Forging juniors at Elements
Elements Interactive is constantly looking for talented developers. Because qualified and experienced developers are not always easily available, we decided to train our own Python/Django developers in-house. David de Sousa, one of our Senior developers, created a six month training program for junior developers. In August 2015, two new colleagues (Eltjona and Aart) joined Elements and started this training program. This is their story.
Our first weeks of the training program consisted of revisiting basic Python and general programming principles (such as sorting, lists and algorithms) to get familiar (again) with Python and becoming acquainted to various platforms used by Elements Interactive for the workflow and documentation of the projects. We are sitting next to our supervisor David who can answer our questions immediately. It is like studying with a professor sitting next to you all the time! So as you can imagine, our learning rate is fairly high and this is how we are feeling right now:
Eltjona: After working for more than a year as a web developer in Albania, my home country, I decided to go for a new challenge in my life. Since the Netherlands has always been my first love and Dutch people are so kind and welcoming to foreigners, I aimed to continue my studies here. I have a bachelor in Informatics and continued my studies for M.Sc. Business Information Studies. After I finished my studies, even though not yet my thesis, I was trying to find a job as a junior Python developer, since I did not have a lot of experience with this language and I became really fond of it while working for a school project. Via LinkedIn I came across Elements, the company looked vibrant, interesting and a learning hub. I had a first introductory interview which went very well. Afterwards I had to complete a take-home assignment. Within three weeks I had finished all rounds and had an offer on my table. Pretty awesome!
After the first two weeks of basic Python we continued with learning about Django, “the web framework for perfectionists with deadlines”, that Elements uses to create back-ends of most of its projects. When you know Python, starting with Django is pretty easy and within a few weeks we were already building an authenticated REST API and after six weeks we joined an internal project team that is creating an app where we could deploy our knowledge into a real world project.
Aart: I have a bachelor Human Movement Sciences and have some basic Python experience. I was looking for Python jobs at LinkedIn when I came across a job offer at Elements. Only two days after my application I had my first job interview via Skype. Two weeks, two interviews and one programming assignment later, Elements offered me a job. The application process was very informal and swift, a good first experience with Elements!
Working together with a project manager, product owner and the front-end guys has been a good experience (although from our ‘back-end’ point of view the front-end guys are a weird bunch of people…). Everyone in our team and on our floor is really open to questions from us and to help us get up to speed with the rest of the company as fast as possible. So until now, working at Elements has been very nice. The people working at Elements are a mix of nationalities and personalities, from Venezuelan to German, from introverts to extroverts (well, maybe not ‘real’ extroverts). The working environment is a mix of the dynamics of a start-up and professionalism of a corporate company.
Finally, some random experiences at Elements:
- Lunch time is always a nice moment to socialize with the colleagues you do not work with on a day-to-day basis.
- Fridays are crowded: Friday is the in-house day for developers that work at client locations.
- The #random Slack channel is random. Really, really random.
- Although it’s nice to have music playing during the day, just do not let the Germans control it, otherwise you’ll be listening to Schlagers all day…
- The boot camp workout session every Wednesday is a good way to boost your fitness and get to know your colleagues outside the working environment. Even though sometimes the outcome is sore muscles, it is a lot of fun.
Summarizing, we have been enjoying every day at Elements and are looking forward to learn a lot more in the coming months and to start working on projects!
Originally published at www.elements.nl on October 13, 2015.
