This week 20 passionate individuals from different employers embarked on their Switchfully journey to become full-stack Java developers. During the next 4 months they will not only learn to code but they will be trained to become real crafts(wo)man with an agile mindset!

Best of luck!

For the second time we partnered with CM to organize the Java academy. Another 15 highly motivated individuals will join the CM IT teams as junior software developers.

We wish them best of luck and a lot of fun!

After 4 months of hard work and a lot of fun, 16 motivated individuals are ready to take their first steps in the software teams at FPS Finance. We wish them best of luck!

# java@FIN

java-at-fin

On september 2, a new Switchfully class starts at FPS Finances! 16 newly attracted employees start their Switchfully journey to become a full-stack software developer! After 4 months they will integrate one of the software teams and contribute to applications such as MyMinfin, Tax-on-web.

Let’s make real craft(wo)men!

Switchfully, een interne venture van Cegeka die mensen met IT potentieel – maar daarom geen IT-ervaring – zoekt, selecteert, opleidt tot ontwikkelaar en nadien begeleidt, is op zoek naar een energieke trainer-developer. Je vervoegt het Switchfully team om deze interne venture uit te bouwen.

Wie ben jij?

• Je gelooft in het concept!
• Je bent een gepassioneerde full stack developer met een brede en actuele kennis van Java.
• Je bent doordrongen van de XP practices.
• Je leert graag bij en draagt dit ook graag uit.
• Je deelt graag jouw kennis en bent ook goed in het overbrengen hiervan.
• Idealiter heb je al wat ervaring als lesgever/coach.
• Je weet van aanpakken.

Wat houdt de job in?

• Je traint en coacht de nieuwe developers vanuit jouw persoonlijke expertise.
• Je neemt deel aan selectiegesprekken.
• Je bouwt samen met ons het trainingsmateriaal verder uit.
• Je bent actief betrokken in onze community van trainers-developers.
• Je denkt mee rond nieuwe trajecten/concepten en doet er alles aan om deze mee vorm te geven en te lanceren.
• Je gaat mee naar klanten om de trajecten voor te stellen en verder op maat uit te werken.

Waarom starten bij ons?

De flexibiliteit en autonomie van een interne venture …

• Je maakt deel uit van een compact, energiek, jong team.
• Je neemt dagdagelijks mee de beslissingen om Switchfully verder uit te bouwen
• Standplaats is BeCentral (in het stationsgebouw van Brussel Centraal) maar je brengt ook tijd bij klanten door.

… binnen het kader van een groot groeibedrijf

• Cegeka is een groeibedrijf met tal van doorgroeimogelijkheden in verschillende richtingen.
• We bieden een aantrekkelijk salaris dat overeenstemt met je ervaring en verantwoordelijkheden.
• Extralegale voordelen zoals maaltijdcheques, hospitalisatie- en groepsverzekering vervolledigen het salarispakket
• Een mooie bedrijfswagen maakt eveneens deel uit van ons aanbod.
• Dankzij het Flex Income Plan beheer je je eigen salarispakket in functie van je behoefte

On September 3, our new students started their 4-month journey to become professional software developers.  We’ve used the summer months to reinvent ourselves: Same same but different!

A new concept

Until now, we’ve trained and coached a group of motivated soon-to-be junior developers for one specific client. Integrating several junior developers into your software teams requires a decent-sized IT department. In order to serve some smaller organizations, we’ve introduced our mixed class: Several students from different organizations learning together and cross-pollinating each other.

A new language

After successfully training people to become junior Java developers, we designed and started our .NET trajectory. Our soon-to-be junior developers will be introduced to the world of C#,  a back-end in ASP.NET Core, Microsoft SQL Server as database and a front-end written in in Angular. This means not only new students in the classroom, but also new trainer-developers!

A new location

We’ve moved! We needed a central location to organize our four-month training trajectories and we found one: BeCentral. BeCentral is a new digital campus located in Brussels Central Station, with a mission: Closing the digital skills gap.  Moving here was a no-brainer for us; the mission, the location, the presence of other code school, like-minded people, ….

Best of luck to our students and trainer-developers!

