Blog

The Vision

Like most plans - very few survive being put into action.  Whilst the beginning and end points hopefully remain intact the  bits in the middle are usually up for grabs the moment a project starts.  The plan with our trainees is I'm pretty sure going to be the same, a moving feast of figuring out what works and what doesn't but we do have a couple of goals we are aiming for.

Thankfully though we are used to fluid environments and shifting plans and requirements in our day to day work and projects. Hopefully Ben and Joseph will be too or at least can learn to accept the lack of order than often so comes with what we do.  

We need Ben and Joseph to thrive.  They need to do well, hit their learning targets and get some certification under their belts as soon as possible.  Getting some early success grows confidence and importantly they can start contributing as soon as they are able in whatever capacity they are able to real projects.  Assuming this goes to plan then in 7-8 months or so we can start again.  

Start Again! Gluttons for Punishment or Practice Makes Perfect?

The plan for what we are doing has always been to try and build something different.  So once we are 8 months in we will start the whole recruitment process again.  This time though we will have the benefit of knowing what we are getting ourselves into to.  Not only this but we will also have two perfect mentors built and ready to roll for when we bring in our new 1st year trainees they will be the 2nd year Ben and Joseph.

This mentoring or buddy system we believe is going to be the key to the success of the plan.  As people move through the three year programme we want them to look after and mentor those below them and foster a supportive, knowledge based environment where everyone learns people skills along the way.  Software development is, after all, as much about people as it is about code, syntax, databases etc…

Wondering what happens at the end of the three years?  To be honest so are we.  What we hope has happened is we have grown sufficiently to take on one or both of the trainees.  If this is not the case then they will be finishing with three solid years in a commercial software environment, Kung Fu in lots of shiny new skills and will be quickly snapped up by the previously mentioned Big Beasts of the Isle of Man employment market.

Whilst this is not a totally philanthropic endeavour there is, we believe a decent amount of good in what we're hoping to do.  Helping someone into a rewarding career is not a bad thing now is it?

The next posts in this series will be by Ben and Joseph and offer an insight into their first few weeks or so.