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Oct 04, 2019

Treading New Ground: Introducing Credera’s New Technology Bootcamp

Alex Kaiser
Daniel Richards
Garrett Dorr
William Heidarian
Megan Moore
Jacob Richardson
Ryan Tanoury

Alex Kaiser, Daniel Richards, Garrett Dorr, William Heidarian, Megan Moore, Jacob Richardson, and Ryan Tanoury

Treading New Ground: Introducing Credera’s New Technology Bootcamp

This summer, seven new hires had the opportunity to participate in the first Credera Bootcamp, hosted and operated by Credera’s Open Technology Solutions (OTS) Practice. The bootcamp’s goal is to support the professional development of those interested in pursuing a career in technology consulting with Credera but do not have a computer science or similarly technical degree. The six-week curriculum is organized around teaching the front-end, back-end, cloud, and DevOps technologies and practices that are considered the most valuable for establishing a foundation for a successful career at Credera. Days are structured with employee-led lectures each morning followed by programming exercises corresponding to that day’s material in the afternoons. Alex Kaiser, Daniel Richards, William Heidarian, and Garrett Dorr recently joined Credera’s OTS practice and shared their thoughts on participating in the program.

What attracted you to Credera and subsequently the bootcamp?

Alex: For me, it had to be the culture. I’ve never felt so welcomed by each individual employee during an office visit, and they truly practice what they preach when it comes to their core values. Coming from a computer engineering background, I thought the bootcamp was a great idea because the college programs I’ve been a part of focused mainly on C++. I had little to no experience in front end or DevOps.

Daniel: I was an experienced hire that primarily worked in Microsoft ERP services and wanted to transition to open-source technologies. In college, I had exposure to Java, C/C++, and a few other technologies, but had no idea how to implement them with different libraries. I am so thankful that the bootcamp was available because even though I was confident in my abilities, I was far removed from my college experience and was humbled when I started hands-on work.

William: Initially I had an offer from another company that I was ready to take. I was able to get a last-minute interview at Credera and was immediately able to tell the difference in the quality of the people and the culture. Combine that with an offer to learn a wide variety of technologies from experienced instructors and I was sold on Credera.

Garrett: Through my business degree at Baylor, I had limited exposure to programming, but I instantly fell in love with it. I decided I wanted to be a software developer, but I knew I didn’t have the necessary skills to make it in the field. When I heard Credera was offering a -week coding bootcamp that would teach current technologies from industry professionals, I knew I wanted to be part of it.

What was your favorite part of the bootcamp?

Alex: The organization of the bootcamp was great. Everyone did a fantastic job of showing the entire lifecycle of development from the ground up. Being able to see how a simple idea in a developer’s head is formatted to code on a screen and how it is deployed to millions was definitely my favorite experience.

Daniel: Aside from learning the technologies and building apps, my favorite part was being able to meet so many Credera team members outside of my home office. I felt extremely blessed to spend six weeks with everyone in the Dallas office and the individuals who travelled from Denver to help teach on site. After returning to Houston, I’ve tried to maintain those relationships.

William: Getting to know and learn from all the different instructors was an extremely valuable experience. It was also great to be able to spend six weeks in Dallas getting to know the people there before moving to the Denver office.

Garrett: My favorite part of the bootcamp was learning about the React framework. I had a little bit of Java experience from college, but everything front end was completely new to me. The instructors were so helpful and seeing tangible results every time I added a new bit of code was rewarding.

What do you hope to see in future iterations of the bootcamp?

Alex: Two things I hope to see would be material on Azure and Google Cloud. During the DevOps section, we focused heavily on AWS with a small section on Jenkins. Teaching about the DevOps tools on other major cloud platforms would be a major benefit when getting signed to a client.

Daniel: Front-end technologies change very frequently, and it is difficult to learn a specific library within the truncated timetable of the bootcamp. I would like to see the bootcamp cover some basic concepts of front-end development, such as the state of a page, DOMs, or event listeners that are present in the libraries and frameworks.

William: I’m interested in seeing more front-end frameworks added to the bootcamp. Learning React was a great way to be introduced to the front end and it would be valuable for future bootcampers to be exposed to a variety of frameworks. Adding something such as Vue.js or Angular would highlight the benefits and drawbacks of the different technologies and provide a fuller picture of the world of front-end development.

Garrett: I hope to see some basics of each language covered before jumping into the libraries and frameworks that are offered. The bootcamp is geared toward those who do not have the most programming experience, so learning some of the basics first would be helpful in the long run.

What surprised you about the bootcamp?

Alex: The bootcamp showed me how committed Credera is to giving opportunities to those who are willing. If you required assistance at any point of the bootcamp, there was a way to get the help you needed. The inclusion of these “peer teachers” further showed me that Credera staff are committed to excellence.

Daniel: Credera’s commitment to their employees and their clients is unique in this industry. We had been told from the start of orientation that the company is in the business of serving their clients and they exemplify their core values by making sure clients are getting talented and knowledgeable resources.

William: This experience showed me how each of Credera’s core values are put into action day to day. The bootcamp allows Credera to hire bright new minds to offer value to our clients, while not forcing them to foot the bill for the learning required by someone with little experience in tech. This highlights Credera’s dedication to put the client’s needs first in every situation.

Garrett: From the moment I heard about the bootcamp, I was told it would be challenging and that I had to be prepared. I came into the first day mentally ready to be challenged and have a lot of information thrown my way. However, by the end of the six weeks, I was surprised to find just how much my confidence in my abilities had grown because of a well-planned curriculum and instructors who really wanted us all to succeed. The bootcamp has given me the skills and confidence needed to have a successful career with Credera.

The Beginning of an Era

Participants in the first bootcamp class included:

  • Alex Kaiser – Computer engineering

  • Daniel Richards – Biomedical engineering

  • Garrett Dorr – Business administration in management information systems

  • Jacob Richardson – Mechanical engineering

  • Megan Moore – Business administration in management information systems and marketing

  • Ryan Tanoury – Economics and advertising

  • William Heidarian – Mechanical engineering

Credera’s bootcamp is a valuable program that allows the company to invest in talented people with non-traditional backgrounds, train them on modern technologies, and help build confidence in their abilities to be successful starting from their first Credera project.

Interested in learning more about the technology bootcamp? Email Credera at findoutmore@credera.com. If you are interested in applying for the next technology bootcamp, send an email to talentacquisition@credera.com.

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