Hatchways is awesome!
As someone without a formal developer background, it was really hard to find a dev job and I never heard back from any companies that I applied to. Luckily, one of the jobs I applied to was using Hatchways as a screening and I was invited to do their initial assessment. At first, I was skeptical. However, I read more about Hatchways’ process and felt pretty good about it. After completing their initial assessment, I got feedback immediately the next morning. I was so shocked at how detailed the feedback was, and how they suggested that I look into high-level React concepts that I had never heard of before. At that point, I knew that they were pretty cool. Afterward, I got invited to the project interview. The project interview involved an existing code base with a framework that I had never seen before. I had always set up my own projects so I was pretty nervous. They advised me to make sure that I was ready to do the project interview assessment within the 2 week time period, however, I was a little too eager and started it right away, forgetting I had some days where I could not work on the project. I recommend that you definitely make sure you are free during the time you have to do the project interview as speed is a factor in how they grade you. For each task I completed during the project interview, I got some great feedback from their team. Beyond learning from doing the tasks, I was also learning A LOT from their comments and suggestions. These were things I definitely would not have learned on my own. At the end of the project interview, I got the feedback a few days after. From there I met with a member of the team for a quick call where I got to ask them questions. I was so impressed because even though the company I originally applied to was no longer searching, they informed me not to worry and that they would be sending out my profile to other companies immediately. Over the next 2 weeks, Hatchways began to send me notifications of companies that were interested. Some companies wanted to interview, other companies asked me to complete additional timed screening assignments. At that point, I was so surprised and excited at all the notifications as I had never heard back from companies before let alone been invited to an interview. While I took it from there in terms of scheduling and completing any assigned tasks, Hatchways was still providing an enormous amount of support. Anytime I had questions on how to handle a certain situation, they answered every single time. Since I had never had a developer interview, I did not know what to expect. Luckily, Hatchways also has interview prep content that helped show me what to expect in the upcoming interviews and in searching for a job on my own time. Not all the interviews worked out, but they provided me with such excellent experiences that I could learn from. Ultimately, after going through the processes and with so much support, I received two job offers (1 from a company Hatchways sourced and 1 from another company). However, even if I hadn’t received any job offers, I would still recommend Hatchways to anyone who is ready to take the step to become a professional developer. The sheer amount that I learned and grew and the amount of support that I received were really amazing. TIPS:
- Be ready to take ownership of all your projects through this process, Hatchways provides fantastic support and resources but ultimately it is up to you to make sure you are on top of it
- Don’t underestimate the video at the end of the project interview, make sure you put effort into your explanations as it will be shared with potential employers
- Always be communicative and send updates to the Hatchway team on how your interviews are going, the more they know, the more they can support you
