Hello CNY tech employers!!

Last month we announced the launch of Careers in Code, a coding bootcamp that will teach computer programming to women and minorities from distressed communities.

The timing is particularly significant given the U.S. Census Bureau just released data that lists Syracuse as one of the 10 poorest places in the United States. Syracuse also has the highest poverty among cities with over 65,000 in population in New York state.

Our ultimate goal with Careers in Code is to provide our students with the technical skills they need to obtain internships and full-time software development jobs with local CNY employers after 24 weeks of instruction.

We’re confident software engineering education can be used as an anti-poverty measure and provide our students with the skills necessary to increase their earning potential. Not only that, it will offset the current talent shortage our region faces when it comes to hiring software developers and engineers.

We’d like your feedback to help inform the curriculum

Two weeks ago we had a really exciting conversation with ~25 prospective instructors, mentors, and advisors who are interested in supporting Careers in Code (here are the notes from the meeting). It was a thoughtful discussion in which we talked about how we should go about creating the absolute best coding bootcamp possible for women and minorities from Syracuse’s distressed communities and how we will measure success.

Much of the conversation centered around what skills we should teach our students and how we should ensure that they are job ready upon completion of the bootcamp. That is, after completing the bootcamp the students should be able to do A, B, and C. For them to be able to do A, B, and C after ~24 weeks of instruction, we’re going to teach X, Y, and Z concepts using these languages and frameworks.

Now, this is where you come in. As local employers we’d love your thoughts and feedback to help inform our curriculum and ultimately what software engineering skills we teach our students.

With your feedback we will architect the program around what skills will best position our students to potentially have opportunities to work with your organizations. The following 5–10 minute questionnaire found here seeks to address answers to the following:

What fundamental programming skills should our graduates have in order to be hired as entry level software developers or interns at your organization?

How do you measure your job candidates’ “problem solving” / critical thinking abilities?

What’s your company’s highest priority need when it comes to staffing engineering resources? Frontend developers, backend developers, or full-stack?

How important is it for our bootcamp graduates to have experience working with your organization’s core technology stack?

What kind of project work would you like to see from our students before you hire them?

With your feedback we’re confident we’ll be well-positioned to work with our instructors to develop a first-rate program that will provide our students with the technical skills necessary to land internships and entry level software development jobs with organizations like yours.

Thank you!

We sincerely appreciate your willingness to respond to the questionnaire. Your comments, questions, and thoughts will be fundamental to the success of our program.

We are confident Careers in Code will generate profoundly rich and life changing opportunities for our students. Not only that, it will offset the current talent shortage our region faces when it comes to hiring software developers and engineers.

What’s next

☞ Interested in learning more? We’d love to hear from you! team@hackupstate.com