This year saw the renewal of Pronovix’s ITrainee program open to university students, recent graduates or those seeking a change or new career. Members of the Pronovix Recruitment lab selected three participants, who were then given the chance to learn about web development and observe the Pronovix workflow environment.
Our carefully assembled team of dedicated mentors set up the timeline, defined the goals and established the correlating tasks the participants would be undertaking.
Our three trainees in the Pronovix ITrainee program 2015 were Kitti Radovics, Bence Göbölös and László Brindza. We ended the program by interviewing our trainees regarding their reasons for joining, their experiences and their overall impression. Read on to learn what Laci had to say.
stv: First of all, why did you choose the Pronovix ITrainee program?
Laci: I was looking for opportunities to learn more about web development. There was a course which provided IT knowledge, but then I found the ITrainee program. I thought it would be a more efficient way to learn this profession, so I chose this instead of the course.
stv: What was the difference in the program compared to your expectations?
Laci: I expected that I will learn the basic workflows, so I will be able to work independently and I was right. The writing exercises were what prepared me for the real work.
stv: Could you talk a bit more about these exercises?
Laci: The exercises became harder and harder during the process. At first, I had to get familiar with Drupal then I had to dig deeper into the topic and look up the things more seriously. This required high level autonomy and problem solving skills, but, at the same time, if I felt I needed help then I could ask. It was good for me that I had to present my knowledge in a practical way instead of an exam.
stv: What was the most interesting part of the traineeship for you?
Laci: I think, it was the Robin project. We used the most popular Drupal modules during the development, so we became be familiar with most of them. And that was our most complex work.
stv: You created the Robin project as a team. What is your opinion about your team’s work?
Laci: Most of the time I worked with Kitti and I think it went very well. I was glad that there was somebody who I could share the work with. All of us could operate as a team from the beginning.
stv: How did the communication work?
Laci: I always tried to find the right solution on my own at first. Maybe it took a bit more time than just asking somebody, but I think it is a better approach to learning and solving problems. Of course, I got an answer every time when I asked a mentor about something.
Slack, Skype and Hangouts provide very efficient communication channels and facilitate the workflow.
stv: You had to learn a completely new workflow. What do you think about it?
Laci: The workflow had many steps, but they were logical, well structured and transparent. Actually, it is the base requirement of smooth work.
When we started to work on Robin, I had no idea about how we could implement it. Then we had a discussion with the UX researcher, the technical writer and the senior developer and it became clear. We created a plan and showed it to Kristof. He made a significant number of changes and he had an interesting question: what had we learned from it? I think the essence was we always have to mind what is the concept of the customer.
stv: If you could add one more thing to the program, what would be it?
Laci: I chose the front-end area at the beginning, but during Robin, we did not share the tasks based on our decisions. It might be because there were just three of us and we didn’t have the human resources to distribute the tasks accordingly. Anyway, it was good to take a look at all of the aspects of the project. I’m glad to have had a chance to be a part of the program.
As a result of the program, Pronovix hired Laci as a front-end developer. We are looking forward to working with him as a member of our tribe.
