Vets Who Code

by mooreds • 1 year ago

63 51 1 year ago

Tangent: I would love to see the US gov and military take coding seriously internally. It's nearly all outsourced to contractors, and the software is usually slow and buggy. I built some tools while in, but it was all bro-level.

pc863• 1 year ago

The military could fix this internally if they wanted to. There are plenty of people who can write good code and don't mind doing push-ups and going to the range as well.

Dotgov is a lot harder. Salaries are artificially capped very low, and even one of these horrific contracting body shops will pay you 30% more than you'd make in the government, and you don't need to deal with all the bullshit that comes with working for the government.

dhosek3• 1 year ago

It’s all part of an ideological attempt to stymie the ability of government to work effectively and then point to how government doesn’t work effectively to justify funneling money to politically connected contractors. It’s the modern version of patronage except that instead of getting jobs for the people in your clan, you get massive contracts for your donors which can be structured so that they’ll still be making money even if you don’t win re-election.

psunavy033• 1 year ago

The trouble is that outside things like CYBERCOM and the NSA, it's hard to pitch a use case for people in uniform to be slinging code. If anything, that just makes cybersecurity/counterintelligence harder, because you have a bunch of those bro-level apps running around, potentially poorly-built and secured by amateur coders. There's not much more justification for people in uniform building software tools than there is having them design and build artillery guns or transport jets. Better to buy those from industry and train folks in uniform to use them.

I don't disagree with how horrible a lot of DOD software is, but that's more an artifact of the broken military procurement process combined with the often-childish attitudes people in tech have about working with the military.

pc863• 1 year ago

People in the military have normal jobs, not everyone is out in the field sending rounds downrange all the time.

There is no reason that one of those jobs can't be "software engineer." There is nothing intrinsic about the military that would make them "amateur coders."

freedomben5• 1 year ago

There's not much more justification for people in uniform building software tools than there is having them design and build artillery guns or transport jets.

Yes exactly. I don't have much to add but that was such a great point I wanted to emphasize it.

Also important to consider that as wasteful and expensive as it is to have contractors build stuff, there's at least important market functions in there doing some things and the contractor can be held accountable.

freedomben5• 1 year ago

Oh they definitely have, and likely continue to re-evaluate periodically. They've even done a lot of tests and such to determine feasibility. Unfortunately the costs tend to balloon when done internally, and the quality is not necessarily better.

CapricornNoble2• 1 year ago

A friend of mine was a uniformed programmer back when the Marine Corps had an MOS for that. He got out shortly after 9/11 and went on to become a Software Architect in the federal government. He actually has a very negative opinion of the concept of service member software engineers. I think his perspective is colored by his experience working for a Staff Sergeant who lat-moved into their MOS and was just completely useless as a programmer and by extension as a Team Lead or "Senior" Software Engineer. But the Marine Corps is notorious for abysmal Talent Management so YMMV...

torstenvl• 1 year ago

Love this idea.

Rightly or wrongly, people judge based on first impressions, and your landing page can cause frustration. First, your floating nav bar is huge on mobile, but nothing a zoom out can't fix. Second, the animated "Learn" hero isn't a constant size, causing the entire page to jump around while trying to read it. Again, can be fixed with zoom... but only with a lot of zoom, so that everything else is almost unreadable.

9rx2• 1 year ago

I don't mind the design, but it looks a little military. Some puppies and kittens might better play into the vet vibe.

nonrandomstring2• 1 year ago

Excellent initiative. It's not just code, as in development, but we are desperate for good people in cybersecurity who can handle network security, complex operational procedures, data handling and compartmentalisation... a good service record is literally worth an honours degree. And age is a positive factor.

jimmygrapes• 1 year ago

perhaps most importantly, the ability to grin and bear it

nonrandomstring2• 1 year ago

Yes, but to clarify, it's a particular sort of "grin and bear it". Stamina and stoicism in a hopeless situation, absolutely yes! Cybersecurity is a losing battle. It's being a tiny resistance against an unstoppable tide. But it's not the same "grin and bear it" as in most workplaces, like following stupid orders. On the contrary, I'm looking for initiative, confident self-leadership in recruits. Because, frankly, nobody knows what they're doing in cybersecurity, especially at the top where most CISOs are following a Microsoft script, or shooting for "compliance" (which is not the same thing as security). People who have that "protect the team" instinct and call it how it is, are pure gold.

the_real_cher• 1 year ago

I think the blend of medicine and technology is a great combination and definitely could be useful for a veterinarian.

dhosek3• 1 year ago

That was my first thought when I saw the headline. My brother was a veterinarian and he made some money while he was in college/vet school selling programs to Commodore 64 magazines back in the 80s (enough to pay for his computer and put away some cash).

mystraline• 1 year ago

For people who work for the VA, this is very much a double entendre.