… and a battle it is. A good two months ago we’ve started this journey with 16 passionate individuals. Each of these candidates has a different story, a different background but they are united by one single goal. They want to become a full-stack software developer @CM in 4 months.

In another 2 months they are ready to integrate within the agile teams @CM. Meaning we’re halfway the journey. Thus, a good moment to look both backward and forward on this intense roller-coaster experience.

Looking backward

Because of the differences in background and the lack of previous IT knowledge, We kicked off with the real basics. Here the difference in background resulted in different learning curves. In this phase the challenge is to keep everyone on board and still provide enough challenge for those moving in a faster pace.

Throughout the first weeks, we equipped the candidates with syntax, methodology and best practices, by completing dozens of exercises. This way they filled their toolbox with all the necessary tools to start building solutions. And exactly that is the point where most of the joy comes in: building solutions! You name it, they’ve coded it: from a four-in-a-row game till a fictive (library) management system. In doing so, the candidates face their own challenges and hit walls frequently. This due to the high pace of the course, the sheer volume, abstract concepts or simply differences in background. This repeated process of hitting a wall, overcoming it and getting ready to hit the next wall are what molds a true programmer: an individual with a problem-solving attitude seeing obstacles as an exciting challenge to overcome.  They’re never alone in doing so, the group moves as one, helping one another where needed.

Looking forward

The progress over the past few months is quit amazing, and the good news is there are another two months to come. Let’s take a quick look on where we are going. Since our toolbox is becoming more and more complete our focus will shift away from exercises towards projects. This involves a shift from “working on my code” to “working on our code”, from “writing code” to “writing software”. At the same time the role of “teacher” is becoming more and more the role of “coach”, to facilitate the transition from “candidate” to “professional junior software developer”.

Yes, we are already halfway there.  It’s always amazing to see how they went from crawling to flying the first two months, can you image how high they will fly in another two months?

A short recap on the T-shaped profile.

The T-shape refers to the visual representation of the skill set of a person. The vertical part of the T refers to the expertise acquired in a certain field. In other words, this is the set of skills in which you excel. The horizontal part of the T refers to the knowledge and skills outside of your own expertise. Profiles combining both horizontal and vertical skills are considered as T-shaped profiles or generalizing specialists.

Most of us are still evolving from an I-shaped or dash-shaped profile towards a T-shaped profile. Tough some already predict the need for pi-shaped, E-shaped and even hashtag-shaped profiles, having deep expertise in multiple fields.  :)

Why cross-functional teams need T-shaped profiles?

If each of the needed specializations is represented in a team, the team can be considered as a cross-functional team. Each team member takes up the work related to this specialization.  This works as long as the overall workload, the type of work and the team composition are a constant. Unfortunately change is the constant, thus most likely none of these three factors remain stable over time. That is the exact reason why a cross-functional team needs T-shaped profiles. In a team of generalizing specialists, where every team member is equally responsible for the end result, there is no individual workload. T-shaped profiles take up tasks outside of their expertise and make themselves useful where they are needed the most. A team of T-shaped profiles thrives, even in fast changing environments.

Why cross-functional teams create T-shaped profiles?

Where working in a cross-functional team requires team members to be T-shaped, it also makes them more T-shaped. In the ideal cross  functional team everyone is equally committed to reach the agreed upon end result.  This results in team members taking up tasks outside of their specialization when a colleague is in need of help or absent. When teams mature they weapon themselves against changes in workload, changes in type of work and changes in team composition, to deliver the agreed upon result. This results in; team members working in pairs on certain tasks, documenting important processes, having whiteboard sessions involving the entire team,…  All of these self emerging behaviors result in knowledge and expertise being shared withing the team.  As a result, creating cross functional teams where everyone is equally committed, results in team member becoming more T-shaped.

Join a cross-functional team and become more T-shaped!

In this podcast we have Reinout van Bets and Niels Delestinne from Switchfully at our mic.

Switchfully U say? Well, they approach the War for Talent in a different way.

They aim to strengthen your IT department with motivated and loyal internal software developers. In order to do so, they look out for candidates without professional IT experience and train them bootcamp style into professional software developers.

Special thanks to hrmeetup and the podcast factory!

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