At MetaLamp, we have gained much experience in training and involving Jun developers in commercial projects. Developing startups, we have been hiring new employees through our educational program for more than six years.
Due to the narrow tech stack, the lack of recruitment competition with large commercial companies allows us to attract new talents and complete projects at a reasonable cost. It became possible mainly due to the rational task distribution in teams and the high-quality junior training.
In this article, we will tell you how to recruit an efficient junior development staff.
What are the benefits of hiring junior developers, and how they differ from interns
If HR specialists and heads of IT companies did not limit the team members' selection to the Middle level, they could implement many projects for a much lower budget with the same quality. It happens because we often see juniours as interns. We mean specialists who have some theoretical knowledge and basic skills but are not ready to work without training within the company. Not all organizations, especially private contractors, want to spend several months on “employee adaptation”. It may take time for a junior developer to understand the requirements, tasks and tools and begin to make considerable contributions.
An experienced junior is fundamentally different from a trainee. This specialist does not wait for someone to train him and give lectures about the "secrets of development in practice". A junior developer can carry out the project and tasks within his competencies. So, it is a significant budget saving for the company.
What is quality developer training
The goal of students at prestigious universities or courses is to get a diploma or a certificate. However, our graduates posess practical tasks. They should be fully ready to take on real challenges and get a job in our company.
The primary value of our program lies in its practical orientation and accessibility for everyone. Education is completely free. There are thousands of applicants. However, only a few can cope with all the tasks. Only the most purposeful, persistent and interested specialists can make it to the final. According to our statistics, it is 3.3% of the total number of participants. At the end of the program, they take an exam of 80 questions with our experts. If the result is positive, they receive a job offer.
“A big advantage was that the entire training program is to obtain fundamental knowledge in JavaScript, layout. We do not study simple programming/layout patterns, but learn what happens when a developer writes the code. First, it gives confidence in knowledge and abilities. It is much more pleasant to write/read the code and understand how it works. Second, it allows you to learn new technologies in the frontend world quickly and efficiently.”
Mikhail Yakubchuk, graduate
Those students, who take our self-study courses, work on real problems and master relevant tools. They get mentor help, colleague support in chats, teamwork experience and a demanding level of knowledge control.
What is the dream of the project founder? It is a high-quality product development done according to the deadlines and for reasonable cost.
To achieve this goal, we began to train specialists for ourselves.
Today, when the demand for our training has long exceeded our company staff needs, we are happy to help partner companies resolve issues with experienced frontend developers.
Why our graduates are in demand in the labour market
“The main idea is not to know a lot, but to know the most necessary things of all,” - Leo Tolstoy once said. We fully share this wisdom of the intellectual giant of Russian thought. That is why our curriculum includes both basic theoretical training and tasks to practice the information learnt. The last stage involves teamwork. It allows students to learn about the Agile development approach, test and master these skills.
The key competencies for Junior Developers of the MetaLamp training program include:
- The ability to think algorithmically and implement the tech stack to solve technical problems related to interfaces (HTML, CSS, SASS / SCSS, JavaScript, React JS).
- The use of the toolkit of Figma and GitHub services. It includes providing examples of completed work on GitHub.
- Expertise in adaptive and cross-browser layout, knowledge of TypeScript, and the ability to connect and configure JavaScript libraries and jQuery plugins. Basics of template engines and Parcel or WebPack build systems.
- Developed skills of self-motivation and self-discipline. The program graduates are capable of high-speed self-learning in accordance with the project requirements.
- 5. Ability to work in a team according to the SCRUM methodology, discuss the work plan and the results obtained, accept feedback appropriately, fix shortcomings and improve professional skills.
What can junior developers do? Examples of our graduates' cases
Our educational program graduates are fully prepared to solve practical business tasks. The successfully finalized projects can prove it.
Case 1
Crypto Kombat Team requested the interface development for their project. A junior frontend team implemented a trading card game using crypto.
“Two of our graduates worked on the project. Among them were Katya Kryakushina, a junior developer with more than one year of experience, and Sergey Grigorenko, who had just completed our educational program. Lack of experience did not prevent him from coping with the tasks successfully. Of course, Katya sometimes corrected his mistakes and gave some hints. However, a recent student could handle all the issues without any help. It just required more effort."
Daria Kiseleva, project manager
“The work was carried out efficiently, following the estimations and deadlines, given that junior developers worked on the project,” the client shares his impressions. “We are fully satisfied and look forward to furthering fruitful cooperation.”
The client shares his impressions
Case 2
Also, the founder of Zombie Cupcakes was happy with the project presented by our graduates. They designed the frontend and connected smart contracts to the platform, which sells the NFT collection. The team consisted of two developers. Olga Skoroded is in Junior grade 3 with more than a year of experience, and Mikhail Yakubchuk is in Junior grade 2 with less than two months of practice. Before this project, Mikhail had no crypto experience. He studied Web3 (a blockchain library), mastered the architecture, layout, complex animations and logic to complete the tasks.
“First, I studied the topic of NFT, especially frontend development. I was looking into the following questions:
- What kind of information do I need to learn?
- What libraries to study for the development of a friendly-user NFT interaction website?
By the way, I aquired the skill of fast technology learning at the command stage of the training program. There, we need to study new libraries and put them into practice in a short time" - says Misha.
The client liked the non-trivial animations that made the interface more interactive and dynamic. “They are the best web3 frontend development team I have ever worked with. It was easy to cooperate with them. The guys did a fantastic job,” - says Brett Lindstrom, founder of the blockchain project.
Despite the lack of experience, junior devs have a strong advantage. It is their passion for a new profession, strive for self-learning, and desire to gain recognition from more experienced colleagues and demanding clients.
Instead of summary
Due to our educational program, we have opened the door to the world of web development for the most passionate and highly motivated students. You need to have a strong will and a genuine interest in the profession to devote at least 30-40 hours a week to mastering layout and programming. We mean, the specialist has worked for free for almost a year to get more opportunities in the future.
We are constantly complicating and improving our educational program to meet the current market challenges. So, when we invite our graduates to the team, you can be sure that their knowledge is well structured. Moreover, they have all the necessary communication skills to carry out the project efficiently.
“The candidate completed all the stage tests successfully. He adapted quickly and became part of the team. Moreover, we want to highlight his strong ability to learn and a quick growth as a specialist”.
Mikhail Kudashev, CEO of the Realize studio
“First, we accepted the application because of the huge potential demonstrated at the test task. The ability to acquire new information and technologies quickly along with the desire to master a new project, left no doubt about the choice. The employee has been working in the team for more than two years. During this period, he has improved his hard skills significantly. In addition, I would like to highlight the ability to solve complex architectural problems and help other juniors.”
Alexander Zaguzin, CTO of Telebreeze
We support students determination with employment guarantees after successful program completion. Our company hire everyone who has passed all five stages. It can be our staff recruitment or partner studios. We invite you to join our “open door” practice for students with great potential.
