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Apprenticeship Opportunities and Risks

1. Intro2. State of Engineering Talent3. Is Apprenticeship a Solution For You?4. MAP5. Learnings6. Resources

Outline

A leading Chicago design and engineering agency. We do digital where it has the most impact:

● Education● Healthcare● Startups● eCommerce● Non-Profits

By the numbers:

10 straight years of growth40+ people400 clients60+ launches/yr16.3M unique users in 2015

Chicago focus.

State of Engineering Talent

Ecosystem:1. What is a junior engineer?

a. CS degree, Bootcamp grad, 1 yr of experience, 2 years of experience?2. Supply: Huge increase in pre-first job engineers

a. Chicago bootcamps alone produce 200+ a year3. Demand: Increasing for all engineers w/ at least 1 year of experience

a. Greater gap means more linkedin stalking from recruiters :(b. Also means a continued lack of mid-level engineers

Your team:4. Are you attracting the right engineering talent currently?5. Using recruiters, internal hr person, job boards, inbound?

Is Apprenticeship A Solution For You?Benefits

• Increased clarity around hiring needs• Able to hire more diverse talent pool• Junior Engineer loyalty• For existing team:

– Deepened understanding of craft

– Mentorship opps– Improved communication

Key Questions:1. Are you having trouble hiring qualified juniors?

2. Do you have engineer bandwidth?

3. Are your engineers interested in mentoring?

4. Do you have space and work for apprentices?

Costs• Time commitment:

– For mentor (2-3 hours per apprentice per week)

– Person organizing (up to 10 hours per week)

• Cost if you pay apprentices• Difficult hiring decisions• If doing real work, mistakes could

cause problems

Goal: Can we imagine this person being a great full-time hire three months from now?

1. Recruitment - 6 weeks priora. Tested HTML/CSS/JS, MVC knowledgeb. High Demand from applicants

2. Onboarding - 2 weeks priora. Markup, CSS pre-work

3. Program w/ Individual mentor throughout - 10 Weeks

a. Engineer led sessions to intro technologyb. Week long projects to explore, learnc. Day long challenges to gauge progressd. More apprentice autonomy over time

4. Hiring - Week 11: a. Based on assessments, project evaluations, and mentor feedback

MAP Program Structure

Mentorship (Skill, Time)• Set time expectations as early as possible for mentors and mentees• Mentoring should be 100% voluntary

Appropriate content• Don’t assume knowledge: Our apprentices didn’t come in knowing enough front-end• Prioritize what you need an apprentice to learn vs. what would be nice for them to leave with

Evaluation and definition• Have 1 on 1 feedback at the end of a project• Some assessments every 2 weeks to make sure people are on track

Learnings

Resources

• Thoughtbot’s Retrospective• Thoughtbot’s Apprentice Packet• Chicago Apprentice Series• White Paper on Apprentice Programs