Developing Developers

During the recent Rocky Mountain Ruby conference, Mike Gehard gave a lightning talk about the world’s need for more developers. He proposed a “Mentor” model, in the style of apprenticeships that many trades throughout history have used. 

Take a look at the slides from his talk on slideshare.

In his talk, he presented the following viral rules for prospective mentees:

  1. Must not currently have a job developing software
  2. Must be looking to get a job developing software
  3. Must be willing to drive their own “education”
  4. Must be willing to act as a mentor to someone else
  5. All pre-requisites apply to any other apprentices in the lineage

Some quick clarifications: #3 means that they should be actively seeking ways to learn, rather than waiting for someone to teach them something. #4 is a pay-it-forward kind of thing: Once the apprentice has earned their programming chops, they should take on an apprentice of their own.

This really struck a chord with me. So, as Mike puts it: I’m now accepting “applications” for an apprentice. Shoot me an email at woodardj <at> with why you’re interested. Someone in the Boulder area is probably most convenient, but I’d be open to corresponding via email/skype for the right person.