If you're programming, awesome.

If you're having a heart attack, I hope you get rapid response.

jeromehardaway4• 1 year ago

This joke passes the veteran vibe check. Only someone who is a vet or close to them would say something so inappropriate and funny.

psunavy033• 1 year ago

The struggle with dark humor in the private sector is real . . . along with swallowing back F-bombs.

Malazath• 1 year ago

I had this thought about the years ago. While I'm not a vet, I have grown up and live in the Hampton Roads area - plenty of vets I know locally.

If you ever need assistance on anything, I'd love a way to reach out and help any way I can.

redeux• 1 year ago

I'm a vet and I code, but my god the amount of AI slop in the copy makes me very wary of the educational quality vets will receive. In order to leverage AI successfully people must learn that you can't just take whatever comes out of the model and call it good. You have to evaluate and refine it, or it all just becomes garbage in, garbage out. I guarantee the hero text was copied verbatim from an LLM - probably ChatGPT. Cool idea, but too many flashing warning signs for my liking.

freedomben5• 1 year ago

I don't disagree, but I do think it's worth considering this is a non-profit and the service is free. When offering such things you gotta be ruthlessly efficient with your time/effort. I would further bet that most of the target market aren't going to be dissuaded by the somewhat-sloppiness of the website.

bitwize• 1 year ago

Everybody has access to a phenomenal, state of the art neural network -- it lies between their ears and sadly goes underused much of the time.

Even if you use the electronic sort of NN, at best those are only good at serving as thought-provocation or inspiration for the one the good Lord gave you.

ash_091• 1 year ago

In my country the noun "vet" is used (more or less) exclusively as short for "veterinarian", and this website was briefly very confusing.

Normal_gaussian• 1 year ago

That is true for me as well; and to make it worse I do about 10% of my work in the veterinary space. I was very excited for a second.

lucb1e• 1 year ago

It's about veterans, for anyone else wandering around the comments and also expecting veterinarian like I was

Group_B• 1 year ago

https://youtu.be/DRTHMdNVtJ4?si=jcw5tFzR88zVSrw2

HiroProtagonist• 1 year ago

I am a vet who codes. This seems like a great initiative!

freedomben5• 1 year ago

I'm a vet who has been coding now for almost 20 years, and I'd be willing to be a mentor but unfortunately the website doesn't quite answer my questions. Specifically:

1. What are the duties/responsiblities of a mentor?

2. I see that the mentor will need to do 1:1s, but no indication of time/frequency. How often are these and how much time is expected of them?

jeromehardaway4• 1 year ago

Hey, really appreciate you taking the time to ask — and even more so for being open to mentoring. Twenty years in the game is serious, and folks like you are exactly who our troops need.

To answer your questions: 1. What mentors do Mentors help guide our troops through the learning and career process. That includes reviewing code, offering feedback, sharing your experience, and helping them get unstuck when they hit a wall. It’s not about having all the answers — it’s about being consistent, showing up, and being real with folks trying to break in. 2. Time commitment + 1:1s We aim for one 1:1 per month per troop, but we’re flexible. Most mentors give about 1–2 hours a week, including async stuff like reviewing PRs or replying in Slack. If you only have 30 minutes, we’ll work with that. We respect your time and want this to be something sustainable.

If you’re down to talk more or need anything else cleared up, hit me up directly. Would love to have you on board.

the_hoffa• 1 year ago

Not the parent, but thanks for answering those questions, I had the same ones. I'm a Vet who's been doing SE for over 20 years as well, count me in!

jeromehardaway4• 1 year ago

Hey folks, thanks for the thoughtful responses and questions — I really appreciate the engagement and the mix of perspectives.

@torstenvl: You’re absolutely right. We’re already working on refining the mobile UX and adjusting the animations on the hero section so they don’t cause layout shifts. Thanks for flagging that. Accessibility and clarity are priorities, so this feedback is super helpful.

@ash_091 and others confused by the term “vet”: Totally understand the cultural difference — in the US, “vet” is commonly used as shorthand for “military veteran,” but that isn’t universal. We’ll look at how we can make the messaging clearer, especially for international visitors, without losing identity.

@psunavy03 and @pc86: The conversation around military coding careers is valid and nuanced. At Vets Who Code, we’re focused on helping veterans after they separate, transition, or retire — giving them tech skills and a community so they can thrive in the civilian workforce. We’re not advocating for in-uniform development to replace contractors or acquisitions but rather preparing folks to enter a very different kind of battlefield: the job market.

