people will know a fair amount of Python.
Solve a lot of problems during classes. Write a lot of code. A lot.
Be intensive, but leave some room for rest. Alternating between a 3x/2x per week scheme gave the best results. Each class is 4 hours.
Linux is installed on the very first lecture and any use of Windows is prohibited.
We teach git & GitHub & do a lot of team tasks, so people can break things in a safe environment
We teach relational databases & raw SQL queries.
We teach unit testing & TDD.
We teach dealing with the terminal & writing simple bash scripts.
We do some network programming & some client-server programming.
The approach is - “you have to suffer first and then earn your abstractions”.
We end up with a week-long hackathon, which ends with a demo day, where our sponsors participate.
We usually start the course campaign, in the middle of sponsor negotiations.
If we end up with 0 sponsors, we cannot cancel the course, because we lose credibility.
Bulgarian IT companies are not used to pay recruitment fees for interns / juniors.
Our business model sucked & we struggled a lot with it.
We also sucked at sales. We always took the counter offers.
And that's our primary focus now.
Go do courses.
The market potential in the Balkans seems untapped.
Work on your business model & sales skills.
In the long run, we should be teaching in English.