A little less than three years ago, at Voxel we decided that we wanted to change the way we hired. Faced with the difficulty of finding more experienced profiles with good knowledge of the practices we were using internally, we decided to go for hiring talent with little experience in the sector and train them before they joined the teams.
To this end, we launched our first edition of the talent accelerator with the folks at Cokaido. Recently, we have started the second edition, this time helped by the good people at Exeal.
After an exciting selection process, we decided to incorporate seven people, with a contract from day one, and give them four months of training to facilitate their incorporation into the teams. Halfway through this process, we wanted to share their experiences with all of you.
Sara Alite Villodre – Software developer
I discovered Voxel on Twitter, through a tweet from Vicenç, our VP of Engineering, in which he talked about how they were looking for staff for a company that takes care of people. This is what encouraged me the most to dare to apply for a position in the Aceleradora de Talento, despite the fact that we were going to work with a back end language that I didn’t know.
After a first interview with Aroa, who made everything so easy that I felt like I was having a chat with a friend, they sent me the technical test, a kata. For me, who had little experience and only as a front end developer, it was a big challenge. However, I faced it with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of effort.
After delivering the technical test I was interviewed again by two colleagues who also generated a friendly and pleasant atmosphere in which I almost forgot that I was still in an interview process and that I was competing for a position that I was very excited about. A short time later I received the call confirming that I had obtained my place in the Aceleradora.
Since then, I could define my experience in one word: “intensity”. For me, with my background, being up to the task has been and still is difficult, because we are working daily with concepts that I did not know or had not practiced much (TDD, OOP, clean code, object calisthenics …). All my colleagues make this journey much more bearable with their words of encouragement, explanations and teamwork. Our teacher deserves a special mention, as due to his patience, good humor, attention to detail and concern for our learning, he has managed to surprise me myself programming in C# (if you tell me a year ago I would have looked at you with a panda bear face!).
The classes include some theoretical lessons but most of all…practice! Katas, katas and more katas. The first months we learned to program in mob and pair. We have seen many new concepts and applied them to code. For me, the experience is a bit like “brain exploding” all the time and I feel like a sponge trying to absorb all the knowledge that is transmitted to us, both in the classes and through the Comunidad de práctica meetings where we attend talks by colleagues from the company and pair programming with colleagues. Currently, we are already facing a real project that will help in the management of our company and I think I can say on behalf of all of us that we are really excited.
I do not want to finish without thanking Voxel for the opportunity, for believing and investing in junior talent, for offering continuous and specialized training and to all the colleagues for always being there.
Victoria Kovaleva – Software developer
Voxel’s bootcamp is an incredible opportunity for people who are just starting their way in the programming world. They are not only showing you how to program, but how to do that using good practices in order to get good habits from the beginning. They take care of you a lot! There is a learning plan, but there is no pressure. If you need more time for understanding, if you need more help or extra attention – you’ll have all of it with no doubt, because they really want you to understand. They are not just showing and talking, no… They are working for us. Sometimes I’m confused whether Voxel should pay me or I have to pay Voxel?
I don’t have too much experience, however, I did not have any idea about certain things. Mob programming, different types of pairing, TDD, XP, Agile, Object calisthenics etc. It’s amazing! Only now I realise that being a programmer is not only to write a code, there are plenty of other important things. And it’s so upsetting that so many companies have no idea about it 🙁
Talking about Voxel in general, having 13 years of experience in different companies, for the first time I see a Company gives the value for each person working here. They pay attention to you from the moment you step in. It’s not you who is looking for attention, the rest of the people are coming to you to welcome you and to get to know you. You don’t feel apart, you feel like you’re in a big family.
Sometimes I’m thinking why I am here, why Voxel needs me with no experience in programming, with no particular knowledge?…. However, I have a lot of confidence in Voxel, and if it needs me, that means I have value, I am part of this good company. This is what gives me strength and motivation!
Raúl Gómez Crespo – Software developer
I found out about this opportunity thanks to Pedro Pardal, he explained to me a little about the Aceleradora and encouraged me to participate.
At first I was quite respectfu0. Iused to work in a certain way and programming in Java, having to work in mob programming, programming in C #, among other things, was something that I had not put at any time to consider and that not mastering it threw me back a little. But in the end after much thought and thought I decided to get up the courage and apply to the offer.
All the time I have been in the Aceleradora has been positive. The way Voxel has treated me, my colleagues in the Aceleradora, the teachers who give training to the Aceleradora team, each and every one of the activities carried out in the afternoons with the rest of the Voxel colleagues (All hands, lightning talks, Community of practices)… All this and much more are the reasons that make me happy and motivated every day to learn everything I can in order to make the accelerator a success and to be able to demonstrate everything I have learned in the team in which I enter in the future.
Therefore I would define as one of the best decisions I have made to advance my career, since I’m learning a lot of things I did not know and many others that I do a clean slate, because I had not learned the right way. So the only thing I do every day is to gain and gain knowledge and put them into practice, which is very satisfying also on a personal level, feeling that you move forward, learn and not stagnate professionally.
