The emergence of COVID-19 has resulted in a dramatic loss of human life globally, as well as an unprecedented public health crisis, making the past year one of the most difficult in history. The Impacts have been felt in every industry. Even during the pandemic, the IT industry has continued to grow, hiring more people and providing opportunities for them to demonstrate their abilities. However, due to a shortage of skilled and experienced Engineers, they are having difficulty finding suitable candidates to join their team. The demand for skilled engineers has inspired a new generation of education and training known as Bootcamp.
Bootcamps are intensive training sessions that are intended to prepare engineers for the practical realities of development. Bootcamp is an excellent platform for getting started in software engineering, and bootcamp experience can help you advance in your career.
We at Gurzu believe in developing great engineers. Gurzu with this bootcamp has come up with the mission to manage tech talents towards creative full stack engineers. Under a predetermined curriculum, the passionate engineers would receive eight weeks of intensive training in Ruby, Rails, and React. After successfully completing the program, they are expected to have the opportunity to work with high-caliber engineers at Gurzu to develop world-class software solutions.
A minimum criteria was set up to find the suitable candidates to join our Bootcamp.
- Basic knowledge of GIT
- Basic knowledge of how web applications work
- Basic knowledge of object oriented programming, data structure and algorithm
- Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, database
- Knowledge of basic Linux command
Based on the above mentioned criteria, after around 90 screenings, we were able to filter 8 candidates to join the Bootcamp which took place on 5th April 2019. Our Engineers created a curriculum with courses of LINUX, GIT, HTML, CSS to Ruby, Ruby On Rails and React On Rails incorporated which was scheduled to be completed in 39 working days.
We wanted to run the training program as a research-based in-person training, with different mentors guiding the trainees based on their expertise. Since global pandemic has changed our daily routines and habits, including learning in-person bootcamps was not possible. Converting to a virtual format was the only option available. Fortunately, converting them to a virtual format turned out to be a viable option. Learning resources and tasks were assigned using our own self-hosted learning management system, and mentor sessions were scheduled online. Trainees were given real-world problems based on the module, which they had to demonstrate to the panel after completing each task successfully. The trainees were then rated based on the following criteria:
- Meeting target (30%)
- Technical Skill (30%)
- Presentation Skill (10%)
- Communication Skill (10%)
- Problem Solving Skill (10%)
- Innovation (10%)
At the end of the Bootcamp, three trainees were hired as Associate Software Engineers at Gurzu. The COVID-19 Pandemic has inspired us to try out new methods of training.
As this was the first Virtual Bootcamp, it served as a learning experience for us as trainers. Since virtual is the New normal we are looking forward to improve the virtual Bootcamp based on the feedback from the trainees.
