Picture this: You’re a hiring manager with two software engineers standing in front of you. The one on the left is a recent graduate. She has the know-how on the latest technologies and tools in the industry. However, she doesn’t have the depth of expertise that comes with being in the field for a long time. The one on the right is a veteran and has been in the industry for years. Unlike the other candidate, she has significant technical experience. However, most of what she knows will become outdated in a year or two. Who will you pick?
Let’s draw another picture. Say, you’re not the hiring manager but one of the two candidates. Who will you be? If you’re the person on the left, chances are you’re hungry for more knowledge. If you’re the person on the right, chances are you’re hungry for new knowledge. Either way, you’ll need more than what you have now to climb up the software engineering ladder.
Enter Galvanize, a Denver-based program that provides tech education through a three-tiered learning pillar that we, in our recent deep dive into Galvanize, called ‘the three C’s’. That is, coding bootcamps, corporate training, and co-working and networking space. But just as the tech industry continues to evolve, so does Galvanize. In December last year, it rolled out its newest learning pillar yet: its Hack Reactor Professional Development courses.
Overview: The Galvanize Response to the Upskilling Imperative
If Galvanize already had three learning pillars, why did it see the need to add another? The short story is this: Galvanize rolled out the Hack Reactor Professional Development courses to provide career advancement opportunities for software engineers that already work in the space and are seeking more advanced expertise.
Here’s the long story.
In 2017, veterans Mike Rudinsky and Curtis Schlak joined the Galvanize community through its Hack Reactor wing to pioneer its Enterprise Division. Mike is a startup and bootcamp veteran, having led several startups and built education products for bootcamps and enterprises. Curtis, on the other hand, has two decades of programming experience, having worked for big companies like Ernst & Young and Microsoft and startups like KickFire and DataCert. Put two and two together and you get high-quality training for future and current software engineers.
“In addition to over 10,000 grads from our immersive [bootcamp] programs, Galvanize has upskilled thousands of seasoned software engineers at some of the world’s most innovative companies,” said Mike, who’s currently the Vice President of Galvanize’s Professional Development Product. Yet despite these achievements, both felt that there was room for further learning in the industry. They’re not alone.
In 2018, research and advisory firm Gartner reported that although career development remains top of mind for employees, it’s the least of their employers’ concerns. As Harvard Business Review put it, employees are “far more eager to learn new skills than their leaders gave them credit for.” Failure of companies to realize this has resulted in high rates of job dissatisfaction and eventual employee attrition.
While the problem persists across industries, it’s been the most pressing in tech. As Curtis, the Vice President of Galvanize’s Professional Development Curriculum, observed: “Most software developers spend time beyond their normal working hours to increase their knowledge and skills…The nature of this self-study stems directly from the fact that there is a notable absence of proper mentorship in the computer programming industry.”
“Software development best practices like pair programming or effective code reviews can help fill that lack of direction. Unfortunately, most organizations do not practice either of those,” he said. “Thus, the average software developer must rely on their autodidactic traits to perform self-mentorship, to become better craftspeople, [and] to guide themselves through their next career advancement.”
Amplifying this problem is the lack of scalable and external career-oriented educational opportunities for professional software developers. Solving it are Hack Reactor’s Professional Development programs.
Deep Dive: Hack Reactor’s Professional Development Courses
Offered by Galvanize, Hack Reactor’s Professional Development programs were developed for software developers who are in the first 10 years of their careers. Using their joint experience in managing and training hundreds of programmers, Mike and Curtis identified the most critical topics to help these programmers thrive in their field and keep moving up the ladder.
The Courses
1. Microservices + Orchestration
- Career Level: Mid-level, Senior level, Lead Level
- Duration: Six weeks
- Cost: $1,800
- Prerequisite/s: You can write a three-tier database-backed web application.
Why is it important? Microservice architecture is a particular approach to software applications development wherein large software projects are broken down into smaller services that can be built, deployed, monitored, and managed independently. This allows development teams to scale their efforts and tackle projects in a way that’s not confined by a one-size-fits-all approach.
