Working wonderfully at Dev Academy
Enspiral Dev Academy is an 18 week coding bootcamp based in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.
Working at Enspiral Dev Academy is a whole-life enriching experience. From meeting great people, doing inspiring work and improving ourselves and the way we treat others in the process, Dev Academy tries to do things differently to make your day job a positive part of your life. As we’re currently on the hunt for a new Wellington teacher, we took some time to reflect on what it’s like to work here.
Here at Enspiral Dev Academy we work hard to create an environment, culture, curriculum and community that is deeply steeped in self and group awareness. We do this so we can contribute to the tech industry a working model for an enjoyable and sustainable workplace. Rather than cramming through your workload in the amount of hours you have set, Dev Academy offers a space to be yourself, to grow and experiment alongside the company, and to enjoy the results. Our goal is to grow exceptional individuals.
In talking to tech companies, the ability to code is not the most sought after trait in a new hire, it is the ability to work and learn in teams. Whakawhanaungatanga is the process of getting to know each other and relating well to our group (our whānau). We hold utmost respect for the value placed on relationships in te ao Māori and so we strive to put our relationships with each other and with students at the core of our work and our daily interactions. We set our space up for students and staff alike to practise this.
Dev Academy offers alternative formats for meetings, chats and dispute resolution. These equip staff with the tools to maintain positive and open professional relationships that work, creating a culture of people that genuinely care about each other. It affects everything from our daily rhythms to the language that we use in our online comms.
People, essentially, are at the heart of everything we do, and we make it our mission to discover how we can treat each other the best. As Joshua Vial, Dev Academy co-founder, likes to say:
“To be a good programmer study code — to be a great programmer study people.”
This is what our students do during their 9 weeks on bootcamp here at Dev Academy.
We start with understanding ourselves. Who we are as people. What our body and mind need to perform in high pressure environments. How we maintain a strong awareness of our mental wellbeing. These are some of the activities we do each day or week;
- Through twice weekly yoga practice.
- Mindfulness practice before our lectures.
- Providing set times to check in about how we feel
- And weekly classes dedicated to building our emotional intelligence.
All this helps us to become self aware of our emotions, our stressors, and how we respond to certain situations, and lets us help each other to improve.
Simultaneously we explore our communication skills.
- How to listen mindfully to others.
- How to express our ideas with clarity and insight.
- We practice pairing and the giving and receiving of feedback.
Learning communication skills on the job, particularly around difficult conversations, makes us all better coworkers and enables us to diffuse issues before they arise. It makes Dev Academy a happy place to work.
From this we reap the benefits of a richer work environment with more access to the state of heightened creativity and productivity sometimes referred to as ‘flow’. We also have deeper friendships and connections to those around us, building a community that is focused, creating change and supporting each other’s growth.
If this sounds like the something you would be willing to experiment with, or better yet, is something you have experience in, then Enspiral Dev Academy could be the perfect next step for you.
Enspiral Dev Academy is currently recruiting for a teacher in our Wellington team — let us know if you are keen to come join us!
Written by Sarrah Jayne, Engineering Empathy Instructor at Enspiral Dev Academy.
