Vets Who Code
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Veterans, not veterinarian.
You can read about the positive effects of this post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43570742
Thank you, HN.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Your mailing address doesn’t have the city, state, or zip. At least not on my iPad.
I think the blend of medicine and technology is a great combination and definitely could be useful for a veterinarian.
I am a vet who codes. This seems like a great initiative!
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.
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.
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
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
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
[flagged]
In my country the noun "vet" is used (more or less) exclusively as short for "veterinarian", and this website was briefly very confusing.