So, if the features of an application are broken down into individual features, how do we get them to work together? Through orchestration. Put simply, orchestration is the process of stitching together multiple tasks, as in microservice-based applications, into a single cluster. This helps development teams mitigate failures, simplify systems, and speed up software deployment.
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to use orchestration tools and strategies to design and deploy microservice-based applications from zero to production.
2. Algorithms + Data Structures
- Career Level: Mid-level, Senior Level
- Duration: Six weeks
- Cost: $1,800
- Prerequisite/s: You can proficiently use a third-generation programming language.
Why is it important? It’s not uncommon to see both algorithms and data structures strung together. After all, they do lie at the heart of software engineering, both ensuring the writing of optimal code. Because of this, it’s also not uncommon to see courses that teach both.
This micro-course differentiates itself by flipping the order of the class. Whereas most classes would dwell on data structures more than algorithms, this course does the inverse. In six weeks, you’ll find yourself evaluating and creating your very own algorithms, as well as the necessary data structures, to solve problems at a speed that’s faster than when you started.
3. Networking + Reactive Programming
- Career Level: Mid-level, Senior level, Lead Level
- Duration: Four weeks
- Cost: $1,400
- Prerequisite/s: You can program in a “server-side” language like Ruby, Node.js (JavaScript), Python, C#, or Java. You can program JavaScript in the browser.
Why is it important? In a world that increasingly relies on the Internet, stacking up on networking knowledge has likewise become crucial. This course will equip you with a better understanding of how computers “talk” to one another and allow data streaming. So, how does reactive programming come into play?
Well, the problem with data streams is that they emit data one after the other and from multiple sources, which can overload APIs, not to mention the programmers. Reactive programming alleviates this backpressure by helping developers deal with asynchronous data streams quickly instead of having to tinker with massive implementation details.
This course includes two projects, HTTP Me and Spreadsheet 3000. The successful execution of each will teach you to build the majority of an HTTP server and then create a modern, reactive front-end powered by that server.
4. Computer Architecture + IoT
- Career Level: Mid-level, Senior Level
- Duration: Six weeks
- Cost: $1,800
- Prerequisite/s: You can proficiently write software in a modern computer programming language. You have used a debugging tool to evaluate and inspect running programs.
Why is it important? Remember when you would take apart your toys as a kid to better understand how each component works or connects with the other? That’s just like this course but on crack.
Experiment with resistors and capacitors. Interact with microcontrollers. Disassemble a computer program and understand how it’s run by a computer. By the end of this course, you’ll have a sound understanding not just of coding but what actually happens under the code.
5. Methodologies + Requirements Gathering
- Career Level: Senior level, Lead Level
- Duration: Six weeks
- Cost: $1,800
- Prerequisite/s: You have deployed and maintained a web application in production.
Why is it important? The short answer: there’s more to software development processes than Scrum. In fact, there are other agile development methodologies out there that suit other development projects better. This course will walk you through these methodologies, their corresponding strengths and weaknesses, and how to mix and match such methods to boost development productivity.
The Key Takeaways
Recognizing the restrictions that come with being a working student, Galvanize delivers the courses in a microlearning format. This means two things. First, the courses are short, part-time, and typically meet in the evenings to fit the demanding schedule of the students.
Second, the cost of attendance is not through the roof such that the student can pay for it and, if agreeable, the employer can reimburse it. To make the latter easier, Galvanize provides all the documentation you’ll need to get reimbursed by your employer so you can receive your education without incurring any out-of-pocket costs.
Another key distinguishing factor is the mashup learning format—the courses tackle not one, but two core programming concepts. Put another way, each program places a blended emphasis on computer science theories and programming practices or thought leadership strategies.
Doing so sidesteps “massed practice” or the method of practicing nonstop in a short amount of time with the intent of burning a skill or knowledge to memory. “The idea that ‘focused practice leads to learning’ puts the cart before the horse because it leads to impermanent knowledge. You get the short-term gain of rapid gains followed by rapid forgetting,” said Curtis. Think of that time you crammed for an exam at school. Do you still remember what it was you were rushing to learn?
