Kodable is a programming curriculum for elementary schools. Already used by 1 in every 7 elementary schools in the US, we give teachers the ability to help their kids learn to code without any prior knowledge. Kids go from learning how to think like a programmer to being able to pick up an actual language by the time they hit middle school. Kodable is designed to encourage everyone to learn programming. Over 50% of Kodable users are girls, and it has been used in over 130 countries.
They said they aren't profitable, they're hiring too quickly for that. They're using the money to hire quicker, just like most other people use investment for.
"Does Google still refuse to hire people unless they have computer science degrees?"
No.
"In this day and age that doesn't make sense."
It didn't make sense when they semi-officially had that policy either, particularly if you consider how relatively young of a company Google is (granted, "young" is subjective, I'm 40 years old). But when you're incubated in academia and turn out to be very successful, it is easy to think that your best bet is to keep one and a half feet firmly planted in that world.
Of course, Google isn't/wasn't alone, lots of companies have lots of policies that don't really make any sense outside of whatever echo chamber they've created for themselves.
It's never been an absolute policy, but they certainly used to prefer people with degrees; it's an easy filter when you've got a million CVs a year to parse through.
HR found it was useless as a predictor of success, though, and the policy was officially dropped last year:
I have had tons of problems with parse. Our app has both the iOS and website backends using it. While it is useful, and a lot of stuff is well done, when you operate at any kind of scale you keep running into all kinds of hidden limitations. We have ~30k+ weekly actives.
For example -
Horrible limitations on queries. You can only get 1000 total objects at any time, batch requests are limited to 50 objects, limit of 100 count requests a minute (not sure the exact number but it's really close). Not just for each client, for your ENTIRE APP.
No good backup solution. They say they back up their servers, but backing up your own data is left to you. Which is a pain in the ass because of point one.
Awful support. I get that they have a lot of people and can't support everyone well, but I have always gotten the feeing that Parse just doesn't care that much about users. Maybe they do if you pay them a bunch of money, but until then you're on your own. Half the time my support requests go unanswered, sometimes the rep just stops responding midway through the conversation. Only recently did I ever have a good experience with Parse support (thanks Christine!)
To top it all off, apparently they silently changed the way batch API requests were counted and never told anyone. Instead of a batch request counting as 1 request, apparently it now counts as each individual object inside the request. So batching 10 objects is one http request but 10 Parse API requests. Sketchy. When you reach over 30 requests per second, they just start dropping requests.
What could be better than impacting the lives of millions of kids? Kodable teaches kids the fundamentals of programming starting before they can read. Used by over a million kids around the world, Kodable is designed to encourage everyone to learn programming. Over 50% of Kodable users are girls, and it has been used in over 100 countries.
We're a team that knows how to work smart, have fun, and get results. We're passionate about empowering people with great educational tools and 21st Century skills. We’re looking to hire our first full-stack engineers (including a CTO) to bring Kodable to more platforms and build Kodable 2. You will be given the freedom to shape the future of programming education for the entire world!
We have an iOS app written in Objective-C with a backend in Parse, and a web reporting system written in Ruby and Sinatra. Experience with these languages in a plus, but we’re mostly looking for experience. The position includes a lot of responsibility, you’ll make key architectural decisions for the future of our codebase, so you should have experience working on a production application in use by 100k+ users. We also offer generous equity - we consider our first hire to be nothing more than a late co-founder, and feel you should be compensated accordingly :)
What could be better than impacting the lives of millions of kids? Help us teach the skills kids need in the 21st Century. Kodable is an addictive game that teaches kids the fundamentals of programming starting before they can read. Used by over a million kids around the world, Kodable is designed to encourage everyone to learn programming. Over 50% of Kodable users are girls, and it has been used in over 100 countries.
We're a team that knows how to work smart, have fun, and get results. We're passionate about empowering people with great educational tools and 21st Century skills. We’re looking to hire our first full-stack engineers (including a CTO) to bring Kodable to more platforms and build Kodable 2. You will be given the freedom to shape the future of programming education for the entire world!
We have an iOS app written in Objective-C with a backend in Parse, and a web reporting system written in Ruby and Sinatra. Experience with these languages in a plus, but we’re mostly looking for experience. The position includes a lot of responsibility, you’ll make key architectural decisions for the future of our codebase, so you should have experience working on a production application in use by 100k+ users. We also offer generous equity - we consider our first hire to be nothing more than a late co-founder, and feel you should be compensated accordingly :)
Kodable is a programming curriculum for elementary schools. Already used by 1 in every 7 elementary schools in the US, we give teachers the ability to help their kids learn to code without any prior knowledge. Kids go from learning how to think like a programmer to being able to pick up an actual language by the time they hit middle school. Kodable is designed to encourage everyone to learn programming. Over 50% of Kodable users are girls, and it has been used in over 130 countries.
Role 1: CTO - https://angel.co/kodable/jobs/86699-chief-technical-officer
Role 2: Fullstack Engineer - https://angel.co/kodable/jobs/86700-full-stack-engineer
Role 3: Senior Game Developer - https://angel.co/kodable/jobs/86701-senior-game-developer
Alternately you can email jobs@kodable.com.
Keywords: Ruby, Java, AngularJS, PostgreSQL, LibGDX