We would like to officially announce that starting with our February 2018 cohort, Rithm School will be overseeing our student placements and outcomes in-house with our very own Career Services Manager! We are very excited about this development. However, it means we will no longer be working with Outco to help place our students. This was a decision we arrived at very carefully, and in the name of transparency we would like to share our process and plans with the community.

When we started Rithm School, we saw a ton of value in aligning ourselves with a company that had a proven track record of placing job-ready software engineers. Fortunately, we found Outco. Their curriculum, style, and results were exactly what we needed to succeed at a time when Rithm was still building momentum and establishing best practices. During this transition, our partnership with Outco ensured that our students didn’t miss out on any opportunities and were still successful in their job search.

Since then, we have developed quite a bit as a school and company. We have grown our team, increased class sizes (but not too much!), and expanded our network of partnerships. Rithm Alumni now work at companies including Palantir, Pinterest, ClassPass, and more. These achievements can be attributed to Outco’s support, and of course the hard work of our students.

So, why are we changing things up? There are two primary reasons. One is logistical – the Rithm School and Outco schedules did not always match up, meaning there were sometimes gaps in programming for our students who were eager to start the job search. This is no one’s fault, as schools like Outco and Rithm have to run their calendar on the timeline that makes the most sense for their individual program. However, we could see that an uninterrupted flow would better serve our students.

Secondly, Rithm School and Outco have two separate and distinct application processes. Both parties absolutely understood the need to evaluate different skill sets based on the demand of their respective programs, but we found it was an added pressure for our students to have to prepare for and apply to Outco’s course while mid-program at Rithm. We wanted to create a world where our students could focus 100% on their technical studies, company projects, and job search without worrying about their acceptance to any other program.

What does this mean for future students of Rithm School? For starters, our full-time course will now be an end-to-end program, from prework through day one on the job. Students will now have full-time instruction on algorithms, coding problems, and other technical interview preparation topics. Additionally, there will be more time to work on company projects, which are invaluable learning experiences (and resume builders!). Each and every one of our students will have job placement support by default, led by our new Career Services Manager, Jeremy Evans-Smith. Last, but definitely not least, we will continue to have a six-month job placement guarantee for all Rithm students.

With all of this in mind, we would like to thank Outco for their outstanding partnership throughout Rithm School’s first year. We will continue to periodically host events together and plan to still see each other around quite a bit. We wish them the best of luck with their continued growth and future plans.

For some of you who are thinking of attending Rithm, we know you might have additional questions and concerns about this change. We welcome your inquiries and feedback! Get in touch with us via info@rithmschool.com and we’ll be happy to chat.