For Curtis, while practice makes perfect, it only works if the former is distributed. Only then can you build what he referred to as “real durable knowledge.” This concept is exactly what Hack Reactor’s Professional Development courses revolve around. The question is, does it work?
A Review: Lynda Goes Back to School
After seven years as a software engineer, Lynda Wellhausen felt that she was bumping into the limits of her knowledge. “All this time, I’ve been building features and fixing bugs at work, but I wanted to do a deeper dive into some of the fundamentals of computer science,” she said. So, she joined Galvanize and took two of its Professional Development courses: Algorithms + Data Structures and Microservices + Orchestration.
“I thought that understanding data structures and algorithms would, in general, make me a better software engineer. I simply felt that understanding the fundamentals surrounding [these concepts] would better position me to solve more advanced problems and write better code. I saw these classes as a chance to take a step back in order to approach my work in a more informed way.”
Despite the intent, Lynda was quick to say that her decision to go back to school wasn’t taken lightly. “I was nervous because the material was something that’s always intimidated me. ‘Will I be able to get through these courses okay? Will I be able to get what I need out of them?’ It’s natural to look at the materials and wonder, ‘How am I going to get through this?’”
The answer goes back to Galvanize’s learning philosophy: to build “real durable knowledge” or knowledge that lasts. So, how does this play out? With the Professional Development courses, you start small and simple. Because the classes only last six weeks, you’re given a lot of preparation material.
The idea is this: First, you do pre-work for each class and then, in the lecture, you dive deeper into the concepts you learned from the pre-work and expand upon them. This combination of going through the materials ahead of time and then attending the lectures allows you to draw a cohesive picture that’s not just committed to your memory but also something that you can redraw from scratch if necessary.
“The instructors are excellent at explaining the material…Because of the way they make seemingly intimidating concepts approachable, before you know it, things such as big O notation and graph theory are demystified,” said Lynda.
“Curtis actually helped me to understand quadratic equations better. He drew out an example and explained how it can apply to a specific problem. All of a sudden, this equation that I’d heard about my whole life made a lot more sense. I had a better understanding of why it’s important.”
After taking two of Hack Reactor’s Professional Development courses, Lynda decided to give back to the bootcamp. “I am an alpha tester now so I test new courses before they’re released to the public. I also provide feedback on the structure of the courses being offered now,” she said.
“I was in a great position to help improve the courses because I had just gone through them. As someone who is extremely interested in these programs and really tied to how these can be made better, I recognized it as a time to step in and help them out. I’m able to provide feedback regarding my experience, what I would like to see done differently, and also to have these insights incorporated immediately.”
While Lynda works with Galvanize, the skills and knowledge she gained have not gone to waste. In fact, they get better day by day. “I actually think that I am able to apply a lot of what I learned right now. Now that I have a better understanding of these concepts, I’m able to think about how they can be taught and demonstrated in the classroom.”
“I’m working on building an application with one of the instructors so there are a lot of opportunities for me to do some coding and to apply what I’ve learned,” Lynda shared. Would she recommend the courses to other software developers?
“In a heartbeat. I think it’s a great next step for people who have been in the industry [for] a while and don’t necessarily have the academic grounding in computer science,” she said.
A Strong Contender
Last year, Galvanize delivered its Professional Development courses to its own alumni community who, in turn, introduced the courses to their managers and teams within their companies. Now, Galvanize has students who come from a wide talent pool, from graduates of other coding bootcamps to computer science degree holders and those with over 15 years of programming experience.
Galvanize’s mission is simple: to become a career-long education partner for tech professionals. It works to be there with you from the moment you start to learn about programming to the time you decide to further your skills as a professional programmer.
“By leveraging Galvanize’s reputation for delivering consistently high-quality educational experiences, we can not only help people enter the job market as software developers,” said Mike, “We can also provide mentorship for software developers to allow them to continue to acquire and hone the skills needed for a healthy career progression.”
So, going back to the earlier picture: Which candidate are you? If you’re the one on the left, perhaps it’s time to further your knowledge. If you’re the one on the right, perhaps it’s time to remold it. Explore Hack Reactor’s Professional Development courses and push past your limits.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
