Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.
Our 2021 Academy applications are open! This week we chatted with Derek Baker, a current Academy Engineer, about the experience he has had in the programme. Q: Why did you apply to the Academy? A: The reason why I applied for the Academy was because I wanted something that was going to help foster my learning and development as a developer. I have gone down the self-taught path and I didn’t feel like I was completely ready to apply for a ‘proper’ developer role. I saw the Academy as a place where I could enhance those technical skills and technical knowledge to get me to that place. If you are looking for a way to kick-start your career in software engineering while being paid a full salary, we encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the programme.
This week we had continued our Made Tech team interview series with our Senior Engineer Lewis to better understand his role and to feature the great work he has been doing! Q: What do you like most about being a Senior Engineer? A: I like working on problems and writing code, that’s obviously why I became an Engineer. But I also like having people there who I can mentor and work with. Seeing people who have come in at a more junior level and then working with them and watching their knowledge and abilities really come out is really great. Having a role in that is probably my favourite part about being senior. Q: What has been one of your favourite projects you have worked on? A: At Made Tech the one I’m on right now I think is one of my favourites because it’s such a different challenge. So we’re trying a digital transformation for a critical infrastructure within the UK government and we’re taking that and putting it into the cloud. Then we’re going to start modernising it. To be directly involved with improving the technology and the infrastructure of the government is a big deal
Our 2021 Academy applications are open! This week we chatted with our current Academy Engineer, Chloe Wong, about the experience she has had in the programme. Q: Why did you apply to the Academy? A: I really wanted to do software engineering but I hadn’t done much coding before so the Academy seemed like a great opportunity because no prior experience is needed. A big factor was also that Made Tech works within the public sector and there’s a sense that with the projects you do you are really making a difference in people’s lives. Q: How is the Academy benefiting you? A: The Academy has hugely boosted my confidence with coding, writing clean code, running retrospectives, pair programming, and so much more. I’m also feeling a lot happier in general because I’m doing a job that I love. Q: How are you finding the Academy? A: It’s great! The Academy is basically like uni, but normal working hours and you get paid. The atmosphere is so supportive and everyone is willing to help which makes it the perfect place to learn.
The Made Tech Academy is a 12-week paid programme for those who want to start a career in software engineering or have been learning to code but haven't had the opportunity to gain any commercial experience working within the tech industry. The programme is led by Made Tech's full-time engineers and ex-Academy students and gives participants the skills they need to join one of our project delivery teams while getting paid a full salary of £22,500 - 25,000 (depending on location) from day one. The 2021 Academy programme will be the biggest intake for our Spring-Summer programme to date, beginning as a remote experience with participants from London, Manchester, Bristol and South Wales and will be starting in early March. The closing date for applications is the 4th of December 2020. View the Academy page for more information and to apply! https://www.madetech.com/careers/academy
In August we had our first interview in our Made Tech team interview series with our Lead Engineer, Charlene Hunter, to better understand her role and to feature the great work she has been doing. Q: How did you become interested in tech? A: My dad has a software company that I always used to hang out at when I was growing up. I started coding when I was about 10 and ever since then I've just been involved in it and I've enjoyed it. Q: What does your role here involve? A: I'm at the moment looking after the Academy and trying to make sure that runs smoothly. It's been exciting meeting all the candidates and trying to make sure that we have the right programme in place for them when they get started. Q: What do you like most about your role? A: I think it's Made Tech in general. It's knowing that you're doing something that is actually benefiting people and that you're working towards something that's bigger than just writing a bit of code. Read more answers on our blog: https://www.madetech.com/blog/made-tech-team-interviews-charlene-hunter-lead-engineer
Last month we had our second interview in our Made Tech team interview series with our Market Principal Tom Taylor to better understand his role and to feature the great work he has been doing. Q: How did you become interested in tech? A: I was at university and started this website that sold tickets and drinks and we ended up getting some festivals on board and some people gave us some money to keep building it and suddenly I was in the tech industry. I was studying law at the time, so it was quite a big change. It was really obvious to me that if I wanted to be in business that technology was where I wanted to be. Q: What does your role here involve? A: It's a bit of a mix of technology, looking after clients, some delivery, some project management, and also some sales. I wear quite a few different hats. The core of it is making sure we've got a good sustainable business that's growing in Bristol. Read more: https://www.madetech.com/blog/made-tech-team-interviews-tom-taylor-market-principal
Last week we had our third interview in our Made Tech team interview series with our Delivery Manager Heather Venter to better understand her role and to feature the great work she has been doing! Q: What does your role involve? A: I sit at the account level alongside a Technical Principal on the Ministry of Justice account. I offer delivery assurance and a point of contact for our customers. I also provide high-level support for my teams. Q: What do you like most about your role? A: I enjoy getting to know our customers and their unique challenges. How do we get the best from their Made Tech experience? Going on a journey with them and getting to know them. Q: What has been one of your favourite projects? A: Our work on the PTTP where we work closely with our Ministry of Justice colleagues and collaborate together. I'm really enjoying plugging into that big programme with big outcomes they've got over a two year period. Read the rest of Heather's answers on our blog: https://www.madetech.com/blog/made-tech-team-interviews-heather-venter-delivery-manager
We've seen an increase in candidate feedback via Glassdoor recently and have learnt a couple of things from this. Made Tech is growing rapidly and it's so easy to lose sight of detail if we don't make a deliberate effort to pay attention. One thing we want to do is be more proactive in seeking this feedback from candidates to help us keep our quality and candidate experience at a high level. We've now added our Glassdoor link to our candidate communication via our recruitment platform to make it easier to give us this feedback anonymously. If you apply for a role please observe the recruitment process with feedback in mind. Tell us how we can do better, and also what you like about our process. If you have a complaint, I would encourage you to seek a conversation with us - we care about getting it right. A conversation can solve so much and we'll be able to rectify anything that has gone wrong right away. Thank you! Yasemin
We really enjoyed hosting Coding Black Females at our office recently. As a company we are fully committed to helping bring more diversity to the tech sector. If you have an event or idea that you need space for or would like to discuss anything similar, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
A great time had by everyone at our Summer Extravaganza 2019!
