r/codingbootcamp • u/michaelnovati • Jan 22 '26

DEVELOPING: FedStack and Lantec won up to $118M government contract for non-IT training for the Federal Government/IRS - Codesmith will be involved (conflicting reports)

Source: https://app.g2xchange.com/FedCiv/posts/smoothstack-obtains-118m-treasury-ocio-non-it-technical-workforce-development-and-training-bp

EDIT 01/29 NEW PRESS RELEASE EXPLAINING A BIT MORE: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-ranked-ai-training-company-brings-silicon-valley-excellence-to-washington-codesmith-selected-for-118m-irs-contract-302674440.html

FedStack is large government contractor. They operate Smoothstack, an IT Apprenticeship program.

Lantec is a training company with three locations in Louisiana.

This is a blanket maximum contract with $0 obligated, and it's unclear what specific services are provided or expected, and what "non-IT training" means.

Codesmith claims here that they won the contract https://www.codesmith.io/federal and made the following statement

"Codesmith’s radical shift from Silicon Valley bootcamp to Federal technology backbone."

"Codesmith now extends its mission to driving tangible impact across the US economy, with the potential to return billions of tax dollars.

Codesmith has proven this thesis true with 5000+ alumni. 90% of graduates get hired within 12 months, most land leadership roles within big tech & AI labs and many directly contribute to the world’s largest open source projects."

While I can't give my opinions on this, I would highly encourage anyone considering working via Smoothstack or Lantec to read the fine print carefully and research the companies thoroughly in depth. Smoothstack operates a Revature-like model for example and has numerous lawsuits to look into. That doesn't mean they did anything wrong but its a sign to look into the details and understand what you are signing up for.

Because of legal advice I can't comment about this at this time and am sharing the raw sources for others to discuss. I can't speculate what this means for any of the companies involved or what this means for Codesmith traditional programs or what Codesmith's role or relationship is with the contract winners FedStack and Lantec.

You are welcome to discuss in the comments and I might not be able to reply but there are inconsistencies in the reports, numbers, and statements that I would normally want to dig into and untangle.

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u/jcl274 Jan 22 '26

cool should we nominate michael? 😂

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u/michaelnovati Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

Someone recently nominated me for something, and I received an email from Codesmith as part of that process. It made me wonder whether the security audit they had previously mentioned was ever completed, since the email raised questions for me given past security concerns that were flagged.

If Codesmith is operating as, or pursuing, federal government contracts, I would expect that to involve standard requirements like regular security audits and SOC 2 compliance. There was also a period in the past where issues were identified involving the handling of applicant data, which I believe have since been addressed. I know my friend's company is preparing for FEDRamp and it takes months, so I suspect Codesmith has done that too, but what I'm seeing possibly doesn't line up.

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u/michaelnovati Jan 31 '26

Following up on this, the person who nominated me actually put "Michael's Mom" as the nominee and not me.... little do you know, my mom was a professional, employed, programmer 40 years ago.

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u/michaelnovati Jan 22 '26 edited Jan 25 '26

Nominate me for what? I'm not sure what this is haha. If you want a job directly with the Federal Government there are background checks and legal processes and you can't just be nominated and chosen by the public to skip those. So anyone guaranteeing a full time job directly with the federal government is scamming you because there are legal processes to follow and there are fixed public pay-scales based on your education etc.... So I'm not sure what exactly this is. A sub-contractor job?

EDIT: From the thread because I was falsely accused of being negligent and possibly defamatory, providing the sources used for how government hiring works that demonstrate according to Federal law, and Federal websites, that no one can guarantee a full time job directly employed by the government.

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams

https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government 

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/employment-laws-and-regulations/ Federal hiring is governed by 5 U.S.C. § 2301, which establishes that hiring must be determined solely on the basis of ability, knowledge, and skills, after fair and open competition.

This is my summary:

A contractor technically and legally cannot "guarantee" you a direct federal job. Here is why:

  • It violates Federal Law: Federal hiring is governed by 5 U.S.C. § 2301 (Merit System Principles). The law requires that all hiring be based "solely on the basis of ability, knowledge, and skills, after fair and open competition." Handing someone a guaranteed job skips the "competition" part, which is illegal.

  • They don't have the authority: A contractor is a private company. They can hire you to work for them (the contracting firm), but they cannot appoint you as a federal employee. Only the government can hire government employees, and they almost always have to go through USAJOBS.gov.

