Self-Taught-Benefits.md

Self-Taught Benefits

The following are some benefits of ACU:

1. Study Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) curated and/or tutored by other seniors, juniors, or students.
2. Get mentorship or multiple mentorship/coaching from seniors, juniors, or students.
   1. All members are known which means they are accountable and credible for what they say.
   2. Some member's opinions supersede others', depending on their experience.
   3. No one advises without credit. E.g., he reviews your resume without ever being on a hiring committee or without referring to the advice of someone who has made a hiring decision.
   4. No one head can hold all the wisdom; One mentor is not enough in most cases.
3. Prepare for work.
   1. Mentored & tutored to study CS Fundamentals.
   2. Resume proofreading and reviewing.
   3. Mentored & tutored to practice problem-solving by ICPC coaches, ICPC Finalists, and other members using curated resources.
4. Get work experience.
   1. Get referrals, job postings or tips on how to apply to internships or full time jobs.
   2. Mentored & coached on how to apply to paid open source programs such as Google Summer of Code and MLH or contribute to large open source projects.
   3. Get feedback about your application from the above steps.
5. Gain connections. While this point can't be specific, all the above benefits and more were discovered and made possible because of it.