Although there is an abundance of material for beginners in Web3, there is a shortage of resources for those looking to become seniors.
RareSkills is a coding bootcamp exclusively for advanced programmers. The company’s mission is to help junior web3 developers become senior blockchain developers as fast as possible.
RareSkills began teaching students in June 2022. The instructor lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, but the company and classes are entirely online and fully remote. Students from RareSkills have gotten job offers at elite blockchain companies like Trail of Bits and LayerZero (Andreessen Horowitz-funded). The company has grown mostly through word of mouth but is also very active on Twitter (@rareskills_io). @rareskills_io
The company was founded by Jeffrey Scholz, who got his graduate degree in computer science from Columbia University. He then joined Yahoo and quickly became the youngest senior engineering manager there. During his time working at Yahoo, he built out the video machine learning platform and team. He moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2021 and began working on blockchain full-time. He’s an avid web3 advisor and a bestselling instructor on Udemy. His two Solidity courses are the only expert-level ones on the platform. This formed the beginning of RareSkills.
While building RareSkills, Jeffrey Scholz sought to replicate the experience of an elite graduate degree at a much cheaper price point. Namely, small class sizes, direct access to industry leaders, and highly rigorous and foundational study material instead of commoditized tutorials. Each cohort is limited to five students and each student meets one-on-one with their instructor weekly. Furthermore, students are assigned to work on blockchain problems because there are no tutorials or existing solutions, ensuring that they become comfortable with pushing the boundaries of the technology.
The company has a variety of customers, ranging from web3 entrepreneurs, software freelancers, junior solidity developers, and experienced web2 developers. The various pieces of feedback received by the company can be accessed here.
The company regularly emphasizes that genuine expertise does not happen quickly. As such, although the core Solidity and Ethereum boot camp is four months long, the company provides additional courses on advanced topics such as DeFi, Rust and Solana, Zero Knowledge Proofs, Data Science for Blockchain, and Data Science for Blockchain.
Presently, the company is looking to partner with web3 companies looking to recruit engineers or train their current developer workforce.
