Scaling Craftsmanship Through ApprenticeshipCHRIS MCKENZIE

Personal History

Started Programming at 25 w/ virtually no prior experience or education

Had a great mentor

Worked hard to learn

Became an advocate for TDD / Clean Code

Rat City Roller Girls

More than meets the black eye

Junior Derby League

Coached by current and former skaters

First graduates entering the adult league

Elevating the game for everybody

Growth in the Industry

Demand for programmers doubling every 5 years

Half of all programmers have < 6 yrs experience

Years experience != Skill

"It means that most software organizations will have to endlessly relearn the lessons they learned the five years before. It means that the industry as a whole will remain dominated by novices, and exist in a state of perpetual immaturity. …[A] leader can help to instill the value of refactoring and clean code, as a counterweight to the youthful thrill of getting it to work. “ --Uncle Bob "My Lawn" http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2014/06/20/MyLawn.html

Growth in our Company

Historically hired only senior engineers

Started hiring less-experienced devs

Started an internship program to teach new developers to work like seniors

Program Philosophy

Learn, then do.

Intern is paired with a dedicated mentor (usually me).

Intern is assigned a coach.

Intern

Should be a senior in college

They should at least understand data structures

Should want a career in Software Development

Mentor

The Mentor’s job is to guide the intern’s learning.

Teach principles before tools & technologies.

Keep the learning transferrable.

Focus on tools & technologies used in the project

Teach the project

Coach

Pair with the intern a couple of times a week

1-on-1 with the intern each week

Assess the progress of the Intern and Mentor

Second set of eyes to identify and correct potential issues

Curriculum

Boot Camp

Reading, Pluralsight

Tools & Technologies

Principles

Trello

Project Work

Held to the same standards as senior developers

All work is code-reviewed

Notes for Mentors

Patience

Practice

Pairing

Source Control

Use their homework assignments for teaching opportunities

Hiring

If we have a position open

And we are highly impressed with the Intern

Success Stories

First intern was hired

Career Changes

Lost a hiring battle for one of our interns

Questions?

iextendable.com

@ISuperGeek