In just eight weeks, a Winston-Salem-based software development solutions company more than doubled their employees.
Sightsource, a small company that had nine employees in July, recently hired several graduates from its own software development training program. The program, entitled Empower, ran for its second iteration from Aug. 2 to Sept. 24, having been offered previously in 2018.
This year, Empower graduated 23 people from a total of 25 trainees. Of the graduates, 18 now have jobs in technology. Sightsource directly hired eight of the graduates and took on six as contractors for the company’s clients, with the expectation that the clients will hire the contractors full-time following a three-month training period. The remaining five graduates are currently in the market for technology jobs.
To handle this “difficult but fruitful period” of employee growth, COO and co-founder Ali Tahbaz plans on reduced billable capacity for the next three to six months as Sightsource brings its new hires up to speed and sets them up for future success.
Empower
Sightsource offered the full-time, eight-week program at no cost to the trainees. As TBJ previously reported, programs like Empower typically run from $10,000 to $15,000.
Many who are interested in software development often cannot afford the time or financial commitment of either a formal education or training program.
“The costs of those courses are artificially exclusionary, and we would be missing out on potentially great talent,” Tahbaz said. “We’re opening the doors so that everybody has a chance.”
Balint Gaspar, CFO and co-founder of the company, said that Sightsource intends to continue offering the program for free.
Sightsource offers Empower at no cost for two reasons. One is the benefit Sightsource receives from brining new people into the company, Tahbaz said. The other is that Sightsource believes in helping the local economy and wants to help find and attract talent to Winston-Salem, Gaspar said.
Sightsource looks for one large defining requirement in Empower applicants: a dedication to working in technology, which Tahbaz says is the best correlating factor of success.
Fewer than a quarter of this year’s Empower cohort had a formal education in computer science; one was even a North Carolina School of the Arts-trained trumpet player who taught himself software basics during the pandemic.
Software training and more
During the course of the program, Sightsource taught the cohort front-end development, like JavaScript and RAPT; server-side development, focusing on C# and Elixir; and database development, such as SQL Server and PostgreSQL. The program also introduced them to two cloud providers, Azure and Amazon Web Services.
Sightsource also arranged mentorship sessions, including with a tech placement firm, to discuss how software developers can market themselves and how to utilize their soft skills. The company partnered with Winston Starts, where its offices currently are, and the Wake Forest Center for Private Business for this iteration of Empower.
Taught by a mix of Sightsource employees and outside software developers, Empower was consciously done entirely in-person. Tahbaz and Gaspar recognize the wide availability of excellent and free online technology training and found success by differentiating themselves with a free, in-person program.
Sightsource will continue to hold “office hours” for Empower graduates, engaging them well after the program is completed.
