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Inexperienced Drupal Developer

Submitted by Brock on Wed 4 Apr 2012, 12:40 pm

From Inexperienced Drupal Developer:

I've recently noticed there are a ton of local Drupal jobs looking for experienced developers, and also a ton of awesome, but inexperienced developers looking for jobs. This seems like a problem. If people can't get experience in jobs, they can't get jobs that need experience. I'm hoping to help solve this problem by posting the job I've never seen. I'm seeking an inexperienced Drupal developer.

This is a FANTASTIC idea. We all know that the Drupal world needs more developers: every shop in every town is hiring. Scott's approach is a great way to get someone started off, and I'll bet that he's received a torrent of email already.

The question is, how can we make this bigger? It sounds like Scott is pretty much funding this little project himself, but surely there are Drupal shops around who would be willing to spend a little money to invest in future talent. Perhaps we could even convince a couple of smaller companies to chip in 20-25% of a normal salary, and jointly hire an inexperienced developer to work part-time on contrib modules that the companies would benefit from—that way, everybody gets something out of it.

If you work for or know of companies that might be interested in such a venture, send them a link to this job post and see if you can convince them to give it a try.

Category:

Comments

anon (not verified)

Wed 4 Apr 2012, 3:46 pm

Being one of those inexperienced developers mentioned, I think this is a great idea. I'd even take a minimum wage position, until the shop thinks I'm skilled enough to warrant higher pay, just so I could learn and get my foot in the door.

Until then, it looks like I'll be making sandwiches professionally, and improving my development skills in my off time.

webchick (not verified)

Wed 4 Apr 2012, 7:05 pm

Nice initiative!

In terms of spreading it further, Google *literally* gives *free money* to inexperienced developers who take on a Google Summer of Code project. So if you're one of those over-extended people with project ideas but no time to do them, and could mentor a student, post 'em to http://groups.drupal.org/google-summer-code-2012. The deadline for applications is Friday, though, so it needs to happen fast.

Alex Weber (not verified)

Wed 4 Apr 2012, 7:29 pm

The caveat is that we're looking for people to work locally at our headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil. By "we", I mean Webdrop. Give me a shout if interested!

- Alex

ultimike (not verified)

Wed 4 Apr 2012, 11:20 pm

This is exactly the kind of traction we need to start gaining to close the "experience gap" (http://drupaleasy.com/blogs/ultimike/2012/03/drupals-experience-gap-part-2)

Mike

Nigel Kelly (not verified)

Thu 5 Apr 2012, 6:11 am

This is a great idea. The concept of coding apprenticeships and coding as a craft needs to be developed further.

Dave Pullen (not verified)

Fri 6 Apr 2012, 1:20 pm

Up here in Michigan we are lucky that the state itself is starting to step in on these sorts of initiatives. My wife and I are part of a pilot program called "Shifting Code" which is a 12 week program designed to take people who have shown the ability and desire to learn and train them in different environments. Our first month or so was dedicated to Drupal and we had several local Drupal developers come in and teach us the basics to get us going. The program itself has arranged for internships with local development shops where we will spend approximately 1 month working with them to get hands on experience. At this point we're also working on Java but they are launching a series of similar programs around the state. I think it's gonna be really good for everyone. Below are some links with more info.

http://www.annarborusa.org/talent/find-opportunity/shifting-code
http://www.freep.com/article/20120402/NEWS06/204020329/Engineers-find-ne...

Brock

Fri 6 Apr 2012, 4:14 pm

That's great to hear! My in-laws are in Michigan, so I've heard bits and pieces about all the work the state has been doing, in terms of training up people who lost jobs during the recession. It sounds like they've responded remarkably well to the changing economy.

Alex UA (not verified)

Tue 10 Apr 2012, 7:50 am

...but surely there are Drupal shops around who would be willing to spend a little money to invest in future talent.

Surely there are... Many companies are already spending a lot of money on "future talent". At Zivtech we've trained up the majority of our ~18 developers/coding designers/project managers, and we'll continue to focus on building our farm team (we're always open to free agents, but there are way too few of those on the market). Acquia also has a large scale "Acquia U" aimed at training inexperienced developers.

No sane company would wait for "the market" to turn talented and intelligent people into the developers/designers/PMs we need- if you want to grow as a company, you've gotta grow your "farm system".

Brock

Tue 10 Apr 2012, 8:20 am

This works well for larger companies like Acquia and medium-sized companies like Zivtech, but what about the really small shops that only have 10-15 people? They often don't have the capacity to lose a developer (effectively) so that he/she can spend time working with and training a new dev. Any ideas how to make this work in smaller teams like that?

Alex UA (not verified)

Tue 10 Apr 2012, 9:11 am

Any ideas how to make this work in smaller teams like that?

We didn't just start at 10 people and train up 10 new ones, we've been training new staff since we were 3 people. That's my point: training up our own staff is exactly how we grew to 20 people. It's not a cheap process, in time or money, but it's worth it if you can make it work.

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