The Job Hackers

Larry Apke's The Job Hackers Agile MBA is a thought-provoking class, with members from different industries and areas, reading different materials and learning in a holistic manner. Non-conventional, as it not only deals with the certification exam but makes all of us think deeply about why this methodology works in product development.

A beautifully crafted community service amidst a market that is trying to exploit the name for profits than to serve its true intended intent.
Kudos Larry and Team 👍🏻

Pros:
-Free
-Boring topic made interesting by charismatic teacher
-Lots of support by students, alumni, and staff for your certification (PSM) and job search.
-Class was conveniently timed to be 7:45-9:00am for students who worked
Cons:
-The lectures aren’t detailed, the granular knowledge is gained from outside reading assignments (people who are expecting all this to be covered by the instructor were disappointed).
-There was very little discussion or Demo of software used to manage projects in Scrum. I think this was an oversight. The instructor spoke ill about products like Jira, but those are what’s in use. Ignoring them by discussing their flaws isn’t going to land someone a job as a scrum master.
-I would have liked a few more real world scenarios. It’s one thing to ...

Today is the first Tuesday when I don't have to wake up at 5.45 am and commute to SF downtown to take Larry's class. It feels empty without it. Even though I can sleep longer now.

When I reflect on my experience with the course, I cannot believe we were able to cover so many topics in only 6 weeks - Scrum Framework, Software Quality , Technical Debt, BDD&TDD, Continuous Integration, Lean Product Development, Systems Thinking, Cognitive Biases, and many-many others.. So many new books appeared on my bookshelf: by Tom Demarco, Daniel Pink, Don Reinertsen, Peter Senge, Matt Wynne, Eliyahu Goldratt, Nassim Taleb! Also, I was able to pass PSM (Scrum Master certification) from the first attempt :)

You don't just go through a series of concepts, learn tools and techniques, you deal with...

This class is awesome, the instructor is great and the learning environment is mainly presentation and discussion style. I highly recommend this course for anyone looking for a great learning environment with in-depth details on scrum, agile and having better overall view on human interaction.

Great Training, presentations, discussion!

Today is the last day of the Job Hacker's Class with Larry Apke's Scrum training, and I have learned so much. It is not only the content for PSM, but a radical change in the thought processes for working on projects. It is not bookish, although will help in PSM, but is a way of thinking! He truly put in practice ' Learning how to Learn'! Thank you Larry for the awesome presentations and your time.

This is the best class I have ever taken! You should take this class as soon as possible.

The instructor, Larry Apke started with the “why?” of Agile, and we all finished with an understanding of how to better facilitate team efforts.

The time is right, 7:30am, and I am not a morning person. It didn’t take the discipline I thought it would. The first session left me anxiously anticipating the next as did each of the 12 class sessions to follow. I easily got up and to class on time each day.

The price is right. You contribute what you can to your new favorite cause, The Job Hackers’ Agile training. This class prepared me to take and pass the Professional Scrum Master certification. Scrum.org offers classes starting at $1,300 to prepare you to pass the Professional Scrum M...

- Larry has great experience and practical knowledge and is genuinely interested in imparting knowledge to people and helping them find jobs.
- Guest speaker concept is very good.
- Covers a good range of topics like Systems behavior etc which you won't get in any agile training.
- Overall superb experience

This Course Is the Best Investment You Can Make in Yourself and Your Profession

I enthusiastically echo my esteemed colleagues and fellow reviewers glowing comments and encourage you to read through them yourselves as I most whole-heartedly concur.

Without parroting too much, I offer my unsolicited two cents... This course truly exceeded my expectations.

Regardless of your chosen profession, once you have taken the course you will understand and learn that the Agile philosophy transcends IT and is applicable to many other disciplines. The elegance of the class, its structure, and the material presented is that it coalesces one's "project management" approach into a simple and practical methodology for knowlege-based development work. For me, a seasoned MBA and PM, classes were ...

I am taking the JobHackers class online. I am absolutely amazed and having taken many classes before on different subjects, this is by far the most gripping, invigorating and motivating class. so glad I am able to do that. thank you Larry Apke for your dedication and commitment to help us all.

The Job Hackers brings a highly valuable opportunity to both those who want to manage or participate in software development as well as those who have waterfall project management skills and certification, looking to become an effective member of an agile development team.

In addition to articulating Agile principles and its methodologies, Scrum, Kanban and Feature Driven Development, among others, we spent a great deal of time on how to build, manage, facilitate, communicate and motivate agile teams - regardless of the setting, be it software development or business process development such as HR, sales automation, etc.

The Job Hackers brought us the benefits and essence of how to be an effective leader in the modern software development world; how to spot and address challenges ...

I have an MBA. I had good business school professors. If this had been part of my MBA, it would've stood out as one of the best, if not THE best, class and instructor in the program.

