1. tweet to #scnapanel
2. People
2.1. Ken
2.1.1. Has lots of experience because he's messed up more than anyone else up there
2.2. Atomic Object
2.2.1. AO is mostly built from interns/apprentices
2.3. Bob Martin
2.4. Micah Martin
2.4.1. EightLight
2.4.2. built into the culture
2.5. Dave Hoover
2.5.1. Snuck into industry ~10 years ago
2.5.2. Bar was so low anyone could get in
2.5.3. Groupon
2.6. Matt Yoho
2.6.1. Family was half teachers half engineers
2.6.2. New node
3. What do you look for in an apprentice?
3.1. Passion and drive
3.1.1. Couldn't stop them if you tried
3.2. Ability to learn on their own
3.3. Previous work (github, etc)
3.3.1. They excrete code
3.4. code exercise
3.4.1. Put on asshole hat and rip it apart
3.4.2. Look for their response. Some hate me forever.
3.4.3. The ones I hire are like "that's a good piont... but this is why I did this"
3.5. They satisfy themselves.
3.6. Can they take a 9-5 job seriously?
3.6.1. Do they show respect for their coworkers and customers?
3.6.2. Call their previous employers
4. What is the worst mistake you've made as a mentor or in your program?
4.1. Too many apprentices per mentor
4.2. putting them on client projects, removing their freedom to fail
4.3. Putting them in a corner alone and having them report back
4.4. Assuming that they did not require mentorship or supervision
4.5. To assume other good developers can be good mentors
5. When do you know if an apprentice is "done"?
5.1. You just kind of feel that this person is ready for the next thing
5.2. We put them on client projects, but never alone and never without making sure their customers understand and are enthusiastic about the situation. Sometimes our customers will comment back saying how great they like person X
5.3. I still consider myself an apprentice because there is always more to learn. We consider it "you are now capble of working effectively on ac lient project." this doesn't end the apprenticeship.
5.4. There is a difference between finishing an apprenticeship program and finishing your apprenticeship
5.4.1. obtiva decides every couple months whether you "keep going, you're done and out, or you're done and hired"
5.4.2. By the end of x time, are you someone we would hire full time?
6. How much of mentoring is wearing the A-hole hat?
6.1. It's not about being an A-hole, it's about being a good role model
6.2. 100% ;)
6.3. I tend to err on the side of coddling. The 2 month milestones are a-hole cap time. It lets me put a more critical eye on them than I normally would
7. How do you convince non techy owners that apprenticeship is valuable
7.1. It was easy. We demonstrated a series of successful apprentices at groupon. "Do you want more of these people?"
7.2. The best success I've ever had is the product of the apprenticeship
7.3. How do you convince anyone to do anything? You don't convince people to do a thing. There is no convincing. You just do it.
7.4. apprentices are cheap.
7.4.1. Add value but don't add much/any cost
7.4.2. We're taking the risk, not our customer
7.4.3. Blended rate becomes cheaper
7.5. Every project has gruntwork. it's great to have grunts to do it
7.6. Apprentices aren't cheap
7.6.1. They're cheap like being a parent is cheap. It's a lot of investment. If you're ken they pay you to be an apprentice.
7.6.2. to the customer, the cost is low the risk is low
7.6.3. to the mentoring company, it is high
7.7. Developers are assets, so more develpers == more assets
7.8. It ca be very expensive to do it wrong. You have to find a business model that lets it work. It won't be a profit center, but it cannot cost more than you're willing to invest.
7.8.1. New node
8. 3 types of apprenticeship
8.1. Master/Padawan
8.1.1. I think it will be wot working with this person
8.1.2. 8th light is master/padawan
8.2. Petri Dish
8.2.1. Mentor group absorbs apprentice
8.2.2. Went from petri dish to hybrid. Have a mentor assigned to each apprentice.
8.2.3. Mentor guides them and meets with them every week.
8.2.4. A single mentor can be a point of failure. If you're across contruny on a lient sidte that is not a success
8.2.5. Tie an apprentice to a team so you can share responsibilities
8.3. Fight cluib
8.4. Shay Arnett Stye
8.4.1. A project based apprentice. You have 1 project and several apprentices