Fively Academy Six Months Later: Expectations, Results and Prospects
A very significant event for the company took place half a year ago. Until April 2021, not a single junior programmer was hired by Fively, and all the work fell solely upon senior developers with wide tech backgrounds and tons of hands-on experience.
For a long time, there was an unspoken rule in our team: we do business only with people we know personally and on whose expertise we can rely entirely.
However, nothing is set in stone. We’ve decided to turn things around, establish Fively Academy, take a few newbies aboard and teach them everything we know ourselves.
We’ve explained our reasons in more detail in one of the previous articles. In short, we have decided to jump into that risky project in order to get loyal employees. In a couple of years, working in harness with more experienced colleagues, the graduates would be able to significantly increase their mental furniture and contribute to the development of the company.
Dictum-factum: the curriculum is written, the mentors are ready, and the students are eager to grind away at their classes.
A couple of months passed. The newly minted engineers and their teachers got together in the office to cut a 4-kilogram cake into pieces while celebrating the first graduation at Fively Academy.
That was in April.?
It's October now. So let’s take a look back to find out if the cake was worth the candle.
What Do Students Think of the Academy?
Arina, Engineer at Fively
“I am a designer by education. Before the Academy, I taught at the university. I was nurturing a plan to switch sides and go over to the programmers. And that is what I did.
A major advantage of the Academy was that we learned to work as a real team on a real project — they would not teach you that in ordinary programming courses.
At first, it was difficult to accustom yourself to daily meetings in English, to work together and to share responsibility. But sooner or later, you would get used to that workflow.
We started our training with frontend development, and we were offered to study backend as well. I agreed. So now, I can say, that I am a junior full-stack developer. Nowadays, I work at Fively on a commercial project.”
Lera, Engineer at Fively
“I have my own shop of cosmetics and equipment for hairdressers, barbers and nail artists. When I was able to fully establish all the processes in my own business, I decided that it would be nice to master a new profession. I’ve gone in for the job of a programmer, since this industry will be relevant under any circumstances.?
I had almost no relevant skills and knowledge. So at the very beginning, I had to work really hard. We learned a lot of theory, then the practice began: mentors gave us tasks, and we looked for a solution.
In difficult moments, it was possible to ask for help, but I preferred to figure things out on my own. However, with communication within our small team, there were no problems at all.
I’ve decided to develop as a frontend engineer. Today, I not only run my own business, but also work on one of the commercial projects at Fively.”
Max, Engineer at Fively
“I am a professional sportsman. I worked as a trainer in a fitness studio as well. Most of the clients were from the IT industry, we talked a lot about their work. So one day, I thought: “What if I change my job?” That's how it started.
Combining my work, the Academy, and training sessions for competitions turned out to be a great challenge. Both on weekdays and on weekends, I spent 8 hours studying. Well, the daily stand-ups in English were also not easy, but for me, it became a sheer motivation to take up the study of a foreign language.
The Academy became for me a real chance to make a U-turn in my life. I have gone headlong into IT. Now, I work at Fively on an internal e-commerce project. I mainly deal with frontend technologies, but occasionally I deal with backend as well.”
Ivan, Engineer at Fively
“I am a student-programmer, I got to the Academy being a sophomore. I knew quite a lot of theory, but I had no real work experience. Experience is no doubt a must in order to build a good career. The Academy was a chance to make things right.
Studying at the Academy was very different from studying at the university. Instead of professors, there were mentors who were more invested in my growth. Also, they gave better knowledge, avoiding all the rubbish.
Of course, it was difficult to combine study, the Academy and personal life, but it worked out very well. And it's great that although I was the youngest in the team, the attitude towards everyone was the same.
After graduating from the Academy, I stayed at Fively. Mostly I work as a frontend developer. But I am gradually starting to master the backend as well. For example, today, I do the layout for email campaigns on an external project of the company.”
What Do the Founders Think of the Academy?
Michael, Organiser of Fively Academy
“We did a great job. From scratch, in a fairly short time, we came up with the idea, planned out every little detail and organized all the processes — it was a challenge. Nevertheless, we have done it pretty well: the students show excellent results.
Our smartest move was to teach people not only tech skills, but also soft skills. We imitated the environment of real projects and explained to them how the whole industry functions. Moreover, even all communication with the students was entirely in English.
We’ve preferred not to follow the standard “lecture-tasks-feedback-repeat” scheme and are very happy about that. We have tried to look for an individual approach and devote as much time to the students as suffices.?
All mentors were aware that they worked not just with the students, but with their future colleagues.
Therefore, when our graduates found themselves on their first commercial projects, they did not get lost, but knew well what and how they should do.
Today, these guys work on commercial projects and get real experience communicating with clients and colleagues. That’s a co-operation for the benefit of both: graduates get knowledge and a dream job, we receive promising employees and a sense of fulfilment.?
We see steady progress in our graduates, and it inspires us.“
By the way, even journalists from dev.by, a leading Belarusian media that covers the most significant events in the world of IT, considered it necessary to write an article about Fively Academy.
Alex, CEO at Fively
“The folks continue to make progress and that's cool!
As we can see today, all our graduates have become excellent engineers — they are in no way inferior (and in some ways even superior) to the guys who have a formal tech education.
At the very beginning, we stood ready for any outcome. Actually, the result exceeded all our expectations.
The guys had been quick in the uptake and in a couple of months we got amazing developers who, on top of that, were perfectly familiar with the inner workings of the company.
Now they continue to dig into modern technologies, working on both internal and external projects. With confidence, they dive into the most challenging work, and they perform excellently. I can't complain, I see them growing.
As for the future plans, there will be more admissions. We are still thinking over the classes format and adjusting the curriculum. However, we witness the demand for this kind of training, and therefore we’re planning to open the doors of our Academy to new students very soon.”
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Let's fly! ??