The breadth of material covered was interesting. I came in expecting to focus on the PSM Agile certification. The class helped me prepare for the test, certainly, but it covered a lot of other topics that ought to be required for business leaders. A lot of it was about best practices and key thought leaders for business management in general, but with some particular focus on managing others with high job satisfaction and excellent performance, and how to manage change and critical decision making.

I've recommended several of my colleagues take this class and they all loved it too.

This course is seriously differentiated from any other Agile certification preparation course I've seen on the market. Other classes are usually two day workshops which are high level review the basic agile principles and do some exercises to prepare you for a certification exam. These courses are heavy on hands on work, (THE HOW) but skim the surface to the background of the material. The Job Hackers Agile course is distinctly different. It is a several week long course that goes deep into the concepts and history and evolution of thought behind the agile philosophy (THE WHY). It explains the reasons why agile is so necessary and applicable in our current times with an unprecedented velocity of change in the work place. Understanding they why poises empowers people with a foundatio...

Larry’s Agile - Scrum training for sure exceeded my expectations! About 8 in class and 22-25 online and almost 100% participation during 12 days (7:30AM - 9Am) says it all! I am finishing the books that Larry recommended and looking forward on to taking PSM test (Professional Scrum Master) test! So far I am getting 80-95% on different Scrum knowledge practice tests (which I had a little to none idea about before I started this trading!) thank you Larry! ***** 5 stars ! :)

I've never suffered post-course withdrawals until completing The Job Hackers six-week Agile & Scrum Bootcamp. The learning experience was tremendous, and our diverse class commented on not wanting it to end. Most of us expressed how we were not the type of wide-eyed, bushy-tailed early risers to enjoy anything starting at 7:30 am, but Larry's engaging style and high-value curriculum motivated us to soak up all the knowledge, enlightenment and tools he shared. All of the recommended reading was worthwhile too. This training class was an outstanding professional development experience that extended far beyond preparing me for my successful passing of the Professional Scrum Master 1 certification (PSM 1).

Cons: There is no Bootcamp 2. After Bootcamp 1, you'll want more.

Attended the course remotely from New York. While there are no homework, project or group assignments, there is a substantial reading list to prepare for each class.

Even though as a remote student, the vibe felt like a physical classroom. Class es were held from 10:30 AM until 12 noon by video conference twice a week for 6 weeks. Students could ask questions during class via chat. The instructor, Larry is an excellent teacher. His explanations are very clear and concise.

At the end of the course, you will receive a "certificate of completion" and the ability to post it on your LinkedIn Profile. This course is designed to prepare students to take the "Professional Scrum Master I" certification exam which is proctored by an external testing organization and is the industry standard...

I didn’t want this training to end! Glad I will be an Alumni of The Job Hackers now!
After our 2nd day (12 total) I had our main HR at my office listen to my Agile introduction presentation. She and our cloud enterprise director liked it so much - we started our weekly lunch and learn and it’s been couple of weeks now! :) Taking this training was for sure Win-Win!
Thank you Larry - I learned a lot and got inspired to learn more and teach others about Agile and Scrum!

Honestly, my expectations were low as this is a free course. So I was pleasantly shocked when the instructor turned out to be exceedingly engaging.

I would recommend attending in person if at all possible; the ability to ask questions in person and discuss with other participants would have added another level of depth to my understanding of the material. It was quite difficult to have discussions with people online - frankly I was too shy to attempt it.

I would also recommend completing all the reading as soon as possible; preferably in advance of the course. There is quite a lot of reading.

The job support and meetups seem excellent; I wish I lived closer to be able to take better advantage of both.

Besides providing experienced professionals with the tools and principles of the Agile Methodology, The Job Hackers' twice weekly (for six weeks) sessions goes beyond textbook information. Instead, it exchanges and challenges participants to think beyond the obvious. Counter to assumption, Agile is not confined to the Information Technology sector. Each week Larry Apke (Founder and CEO), Lecturer-in Chief, draws from over twenty years as practitioner of Agile in Scrum Master and Scrum Master Coach roles, to deliver practical and market-ready information. At the end of each session, participants take with them knowledge and skills they can use to further their career at current jobs or one they wish to secure.

The weekly sessions are well-structured, delivered with engaging and rich...

I take Agile, Scrum, Kanban and Project Management training several times a year. These training sessions are very tech book and always help you prepare for a related exam. But they rarely cover real world experiences, they cover text book perfect experience. The real world is not at all like the text books. It's one thing to learn the ideal everything, it's another to apply that ideal training. The experience and discussions on real world situations and years of experience shared in the sessions helped me to get a new Agile Scrum Master role. I believe my ability to communicate my experience and training helped me to land a new job, and I believe I was better able to communicate because of the workshops I attended from The Job Hackers.

Thank you to Larry Apke for inviting me. I can'...