Finding employment after graduation is top of mind for most coding bootcamp graduates. Our Career Services team is there to connect students with the over 300 organizations in our employer network looking to hire, which has resulted in over 95% of our job-seeking graduates getting hired into Developer roles.

Mobify is no stranger to Lighthouse Labs, having hired 4 graduates for their team! Course Report caught up with Mobify's Talent Aquision Manager to learn about their experience hiring Bootcamp graduates and working with Career Services.

You can read the complete interview here but we've shared some of our favourite exerpts below.

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What types of roles have you hired Lighthouse Labs graduates for?

Mobify has hired Lighthouse Labs graduates for junior roles that have covered a variety of different functions. One Lighthouse Labs graduate joined us as a Back End Data Engineer, one alum as a Front End Engineer for our customer success team, and one as a UI and Web Developer. Another graduate joined our customer success team as Front End Engineer and he's recently transitioned into a role as Support Engineer, assisting clients with technical issues during the builds.

Have you noticed any differences in the process of hiring a bootcamp grad versus a graduate of a traditional computer science degree program?

Lighthouse Labs is great, and they accommodate Mobify’s hiring process. We have a unique and very thorough interview process, and Lighthouse Labs is flexible, which is fantastic. We don't have to bend our process to fit Lighthouse Labs’ needs, so it makes it really easy to work with them.

I think developers acquire skills in all sorts of different ways. Some people have been coding since they were in elementary school, and others are just starting to learn now. Then, of course, we do hire engineers with traditional academic training like degrees in engineering and computer science. We definitely have a broad range of backgrounds within our engineering department at Mobify.

What specific qualities does Mobify look for when hiring new developers?

Because the Lighthouse Labs grads have such varied backgrounds, Mobify has been able to find Lighthouse Labs talent that are a good fit for different areas of the business. Some got an undergraduate degree in math or science and then decided to go into software engineering after graduation, so they can hit the ground running in a more complex technical role. Others are coming from a design background and might need a bit more training to ramp up.

Because the Lighthouse Labs grads have such varied backgrounds, Mobify has been able to find Lighthouse Labs talent that are a good fit for different areas of the business.

Has Mobify worked with any other coding bootcamps besides Lighthouse Labs?

No, we've been really happy with Lighthouse Labs. Our engineers here have really enjoyed working with, and mentoring the Lighthouse Labs graduates. Some of our engineers have even taken that next step and taught as TAs with Lighthouse Labs in their own spare time as well.

What does Mobify’s current relationship with Lighthouse Labs look like? Do you pay a referral fee for hiring graduates?

There is no referral fee required. As a company, we want to be integrated and involved with the tech community in Vancouver. Lighthouse Labs has been great to us, so we host some events for them and offer our space for events like employer speed dating. Employer speed dating is where Lighthouse Labs graduates can meet with and talk to a whole group of employers in one evening to get a sense of what their work environments are like, and what they're looking for in their engineering hires as well.

Since you started hiring Lighthouse Labs graduates, have any of those new hires been promoted, or do you anticipate they will?

Some of the Lighthouse Labs graduates have moved into other roles based on their interests because we do encourage lateral movement where we can support it. One of our Lighthouse Labs graduates recently moved to San Francisco to work at Uber, which is a success story! With all of our employees, we nurture them and support them in their growth. If they're successful in their role here and they're getting promoted, that means that we’re doing a good job.

Does Mobify have a feedback loop with the bootcamp? Are you able to influence the curriculum at Lighthouse Labs if you notice that some of the dev hires are lacking in a certain area?

Yeah, definitely. Lighthouse Labs is super communicative, and they're in touch with us often to get our feedback. They're always available to talk. When we’re typically doing recruitment for junior engineers, they're one of the first organizations that we reach out to. They always have time to talk through what specifically we're looking for, and they have a very personal touch with their students as well. For example, they will make personal introductions for specific students that they think would be a good fit.

Is it safe to say that Mobify will probably hire from Lighthouse Labs in the future?

Yes, absolutely.

Read more about Mobify's hiring experience on Course Report by clicking here.