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At Rocky Mountain Ruby 2012, Mike Gehard hosted a Growing Developers Panel which discussed how senior engineers, companies and code schools can help alleviate the shortage of quality software developers. Two to three months before the conference, Comverge had one Junior engineer on staff, but no formal training/mentorship program. Since that conference, we have hired an additional junior engineer and put both of them through our Junior Engineer program. This talk will cover the process Comverge uses when bringing on Junior software engineers, from interviewing techniques to on boarding and the first couple months of on the job training. This training includes Pivotal Tracker, Git branching strategies, learning to love pull requests, TDD, BDD and learning our products. Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/FG6w/
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The video titled "From Junior Engineer to Productive Engineer," presented by Jason Noble at Rocky Mountain Ruby 2013, discusses the systematic approach Comverge takes in onboarding junior software engineers to enhance their productivity. Nobles outlines his extensive experience in the programming field and describes the initiatives implemented within Comverge to develop a structured training program for junior engineers. The key points discussed include: - **Initial Challenges:** Comverge's lack of a formal training program prior to hiring junior developers, with an anecdote about Beth Medina, the first junior developer hired, who faced significant learning challenges without support. - **Development of a Junior Program:** Following discussions from the previous conference, Noble and his colleagues established a junior engineer program, emphasizing mentorship and hands-on practice. Noble shares how he worked with junior developers like John Williams to foster their skills alongside comprehensive resources such as online courses and books. - **Interviewing Techniques:** The company focused on personality and passion during interviews, rather than solely on technical skills, to ensure candidates were eager to learn. - **Mentorship and Collaboration:** Noble underscores the importance of pairing junior and senior developers, detailing methods like the 'Trying' technique where juniors work on different tasks while supported by a senior developer, fostering collaboration and easing the learning curve. - **Structured Learning Initiatives:** The use of the Ruby Cones project introduced juniors to critical concepts such as TDD and Git workflows, linking project tasks with learning objectives to accelerate their integration into the team. - **Outcomes:** The structured mentorship led to significant improvements in the juniors' productivity, with timelines for ramp-up varying based on prior experience. For instance, while Beth needed six to nine months to acclimate, John was productive after just two to three months. - **Future Aspirations:** Noble expresses a desire to expand the junior program as he takes on a lead role, emphasizing the importance of continuously developing junior staff to contribute effectively within the energy sector niche. Overall, Noble concludes with the significance of investment in training programs for juniors, demonstrating the positive impact of mentorship on their professional growth.
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