CTAC-U Highlight

Recently, we kicked off our 2023 CTAC-U program, an internal, self-paced software and technology “bootcamp” that gives associates throughout our company the opportunity to learn about frontend and backend development. It is just one of many in-house development opportunities designed to connect mentors and leaders with associates who are hungry for growth opportunities and want to explore potential career paths. CTAC-U, which was launched in 2019, has been a passion project of our Technology leaders. It has allowed us to tap into the existing talent pool within our organization and introduce individuals to the world of technology who otherwise may not have considered it. Over 20 of our associates from various channels were accepted into this year’s program, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.

Carlo Bos, IT Director in our Ecommerce Department who has been involved with CTAC-U since its inception, oversaw the planning and execution of this year’s program and cohort. When asked about the purpose and need for this development opportunity, he shared the following:

“Promoting and facilitating a growth mindset and enabling lifelong learners are some of the goals of our CTAC-U program. Innovation happens when different disciplines intersect. By bringing together technology producers and users, we get more aha moments and productive collateral discussions. These are serendipitous conversations that generate new ideas, new understanding, new productivity, and more engaging and interesting work.

“In a mentor meeting last week, a student from the Marketing Department remarked: ‘Ah, that’s how images work on the website!’ She was learning how images are stored, how they are served up to customers from content providers all over the world, and the impact of image size on customer experience using various devices and networks. It created an understanding that will help her job as a marketer and what is possible from an IT perspective.

“The CTAC-U program not only fosters better technology understanding, but also helps make inroads into a new career. Software engineering skills are applicable across industries. While software engineering fine tunes analytical skills, improves critical thinking, and enhances problem solving, it is also a wonderful career in its own right.

“On the mentor side of things, it gives opportunities for engineers to teach, explain, and build new business relations. Software engineering problems are, more often than not, people problems first. Honing people skills such as coaching, motivating, teaching, and building consensus benefits IT professionals.

“Our program takes participants through a 14-week program that includes training videos, coding exercises, skills tests, weekly one-on-one mentor meetings, and a final capstone project. This capstone project can be used as a showcase and a portfolio item to help them earn a multi-week internship with an internal engineering team. We have seen previous participants use their learnings, capstone project, and potential internships to land additional opportunities for development. These ‘new hires’ bring a wealth of industry knowledge and experience directly related to the engineering teams they join.

“In summary, our CTAC-U program fosters cross-department communications, general engineering understanding, and provides opportunities for career growth for both the participant and mentor.”

We are grateful for Carlo, Campbell McGavin (Software Engineer), Hiroyuki Takahashi (Software Engineer IV), our incredible mentors, and everyone else who has played a part in making this program a reality for our associates. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our 2023 class.

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