RFC - Remote Apprenticeship Program

[Cooperbuilt]

The Op-Code Opportunity

We aim to get veterans jobs in technology. Of the many barriers to entry in the dev world, one key barrier is professional experience. Operation Code is uniquely positioned to address this with a dedicated apprenticeship program.

The Current State of Affairs

A number of our members use Operation Code as a place of employment on their LinkedIn and resume. The presence of verifiable work experience most definitely increases employer interest and in my case, played a large part in getting me a developer role in Boston. There are a few issues with this though -

• Anyone can do this without actually contributing to Operation Code
• We have no built-in system for letters of recommendation
• Lack of oversight means we can have a large number of LinkedIn "employees", potentially devaluing the org as a whole.

Proposed Changes

A few housekeeping things to start

1. Cull the linkedIn "employees" to those actively involved with the org to develop a baseline.
2. Clearly define to new users that Op-Code can be a job reference if the apprenticeship is completed.
3. Add relevant copy changes to the website / slack / discourse to advertise the program.
4. Create a boilerplate letter of recommendation
5. Create a basic roadmap guide for new apprentices, including things like "Around week 2, start re-writing your resume with help from the #career-advice forums, week 4-6 continue developing your portfolio site with feedback from the #web-dev channel" etc. etc.

The Apprenticeship Program

• Interview process required
• A finite time limit ( proposed 4-10 weeks )
• A required amount of work in the repository either per week or over the life of the apprenticeship
• Accountability for time and contributions via a once-a-week email sent from the apprentice to the director
• Mid-point check-in by director
• During apprenticeship, user can add LinkedIn as employer
• Upon successful completion, the user will receive a ( boilerplate most likely ) letter of recommendation and can put Operation Code on their resume.

[jjhampton]

You make some good points here, @Cooperbuilt . I think that most of the housekeeping changes should be step one. Can our Social Media manager work on numbers 1, 2, and 3 currently?

The Apprenticeship program would require significant planning, time, and personnel to run it. Similar ideas have been floated in the past. I think a trial run of 1 apprentice and 1 mentor would be a good MVP for this.