Ruby for All

The Agency of Learning with Dave Paola

Apr 6, 2023

Dave Paola, Founder of Sierra Rails, talks about coaching Junior Developers and the success of Pivotal Labs. The importance of hiring Early Career Developers in pairs is discussed, along with Dave's Junior Developer Bootcamp. Retro meetings and improving team culture and processes are explored. The Agency of Learning program, focused on helping Early Career Developers, is introduced.

29:54

Creator website

Episode guests

Dave Paola

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Pairing junior developers together can greatly improve their chances of success by providing support, reducing pressure on senior team members, and promoting camaraderie.

Weekly retro meetings empower teams to take ownership of their growth, improve team dynamics, and foster a positive work environment.

Deep dives

Pairing junior developers for success

Pairing junior developers together can greatly improve their chances of success. When junior developers are hired solo, they often face challenges such as questionable team commitment to their success, lack of support, and imposter syndrome. However, when hired in pairs, they have a buddy to navigate these challenges with. They can ask for help from each other, reducing the pressure on senior team members. Pairing also creates a different dynamic, where accomplishments are discussed instead of constant requests for assistance. This approach significantly improves the onboarding experience and promotes camaraderie among early career developers.

Introduction

3min

Exploring the Terms 'Early Career Dev' and 'Junior Developer'

7min

Company Transition, Pairing Junior Developers, and Imposter Syndrome

6min

The Importance of Collaboration and Support

4min

The Impact of Weekly Retro Meetings on Team Culture and Processes

5min

Biweekly Engineering IC Sync and the Agency of Learning

5min

On this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew and Julie have joining them, Dave Paola, Founder of Sierra Rails, a Ruby on Rails Software Development Agency. Today, Dave talks about his experience coaching Junior Developers and Early Career Developers. There’s a discussion on the success of Pivotal Labs and the importance of hiring Early Career Developers in pairs. Dave tells us about his Junior Developer Bootcamp and his aspirations to help Junior Developers kickstart their careers. Andrew, Dave, and Julie discuss the importance of hiring Junior Developers in pairs to improve their onboarding experience, and the value of retro meetings or biweekly team meetings to improve team culture and processes. We’ll also hear about Dave’s experimental program, The Agency of Learning, which focuses on helping Early Career Developers prepare for their first job through a volunteer-based pilot. Press download to hear more!

[00:00:55] Dave tells us a little bit about himself, why he prefers Early Career Developer versus Junior, and Julie explains why she prefers Early Career Developer.

[00:04:23] We hear a story that Dave shares about the success of Pivotal Labs, which is gone, and their great approach to hiring in pairs, starting a Junior Developer Bootcamp, and how this evolved into him writing a book.

[00:07:17] What made Pivotal Labs so prolific back in the days?

[00:11:20] Dave explains why he believes in pairing Juniors together.

[00:12:10] Andrew shares his pairing story when he first started out, and Dave shares a story as to why he thinks psychology has a lot to do with hiring in pairs.

[00:16:16] We hear some experiences Andrew had in computer science school with people being put in impossible situations and they end up quitting, and then the positive experience he had when he started at Podia. Julie shares her school experience working in groups.

[00:20:12] Dave stresses the benefits of holding weekly retro meetings to improve team culture and processes.

[00:21:58] Andrew tells us at Podia they do biweekly developer meetings which he finds more helpful than weekly retro meetings. He stresses the importance of getting the team together, especially for the Juniors or Early Career Developers. Dave highlights the benefits of meetings for developers to come together and share challenges and ideas.

[00:24:52] Julie tells us about her biweekly engineering meetings, where there’s no leadership, but teams, and the engineers get together and just be real.

[00:25:57] Dave talks about his experiment, The Agency of Learning, which is a volunteer-based pilot for Early Career Developers who are looking for their first job. He’s looking for coaches, so if you’re interested, please reach out to him.

[00:29:26] Find out where you can follow Dave online.

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Guest:

Dave Paola

Sponsors:

Links: