(Making Tech Better podcast: https://www.madetech.com/resources/podcasts/)
At Made Tech we are currently running two academies per year. For each session we recruit sixteen diverse individuals with minimal coding experience. We pay them a salary to spend twelve weeks training full time in modern software development techniques, and then we take them on as software consultants.
From small beginnings and over a period of many years we have built a highly diverse and effective training programme. In this webinar we will share some of the principles and techniques we use to make this work.
Key takeaways:
How to recruit diverse fledgling engineers
How to create a learning culture
How and why academy programmes benefit your whole organisation
1. Making Learning Conscious
How to diversify your pipeline by recruiting and training
junior engineers
Clare Sudbery, Lead Engineer @ Made Tech
@ClareSudbery
69. See also…
The Making Tech Better podcast!
Fortnightly episodes
Host: Clare Sudbery, @ Made Tech
@ClareSudbery
tinyurl.com/making-tech-better
70. Stay in touch! 💬
Twitter - @ClareSudbery
See our career opportunities at www.madetech.com/careers
Follow us on Twitter @madetech
Notes de l'éditeur
Clare sudbery, Lead EngineerFemTech
recruit sixteen diverse individuals with minimal coding experience.
pay them a salary
to spend twelve weeks training full time in
modern software development techniques,
then take them on as software consultants
maybe
maybe
maybe
maybe
Make it desirable
Provide support through the process
Make the focus on learning and support clear
Share resources
Support people who don’t get through
Great engineers are made, not found. My whole rant about how as an industry we do recruiting wrong.
Go to them
Don’t wait for them to come to you
Market to groups that target diversity
Stay in touch
Diversity groups
Social media
Meetups
Make the process clear
Make it multi-layered
so that you lose the people who won't put the effort in
have easy ways of filtering people out at every stage
data points and scoring elements - filtering out people that raise flags
Include touchpoints
watch how they interact
if they say it's not fair that they didn't do well
if they ask how they can learn more - nurture that ready for the next programme - look for passion
Look for previous commitment
Avoid "I just wanna be in tech and I don't know why"
Interviews
do they want to benefit your company
make it as fair as poss - interview in pairs, separate styles of interviews eg face to face vs pairing
Be aware of neurodiversity
ADHD and dyslexia and autism
ask if they have any visible or non-visible disabilities
Don’t give time limits for coding exercises
Get the whole company involved
maybe
Make it desirable
Provide support through the process
Make the focus on learning and support clear
Share resources
Support people who don’t get through
Great engineers are made, not found. My whole rant about how as an industry we do recruiting wrong.
Go to them
Don’t wait for them to come to you
Market to groups that target diversity
Stay in touch
Diversity groups
Social media
Meetups
Make the process clear
Make it multi-layered
so that you lose the people who won't put the effort in
have easy ways of filtering people out at every stage
data points and scoring elements - filtering out people that raise flags
Include touchpoints
watch how they interact
if they say it's not fair that they didn't do well
if they ask how they can learn more - nurture that ready for the next programme - look for passion
Look for previous commitment
Avoid "I just wanna be in tech and I don't know why"
Interviews
do they want to benefit your company
make it as fair as poss - interview in pairs, separate styles of interviews eg face to face vs pairing
Be aware of neurodiversity
ADHD and dyslexia and autism
ask if they have any visible or non-visible disabilities
Don’t give time limits for coding exercises
Get the whole company involved
maybe
Make it desirable
Provide support through the process
Make the focus on learning and support clear
Share resources
Support people who don’t get through
Go to them
Don’t wait for them to come to you
Market to groups that target diversity
Stay in touch
Diversity groups
Social media
Meetups
Make the process clear
Make it multi-layered
so that you lose the people who won't put the effort in
have easy ways of filtering people out at every stage
data points and scoring elements - filtering out people that raise flags
Include touchpoints
watch how they interact
if they say it's not fair that they didn't do well
if they ask how they can learn more - nurture that ready for the next programme - look for passion
Look for previous commitment
Avoid "I just wanna be in tech and I don't know why"
Interviews
do they want to benefit your company
make it as fair as poss - interview in pairs, separate styles of interviews eg face to face vs pairing
Be aware of neurodiversity
ADHD and dyslexia and autism
ask if they have any visible or non-visible disabilities
Don’t give time limits for coding exercises
Get the whole company involved
maybe
Make it desirable
