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General Discussion

Layoffs at Treehouse

I'm not sure if any of you are aware, but it looks like Treehouse have just had some major layoffs. It looks as if most key teachers have been laid off and more seem to be tweeting as time goes on.

Treehouse are non-responsive on Twitter, email and currently there isn't a staff member replying in the iOS Techdegree slack group which is especially odd.

As someone who is half way through the tech degree, having spent a respectable amount on it thus far, I'm concerned right now about the investment I've made and the company doesn't seem to be offering any reassurance.

Is anyone in the same boat? Are there any active staff members in the other tech degree slack groups? Is there life out there?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I'd suggest caution against over-reacting. In August of 2016 there was a 21% staff reduction, but I don't think there was a noticeable impact in the services provided. Ryan Carson Blogged about the 2016 changes.

27 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I don't know some of those folks, but Nick, Jay, and Ben are big surprises. I have no doubt they will all be successful in their next endeavors, whatever (and wherever) they may be.

I imagine those that are still there have their hands pretty full. But if they stay true to form, there will be some information forthcoming soon, perhaps on Ryan's blog.

And Ashely's tweet clearly indicates production of new material is still underway. That may not remove all concern, but hopefully it's enough to reduce it below "panic" level. :wink:

Yep somethign is going on Craig Dennis

Craig Dennis
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher

Hi bot .net ! Thanks for reaching out!

I unfortunately don't have that much more information than you do at the moment. I believe Dave McFarland might have more answers to your concerns.

Stick with it!

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

At least it sounds like Craig and Dave are is still on board. :smile:

Craig Dennis
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher

Hey Steven Parker ! I actually took another job in January, just got tagged in this post. But yes Dave McFarland is still around.

Hope all is well with you! Thanks for all the help!

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Oops, sorry Craig, it slipped my mind when you responded so quickly. I hope you're enjoying Twillio.

But didn't you say you'd left some content still to be released?

Yeah Dave was also recommended on slack and was tagged, but there hasn’t been anything posted there yet. Cheers for the reply though Craig.

Sheila Anguiano
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Sheila Anguiano
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 35,239 Points

As someone that started using TH after being laid off by surprise, I definitely can relate to all the teachers, but it also makes me worry about TH future...

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I think many of us share the same concerns. The remarkable quality of the courses here has made Treehouse my favorite online learning resource, and the forum community has extended that even further. I hope both the course quality and forum will continue, though how that might happen is a bit of a mystery.

The good news is that much of the inner workings of Treehouse have been mysterious all along, so maybe they have something "up their sleeve" that will allow them to pull it off. We'll see!

In the meantime, if you have space available you might want to download the videos from courses you're interested in. :cinema:.

And ironically, one of the first promotional videos for Treehouse that I ever saw was one where a guy was laid off by surprise — and that guy was played by Nick Pettit.

Steven Parker how i do it without pro account?

You need a pro account.

Unfortunately for me I don't have that pro membership to be able to do that :( I've enjoyed the courses and have been an on and off customer since way back when they had their conspiracy videos mixed in.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Those were actually known as the "Adventure & Reward Videos".

They can be seen on YouTube. I posted a list of them in my answer to this other question.

I dont think they close the website. aloyt of students including me learn from it and alot of videos had been made.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I sure hope not, it's been a great resource for many students.

Steven Parker do u have any videos?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Are you asking if I make videos? I've actually thought about it, but I haven't done any yet.

Steven Parker Lol u got me wrong although I will be happy to see toturials from u XD. Im asking if by any chance u downloaded any videos from treehouse that u can send to me without ill have to update to pro account

Another question i have is, do u know any other good node.js toturials besides the ones here?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure that sharing the pro videos would be a violation of the Terms of Service.

And I learned node.js right here myself! I don't have any personal experience with other info sources on it.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

That's just the first of several sets. See the complete list in my answer to this other question.

Latest update. It’s not looking positive for my iOS Techdegree.

https://twitter.com/ryancarson/status/1136369930507448320

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

... or employment prospects, if that's really the reason it missed the cut.

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

Hey Thomas, I shot you an email a few minutes ago discussing this. Again, apologies for the delayed response.

This is mostly for anyone else who is curious, but we haven't had the number of students join that we need to keep the iOS Techdegree running. However, we'll still be supporting folks who are currently on the iOS Techdegree: our great Slack Moderators and Champions will still be around to help you out, grade projects, etc.

They’ve stopped offering the iOS Techdegree on the website now. No word on what’s happening with existing students or the money we’ve spent thus far.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

You might want to write the Support folks. But my guess is that current students will have a reasonable time to complete their programs before things get permanently retired.

justin s.
justin s.
1,009 Points

If already enrolled, you'll get to continue

I highly doubt that they're going to pull the rug out from under you. In all likelihood they're going to allow current students to finish their iOS techdgree.

Steven Parker I saw his tweet. They are going to focus javascript,python from now on? so the other tracks will get removed?

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

He mentions a few others they will keep, and says some new ones will be added. But yea, it sounds like about half of the current topics won't have anything new added, and will likely go away entirely at some point, starting with WordPress. And while I hope I'm wrong, the forum areas for those topics will probably go also.

The focus will be on Python for data analysis, but not web development. This is a good move. Python web development is kind of a niche area and most companies do their server-side stuff in C# or PHP, JS+Node, Java etc.