@redeux: I hear you. You’re absolutely right — we don’t promote copy-paste AI coding. One of our core lessons is about critical thinking with AI: evaluating, refining, and using it as a tool, not a crutch. And yes — some placeholder copy slipped through the cracks during early drafts. Thanks for holding us accountable. We’ll clean that up.

Re: Mentorship Questions 1. Mentor Duties & Responsibilities Mentors guide one or more troops (our learners) through their learning journey. This includes reviewing projects, offering career advice, sharing lessons from your experience, and helping troubleshoot when someone hits a wall. You don’t need to know everything — just be willing to show up, support, and share honestly. 2. 1:1s and Time Commitment We generally aim for one 1:1 per month per troop. Most mentors spend about 1–2 hours a week, depending on availability and the needs of their mentee(s). We respect your time — consistency matters more than quantity. If you can only give 30 minutes a week, we’ll match that with the right person.

Who We Are

Vets Who Code is a nonprofit that’s helped our troops land over $20 million in salaries in tech. We’ve been doing this work for over a decade. No fluff, no tuition, no BS. Just real training and support.

We’ve been honored by: • The White House (yes, that one — under President Obama) • Featured in WIRED, HuffPost, Stack Overflow, GitHub, and more • Invited to speak at Google I/O, Facebook F8, and DreamForce • Recognized as a GitHub Star, Google Developer Expert, and Twilio Champion

This isn’t a side project — this is our mission.

If you’re curious, open to mentoring, or just want to help us improve the mission, hit me up directly or through the contact page. We’re serious about doing right by our community.

— Jerome Hardaway Founder, Vets Who Code

jeromehardaway4• 1 year ago

Hey folks, thanks for the thoughtful responses and questions — I really appreciate the engagement and the mix of perspectives.

Who We Are

If you’re curious, open to mentoring, or just want to help us improve the mission, hit me up directly or through the contact page. We’re serious about doing right by our community.

— Jerome Hardaway Founder, Vets Who Code

pyjarrett• 1 year ago

Another great resource for vets getting started in software development (and other fields) is American Corporate Partners[1]. I had a great mentor through that group.

[1] https://www.acp-usa.org/

scrapcode• 1 year ago

Thanks for this. I've been dabbling with code for ~20 years, have the diploma and the t-shirt, but I lack the mentorship. I feel like it would be even more helpful in this time as I attempt to pivot from my general-IT career with dev as one tool into solely development. So, anyways, thanks for sharing additional resources.

awslattery• 1 year ago

Vet here, who has done Grow with Google events for Veterans in the past, as well as currently serving as a mentor for Google Developer Groups in North America.

Understand the drive to find Vets who want to engage with the demand side, but the supply side re: Become a Mentor is missing a lot of information: what are the expectations, time commitment, how to register events, is there support for events, etc.

For example, I'd be happy to host events and provide a regular touchpoint to connect and mentor folks locally, but I've got another kid coming in a few months, so I'm having to be extra picky with my time at the moment.

beAbU2• 1 year ago

Veterans, not veterinarian.

Jonovono• 1 year ago

Took me way too long to realize this

havefunbesafe• 1 year ago

Judging by the number of these comments, there could be a similarly large market for Veterinarians Who Code

beAbU2• 1 year ago

I was honestly excited to learn about veterinarians using home-baked software to solve problems in their day-to-day working lives. I'm left a little disappointed that I have so far wasted energy posting twice in this catfish of a thread.

9rx2• 1 year ago

Veteran veterinarians?

mooreds2• 1 year ago

If you are interested in learning more about the organization, here's an article about Jerome Hardaway, the founder: https://github.com/readme/stories/jerome-hardaway

And here's their GitHub org: https://github.com/Vets-Who-Code

Jerome also was kind enough to write a post for my Letters To a New Developer blog a few years ago: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2020/09/21/youre-gonna-be...

kwertyoowiyop• 1 year ago

Your mailing address doesn’t have the city, state, or zip. At least not on my iPad.

astura• 1 year ago

Do the people who made this website realize text is meant to be ready and not decoration? I literally can't read text that's bouncing around due to the animation on top.

oerdier• 1 year ago

Great initiative, but the landing page on Firefox Android is quite annoying because the animated text wraps and keeps changing the vertical position of the text I'm trying to read.

mooreds2• 1 year ago

You can read about the positive effects of this post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43570742

Thank you, HN.

Vets Who Code

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