You probably know that Parallels has been working with talented students almost from day one. In many ways, because the company itself appeared thanks to the same young "talents". Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Bauman Moscow State Technical University in general can be considered a cradle for our former and present leaders. And how are things now?
Working with "joons" is expensive and "painful"
Hundreds of programmers have gone through the Parallels academic program over the years. During this time, the experience of the son of difficult mistakes and geniuses, and the circle of paradoxes has accumulated. For example, 10 juns will not replace 1 good middle. On the other hand, 1 talented intern is able to solve a problem that no one else in the company has been able to handle for five years.
But the most important conclusion that I want to say at the very beginning is that it all takes a lot of time and resources, and the company should do this only if there really are opportunities for this.
At Parallels, the junior training system has been moved to a separate area. The director of academic programs coordinates the work of 30 mentors and teachers within the company. This is a rather time-consuming process that requires complete immersion.
Potential interns are interviewed by mentors. Their task is to determine the motivation and fit of recruits to the team. Each team leader has his own direction of development and a set of R&D. This allows interns to choose from a variety of options what they really want to do.
As Head of Recruiting at Parallels, I have a strong interest in growing our academic program. On the one hand, it allows us to close junior positions, on the other hand, it allows us to confidently hire people without experience. Currently, 12% of Parallels employees are interns.
Junes are different
It so happened historically that juniors in our company can “dig” or “cut”. In the first case, this is a research work that requires immersion in related areas, while the second direction fully meets applied problems.
For example, for a long time we had the task of developing an interactive office layout. But the task, as always, is not a priority, so we would have lived without a scheme if the interns had not developed the SEATS application, which marked out the seating arrangements for employees. Now anyone who wants to enter the corporate portal of the company can quickly and easily find out the location of the employee he needs. We scaled this project not only to our Moscow office.
Now they are used by colleagues in Malta and Estonia. And there are quite a few such examples.
Just in case, I want to say right away that we don’t have any exploitation of student labor, we pay for the practice from the first day. But the amount of payment already depends on the efficiency and time spent.
Talent Hunt
Probably, I will not reveal a secret by saying that the main source of talented interns is the leading technical universities. In our case, these are Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Baumanka, Moscow State University, Pleshka and other universities. And here all formats are good. I know that today many companies open their own departments, pay scholarships and hold various events (research, electives, public lectures). Parallels is no exception.
We strive to participate in Career Days, in all kinds of open presentations of academic programs, and so on. During student events, the guys have the opportunity to talk directly with future mentors, ask them questions and get first-hand answers. Considering the level of our developers and the overall karma of Parallels, the results usually exceed expectations.
Another amazing thing is word of mouth. Naturally, students share with each other where they work, what they do, how they live there, what tasks they perform, and recommend their company to their friends. Someone recommends one friend, someone recommends three, our record at the moment is 6 successfully arranged friends of one student.
To promise is not to marry
In fact, lest you get a good feeling about the story, I will say that we also have an exodus of recruits. Value orientations, life circumstances, priorities in the end change. Young people are young for that, that everything is quite dynamic with them. For its part, Parallels never limits the will of interns to indentured contracts. Below is an example of our funnel on the way from just listeners to full-fledged employees.
It is very important at the start of a relationship to understand mutual motivation. Interesting tasks, projects and products, the desire to become part of a star team, the desire to build a career in an international company or a banal desire to quickly move out of your parents ... The clearer the motives, the longer your relationship will be.
Another observation is that people rarely talk to each other. Often, interns are not ready to openly express dissatisfaction with something, suffering and tormenting themselves because of banal things. For example, we had a student who spent many months languishing from an uncomfortable work chair. Being tall, his knees rested on the desktop. This went on for quite some time. Finally, the mentor drew attention to this, and we quickly resolved this problem.
Or we had a guy who at some point had problems with academic performance. He had to study in two departments at once. For some reason, it seemed to him that there were no free places on an interesting research project and he had to gnaw granite in parallel directions. When we found this out, we quickly resolved all the issues and optimized his study schedule.
The main idea is that June without attention quickly withers and falls off! Therefore, we “lead by the hand”, we help with the dean’s office, we don’t wait for complaints - we ask ourselves.
Who are the judges?
In fact, no less a question than attracting interns to the company is the motivation of team leaders. It is they who act as mentors and interact with the juniors every day. It depends on their motivation and energy whether a young engineer will be with you "seriously and for a long time."
What can be offered to highly qualified developers, in addition to material motivation? First, the influx of "fresh blood" to the team. Secondly, any work with interns is a path to recognition and self-realization. We, as HR, periodically hold coaching sessions, help with participation in external professional conferences, and organize internal educational programs.
Checklist for starting academic programs
› There is an objective need
› Have tasks
› Have resources
› There are competencies
› There is a material and technical base
› Have plans for the future and vision
What if you also want to join our academic program?
If you are a student of a Moscow university, go to study R&D, and if something seems close and interesting (or at least just interesting, but still far away) - feel free to write to the group, our director of academic programs will contact you and tell you about the further process.
If you are no longer a student, but just want to join us, we are always glad to see your feedback on our vacancies .
Thank you for your attention. I hope that the experience described in the article was useful to you. I invite you to share your experience in the comments to this material.
Source: habr.com