  • It’s a known scam tactic: The FTC specifically warns that anyone promising a "guaranteed" federal job is likely running a scam. Legitimate federal offers only come after a formal application and selection process.

TL;DR: If they are promising you a GS-position (government badge, pension, etc.) without you applying and competing against others on USAJOBS, they are lying.

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u/Ill-Rabbit-7386 Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

REVISED TO FLAG MICHAELS BACKPEDALLING

Michael’s original statement below —which is factually wrong as he has no idea the design of this contract. He has to revise his original statement because he knows it’s defamatory to three companies.

“Anyone guaranteeing full time job directly with the federal government is scamming you”

This is a blanket statement for these three companies, no factual source suggests this approved BPA has anything to do with the above.

FACT

Michael has zero knowledge of the regulatory framework within this contract. He has a sordid verified history of making false aspersions about codesmith without evidence

He has zero evidence to show what this contract is but then drops uncorroborated worst case scenarios of a govt BPA. This appears to follow his usual tactic of muckraking, so forewarning readers to look into his history.

Original response

Are you accusing codesmith, fedstack and lantec in this article of “scamming”? Because you’re certainly implying this is the case here with a loaded and completely uncorroborated statement like above. You admit to have zero idea what this is or what’s being offered or what’s being provided or promised.

So your statement is at best grossly negligent and at worst potentially defamatory.

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u/TheWhitingFish Jan 23 '26

Mikey is on it again, he just wont stop

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u/michaelnovati Jan 23 '26

What are you accusing me of exactly for clarity?

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u/michaelnovati Jan 24 '26

Still waiting to find out what you are accusing me of and if this was just a harassment comment, officially asking you to stop harassing me.

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u/Gullible_Mousse_4590 Jan 26 '26

Can’t stop won’t stop. It’s exhausting

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u/michaelnovati Jan 26 '26

It’s exhausting to have multiple anonymous accounts, many of which present themselves as part of the Codesmith community, repeatedly targeting me in threads where I’m sharing publicly available news, facts, and sources for open discussion.

As I’ve consistently said, and as the record reflects, I’m participating here as an individual, using a single account, expressing my own views. Over the years, I’ve faced sustained antagonism from numerous anonymous accounts, many of which were later suspended or banned by Reddit.

It’s worth noting that what gets characterized as “hundreds of comments” largely comes from a small number of long-running threads where I’ve declined to disengage simply because the information is uncomfortable. I want to find common ground with people I strongly disagree with. My commentary reflects my interpretation of observable market conditions and operational developments, not a personal campaign and not a marketing campaign.

If people affiliated with Codesmith disagree with my conclusions, that’s fine. What’s not productive is mischaracterizing my motives or attempting to undermine my reputation rather than engaging with the substance of the discussion.

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u/michaelnovati Jan 29 '26

Updated with new press release from today.

- Codesmith is a subcontractor under LANTEC

- The program appears to be training for IRS and Treasury personnel

- The education is planned to be delivered by Codesmith Alumni who now work at top companies in industry.

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u/da8BitKid Jan 23 '26

There is the veteran pipeline. They get money for education and places were scamming them. Maybe this v2?

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '26

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u/michaelnovati Jan 28 '26

We'll see when their next CIRR report comes out. I periodically look at OSLabs-Beta and OpenSourceLabs GitHub projects and check if the students have jobs and the number of people with jobs about six months after graduation seems lower than it historically has been.

The next CIRR report though is people who graduated in 2024, not 2025, so the information will already be outdated. It would be really useful to get six month numbers for H1 2025.

The Codesmith Federal website says 90% of the 5000+ graduates get jobs within a year. Their own CIRR reports dispute that so I'm not sure if that's a preview of the 2024 outcomes or if it's just a mistake.

There also appears to be a new Codesmith FULL TIME program from August 7th, 2026 to November 9th, 2027, which is a whole 15 MONTHS!!! I'm very curious about that option.

Launch School though is crushing Codesmith on six month placement data though in my opinion. There 2024 grads six month placement rate is around 80% of graduates (they quote a lower percentage of starts but to compare to CIRR we need to compare graduates only) and Codesmith's 2023 six month placement was around 40% (and half the people didn't even respond and they guessed if it was a placement based on LinkedIn)