Waiting list

We have two morning time groups (Mn-Tue-Thu; Wed-Fri-Sat) and 2 night time groups running simultaneously. The life cycle of one group is 10-11 weeks. As a result the School starts 2 new groups (one at night and one in the morning) each and every 5-6 weeks. Evening classes are easier to get into because we do not have waiting list for them. Morning classes are more popular and we close the enrollment 4-5 before the class begins. If you are planning to take the Express (morning) program, please, come to the School for taking the enrollment test 6-7 weeks before the class begins. The test is about basic computer skills - nothing sophisticated will be on the test. It cannot be retaken next day or next week. We do not require prospective students to have Computer Science background. But we do expect them to be good users of PCs and computer software. Statistically 75-80% of the enrollment test takers are passing it successfully.

Agile testing video tutorial

We are working on creating the video library of the classes taught at Portnov Computer School. Some classes we teach on regular basis and some are delivered once in a while by guest speakers. Iana Mourza has been teaching for Portnov Computer School for 5-6 years now. She is a Senior QA Lead at WMWare working in the Agile environment. Her comments and observations are priceless. We just posted two videos on Youtube with Iana talking about Agile Testing Methodology:

Would you sponsor my H1B visa?

We are being asked that question very often. I think it comes out of the fact that many small consultancies are offering classes in technical disciplines. They promise to sponsor work visa to qualified graduates. We are not in that line of business. So, under no circumstances we will sponsor H1B visa to our graduates no matter what their education and/or skill level might be.

How the Software QA Testing job market is doing?

The QA job market question is very common in our conversations with students. And it has two components now since we are operating locally as well as worldwide via our online program. The overall IT job market is probably the best over the last 20 years including the crazy market of late nineties. The best way to check it yourself is by looking at the IT job market numbers published each and every month by http://www.techservealliance.org/research/it-employment-index.cfm The QA job market is a part of the overall IT job market and it follows exact same trend. Outside if Silicon Valley though the demand/supply ration is more favorable to job seekers since the supply is close to zero. I have recruiter's access to Dice and can see the picture from that side as well. I have been teaching SQA to career changers since 1994 and in my personal opinion there gas never been job market better than it is today. We are living in the opportunity time.

Can I take the class if I have to drive from San Francisco (Monterey, Sacramento, etc.)?

We have students coming from all over the US and Canada including Los Angeles and San Diego. They join our Full-Time program, which is originally designed for the needs of students coming to the campus for 3-4 months.

We have many students from San Francisco. They easily drive from the City and back. Without traffic the commute would not take longer than 50-60 minutes.

We also have students who live as far as Sacramento or Monterey. Some of them would commute on the days we have classes joining Express (morning time) oer Flex (night time) programs. Others would be on full-time staying locally with friends or renting some housing nearby the school.

For those who commute daily the most challenging part of the program is going for an internship. All the companies taking our interns are located in between San Francisco and San Jose. There are no internship opportunities outside of that region.

So, if you life 80-100 miles from the campus, please, think about possible commute and how you can handle that.

Video taping all the sessions in the School

As of today we have Nikita on-board to take care of all the technical issues in the school. He joined us from Kazakhstan for 18 months as an international trainee on J1 visa. Nikita's term will end up in April of 2012 and we will bring two more trainees to join the Portnov Team.

Both will come from Ukraine. One person will take over Nikita's responsibilities. Another one specializes in Digital Media. He will take videos in our classrooms, edit them, and organize into convenient libraries.

Why do we want to create the videos? The primary interest was originally in giving our online students better connection to classes we teach on campus. It is especially important for the self-paced classes.

Besides that we want our Silicon Valley students to be able to repeat each and every session of their choice without driving to the school and sitting in the classrooms. There is really no need in that.