Hacker News Reader

Comment by lambda_lover | Hacker News Reader

My employer does a 3-month training program that covers our full development stack, which is rather specialized for our industry.

My first team didn't use any of those technologies. But the 30-some fellow students in the training program have become some of my closest friends and, in some cases, trusted teammates and mentors/mentees with various technologies.

Peers are an absolutely underrated part of the mentorship puzzle, and I'm glad your company takes strides to incorporate peer learning even at a small scale.

View on HN

3-month training program by a company in US is unheard of. I would greatly appreciate to know the company's name.

Not the parent, but the US-based Financial Services company I work for also does a 3 month training scheme for their new graduate hires. Better yet, they brought all of their graduates worldwide out to the same place - so we've now got a worldwide network of people who started at the same time as us and that we've spent months with together.

Alas, due to cost (airfare and accommodation for everyone for 3 months adds up to a lot!) they've now scaled it down to just within each region rather than globally - so all of the NA graduates will train together, all the EMEA ones etc. Not quite globe-spanning as before, but still 3 months long and with people from other locations, just not all locations.

Most likely Bloomberg, as their tech stack is a bit unique and requires some specialized training (in addition to general C++ and JavaScript training)

A buddy of mine did a 3 month training program at BBG after undergrad, so I can confirm that they have a program of some sort, complete with an independent project. He also said that his class wasn't all on the same level when it came to experience, so the collaboration with others learning new technologies with x years in the industry was invaluable.

I can confirm Bloomberg does this, u/quackware is correct. I went through the program myself recently, and it's actually a very nice dive into a unique full stack -- and because you take the training with a large group of peers, it's a good way to network as the company/make friends in a new location, especially if you're fresh out of a grad or undergrad program.

I know there were some issues with the program in the past (for instance, at one point you had to maintain at least an 80% "grade" in the program or you'd be cut loose from the company) but Bloomberg has really invested in the program recently and it's much more trainee-friendly these days. Lots of emphasis on cooperation and teamwork, and even though there are some solo timed "assessments" they're about the right level of challenge, and the goal is understandable -- they're there so the trainers can get a feel for what lessons work and what lessons need fixing.

Anyway, it was invaluable to me. I can't imagine jumping straight into a dev role at a company fresh out of college.

A formal onboarding program sounds great. We have nothing and I notice that some people even after years don't know how some systems work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com