Provide support through the process
Make the focus on learning and support clear
Share resources
Support people who don’t get through
Go to them
Don’t wait for them to come to you
Market to groups that target diversity
Stay in touch
Diversity groups
Social media
Meetups
Make the process clear
Make it multi-layered
so that you lose the people who won't put the effort in
have easy ways of filtering people out at every stage
data points and scoring elements - filtering out people that raise flags
Include touchpoints
watch how they interact
if they say it's not fair that they didn't do well
if they ask how they can learn more - nurture that ready for the next programme - look for passion
Look for previous commitment
Avoid "I just wanna be in tech and I don't know why"
Interviews
do they want to benefit your company
make it as fair as poss - interview in pairs, separate styles of interviews eg face to face vs pairing
Be aware of neurodiversity
ADHD and dyslexia and autism
ask if they have any visible or non-visible disabilities
Don’t give time limits for coding exercises
Get the whole company involved
maybe
Make it desirable
Provide support through the process
Make the focus on learning and support clear
Share resources
Support people who don’t get through
Go to them
Don’t wait for them to come to you
Market to groups that target diversity
Stay in touch
Diversity groups
Social media
Meetups
Make the process clear
Make it multi-layered
so that you lose the people who won't put the effort in
have easy ways of filtering people out at every stage
data points and scoring elements - filtering out people that raise flags
Include touchpoints
watch how they interact
if they say it's not fair that they didn't do well
if they ask how they can learn more - nurture that ready for the next programme - look for passion
Look for previous commitment
Avoid "I just wanna be in tech and I don't know why"
Interviews
do they want to benefit your company
make it as fair as poss - interview in pairs, separate styles of interviews eg face to face vs pairing
Be aware of neurodiversity
ADHD and dyslexia and autism
ask if they have any visible or non-visible disabilities
Don’t give time limits for coding exercises
Get the whole company involved
maybe
Regular breaks
Daily coffee / standup
Reasonable working hours
Fun
Encourage simple questions
LISTEN
Trust
Cultural differences
121s
Dropins
Inter-team tech time
Cross-team retros
Breakout rooms
Mobbing
Pairing
Pair stairs
Pairing on longer projects
Almost-daily retros
Respond to feedback
Ad hoc sessions kept free
Individual learning time
Mixture of session styles
Showcases
Learn => Teach
“Polymorphism threes
Too loud / too quiet
Empathy
Collaboration
Communication
Co-mentoring
Feedback culture
Facilitation
Presenting showcases
Interacting with clients
User research
Project management
Agile ceremonies
Delegation to THEM
Preparing them for the future
Offboarding
Real project code walkthrough
Psychological safety
Diversity & inclusion
Clinics
Code reviews
Slack channels
Career talks
Showcases
Delivering presos and workshops
Internal conference
Discovery
Proposals
Pretend customer
Final showcases
Official assessment
Self assessment
Regular 121s and targets
Code reviews
maybe
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
Get the whole company involved
Set up support groups
Action learning
Give questionnaires
Monitor
Stay in touch
Communicate with new teams
Make sure they’ll be supported
maybe
maybe
o You are learning constantly - interaction with environment
o But still people do sometimes try to avoid it
Why would they try to avoid learning?
• Time
• Money
• Fear
o But you can’t avoid it – you have to accept it
maybe
o So, the ideal is to
o Accept it
Because it happens whether you like it or not
o Embrace it
Because if you expect it, celebrate it and encourage it when it happens, people will feel good about it and be more likely to do more of it and get more out of it
o Seek it
Because then you’re ahead of the curve
And you’ll attract new talent
And you’ll improve your existing talent
Recruitment is not about finding the right people, it’s about creating them
o Innovation – happy to take risks
o Collaboration – asking and answering questions
o Being up to date with new technologies
o Having deep expertise
o Quality – safe to fail means safe to seek and act on feedback
o The ability to pivot because people are happy outside their comfort zones
o Psychological safety
o Stability – confidence in your ability to adapt to change
YES
Almost-daily retros
Respond to feedback
Ad hoc sessions kept free
Individual learning time
Mixture of session styles
Showcases
Learn => Teach
“Polymorphism threes
YES
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
o 10% time
o Academies
o Apprenticeships
o Workshops
o Training courses in a classroom (general skills work better than specific)
o As-and-when training courses
o On the job… (see next section)
Almost-daily retros
Respond to feedback
Ad hoc sessions kept free
Individual learning time
Mixture of session styles
Showcases
Learn => Teach
“Polymorphism threes