If they will upgrade their javascript content which means Massive upgrade with projects and more then it's not that bad.

justin s.
justin s.
1,009 Points

See this may not be a very popular opinion, and I feel bad for those who got laid off (though, lets be honest. they'll have new jobs in no time), but by focusing on a few and giving more time and resources to each, is actually a very good move.

Jamie Reardon
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Jamie Reardon
Treehouse Project Reviewer

What about the FEWD techdegree? I'm at unit 4 don't tell me something is going to happen to that. This place is my hope for pursuing a successful career!

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

FEWD is here to stay. It's doing incredibly well!

From what I know the FEWD techdgree is not being chopped.

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

I just confirmed it in my previous reply to you. :)

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

Yes, that's staying and like the FEWD, is doing exceptionally well.

I just complete the FS JavaScript TechDegree today, and I can say that during the months I spent on it, I noticed many students joining me in my journey, and there have been considerable numbers of graduations, as well.

So, for my part, I think the FSJSTD is still getting a lot of attention.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

In Ryan Carson's post yesterday, he specifically mentioned four topics they will focus on:

  • Full Stack Javascript
  • Front End Web Development
  • UX   :point_left:
  • Data Analysis with Python

So I think that one's covered. The majority of the current topics are not mentioned, but then that would explain laying off the majority of the full-time teachers.

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

The UX Techdegree is also here to stay!

steven, which projects u done in node.js after learning here? i did the nose js basics and it was ok, it was long time ago and i’m planning to get back to the web stack, i remember that the node .js dynamic site creation is out of date and a lot of ppl couldn’t complete it.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I haven't done a whole lot with node outside of courses. I think the most I've done with it was solving the puzzles in the Advent of Code series. I'm probably one of very few people who have done those entirely in JavaScript (Python seems the be the popular choice).

Gustavo Florez
Gustavo Florez
14,811 Points

Steven Parker, I thought Nick Pettit was the lead designer within TH. I see he is also looking for work, so I really wonder how this will influence the UX TD.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I can only guess that someone else will be taking the lead on UX productions. The connections to many of the contract UX course teachers (Devin, May, Dan, Anya) may not have changed this week.

Robert Conti
Robert Conti
23,274 Points

So I read up on everything, but does anyone have insight as to why iOS (Swift) is not an "in-demand" technology right now? Is there a dip in the job market with respect to iOS?

@Bobby Conti I don't actually know, but I suspect that enrollment for the iOS techdegree was simply down. I doubt that you are going to have much trouble finding a job when you're done. I suggest you don't sweat it and keep right on coding.

justin s.
justin s.
1,009 Points

No. The reason for its departure was because not enough students were signing up.

I'd sign up if it became available again.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

If you're really interested in starting it right away, you might contact the Support staff and see if they'll accommodate you. Let us know what happens if you do!

Daniel Turato
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PLUS
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Daniel Turato
Java Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,124 Points

I'm on the Java Web Techdegree and even though the course has not been listed for a while now, they haven't answered any of my questions regarding the course content for most of my time spent on the course. Then last week , they completely shut down the slack and had the audacity to say that it was inactive and nobody asked any questions! If they couldn't provide the support, they shouldn't of been willing to take my $200 a month! I'm on the last project for it now but I'm annoyed to say the least that I've had no support throughout.

Hi Daniel! We did receive your email about this here in Support and we're working on getting you the help you're looking for. We appreciate your patience!

What you just described sounded a lot like Office Space lol.

varlevi
varlevi
8,113 Points

What about VR? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be predicted to become one of the widest used technologies in the next twenty years. It seems to be against Threehouse's mission to get rid of this.

varlevi
varlevi
8,113 Points

Also, I don't understand how they need more profit when they have 180,000+ students (https://teamtreehouse.com/about) each paying $25 - $199 each MONTH!

Under capitalism, there is never enough profit. Corporations will always seek to maximize profit. Also, remember, the hosting and maintenance for a site like this is going to be gargantuan.

varlevi
varlevi
8,113 Points

And yet in this interview he claims, and I quote:

I’m not here to make money.

Hmm...

Even if each student only paid $25, they'd still be getting 4.5 million$ per month!

Daniel Turato
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Daniel Turato
Java Web Development Techdegree Graduate 30,124 Points

It's pretty simple why they're no longer offering VR, because the past course wasn't watched enough to make it worthwhile for them to create more courses on it. I doubt their choice had anything to do with the future of VR itself, but an opportunity cost between creating courses that are popular compared to unpopular courses.

It absolutely is about making money. It it wasn't, then Treehouse would be a non-profit organization. Don't get me wrong, it's a great service, the content is of a much higher quality than almost anywhere else, but make no mistake: the progressive, do-good vibe that Treehouse its CEO broadcast to the world is just very good marketing. This is a for-profit company and that is ultimately their first goal. If you are doing a track or Techdegree that isn't selling well, you may well log on one day to find it gone.

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

Sounds like we need to update that information to make that a bit more clear. We do not have 180,000 active students and but over 180,000 students have signed up and used Treehouse since it's creation (2011).

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

I'm confused. If 180,000 is the total number of all students current or past, active or not; then what does the figure shown as "412,277 students" on the leaderboards represent?

Rob Allessi
Rob Allessi
8,600 Points

Steven Parker I don't think that number has been updated in a long time.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,269 Points

Oh, I see, but you might not guess since other info on that page is from Q1 2019.