Welcome to HackYourFuture! We really appreciate your interest in being part of our community. In this repo, you'll find an overview of the different volunteering positions available. By volunteering, you contribute to our main goal: help trainees gain the necessary skills to find a job as programmers. HackYourFuture has now helped over 300 trainees find work in tech. This is only possible with the support of our volunteers <3
In order to reach this goal, we focus on two main areas: the coding skills and social job readiness. For the coding skills, we cover the basics of Javascript so that graduates can apply to positions in frontend, backend and fullstack. Aside from teaching how to use the language, we also train participants in writing clean code and working in teams on a code. Regarding social skills, we pay attention to communication, teamwork, English but also give training in interview preparation and CV building workshops.
To facilitate the learning process, volunteers together with HYF staff have developed a curriculum, which you can find here. The complete 7-month program is divided into different modules, each building on the one before. We encourage you to have a look at the curriculum and think about which modules connect most to your professional experience. Another useful resource is the Study Manual, which we give to trainees on their introduction day. It provides an overview of our program.
Every two to three months, a new cohort of +/- 15 trainees starts the course. This means that we have about 4 cohorts (+/- 55 trainees) in different stages of the curriculum at any given point. HackYourFuture is mostly a self-study program and you can find the structure for our trainees here. On Sundays (12:00 to 14:30), we host online Q&A sessions for each cohort, that tackles the weekly material. As a volunteer, you either help out per module, or as 1-1 coach with a single trainee. Modules are between three to four weeks long (except for GIT/CLI, which is only one session). So we ask volunteers to commit for about three weeks to HYF. It’s up to you how often you want to help out with a module. We need at least three mentors per module. Check the table below for an overview and explanation of the different volunteering roles.
| Role | Description | Weekly time estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment support | As an assignment mentor, you check and provide feedback on the weekly assignments of the trainees. We split the cohort into groups, so that you have about 3-5 trainees to review per module. Feedback should be provided within a week after the assignment has been submitted. Once their assignment corrected, the trainee have themselves a week to implement your feedback, so that you can do a last check-up. This is their chance to get personal feedback on their code, so the focus shouldn't be restricted to whether the answer is correct, but also on their coding style, whether their are cleaner solutions and responsiveness to feedback. | 2 - 4 hours. Flexible |
| (Online) Q&A lead | On Sundays (or Mondays if you prefer), you host a Q&A session for the module of your choice. Trainees must submit a question and an exercise by Saturday. During the session, you go over the questions and solve the prep exercise, which tackles the weekly material. Asking trainees to present or compare their solutions helps to make the session interactive. We encourage to also give a brief lecture on the weekly concepts, however that is optional. To become a Q&A lead, you must first have experience as Assignment Support. Afterwards, you’ll help out a more experienced mentor for a module, so you learn how to lead a session. Most Q&A leads also do assignment review for the module. | 3 - 5 hours including the session and preparation time. Saturdays & Sundays |
| Personal mentor | Some trainees have a hard time keeping up with the program and need additional support to be ready for their first job. As personal mentor, you follow 1-1 a struggling trainee and check-in at least once a week via video call. You go together over the concepts they find difficult, make sure that their knowledge on previous modules is solid, and provide them extra explanation and practice. | 30min - 1.5 hours. Flexible |
| Project leader | The last module of the curriculum consists of a group project, in which trainees build their first full web application, which will be the main piece of their porfolio. As project leader, you act as tech lead, product owner or scrum master for one of the groups. The project goes over 6 weeks but only the first 4 are supervised by volunteers. | 1 - 4 hours. Flexible. |
| Post Graduation Package | After completing the program, it sometimes takes a while for graduates to find their first position. This waiting time can be tough an demotivating, although it is very important that graduates use this time wisely to keep on enhancing their skills. As a postgrad mentor, you work closely with a graduate to make sure they keep on coding, learn new languages or technology, work on their portfolio. Your role is also to keep them motivated and sometimes to prepare them for technical interviews. It starts with weekly check-ins, but if you see that your grad works well independently it can become bi-weekly. Usually this position goes on until the graduate starts with a position. | 30min - 1 hour. Flexible |
| English Mentoring | As an English Mentor you help the trainees improve their english languages skills so they are more ready to work in a professional envirnment. You support them for aprox 1 hour a week for a period of 12 weeks | 1 hour. Flexible |
It takes a lot more than just coding skills to become a web developer. And as the market is becoming more and more competitive, we notice that soft skills are become more and more important. For this reason, HackYourFuture also tries to prepare trainees to the work culture of the tech world in the Netherlands. Throughout the curriculum, we have several group projects to accustom trainees to work in teams. We encourage professional communication, proactivity, the ability to work independently but also to reach out for help, good time-management, commitment and punctuality. We address these topics during several Career Trainings, spread across the curriculum. Some of this skills need more accute attention or training, which is when we reach out for the support of volunteers.
| Role | Topic | Weekly time estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Social interview coach) | As an HR coach, you follow one or more trainees that are either reaching the end of the program or graduated, and help them prepare for the job application process. During these 1-1 sessions, you help them prepare their profile, provide feedback on their CV, conduct mock-interviews to assess their readiness and give them feedback, and guide them on how to look for positions, prepare for an interview and have good interview questions. | 30min - 2 hour. Flexible |
| Scrum master | The last module of the curriculum consists of a group project, in which trainees build their first full web application, which will be the main piece of their porfolio. As scrum master, you hold one or two session with each group (2-3 per cohort), to set them ready to work with agile & scrum during the project. These methods are often new to them, so your role is mostly to introduce them so they can familiarise themselves with a tech environment. | 2-4 hours for one module. Flexible. |
| English coach | As an English mentor you help the trainees improve their language skills so they are more ready to work in a professional envirnment. Although everyone in HYF is able to follow and participate in an English speaking class, some trainees lack the fluency to make a good impression during a job or tech interview, to have the confidence to engage in a discussion or to be fully part of a project group. You support them weekly by doing conversation for a period of 12 weeks (flexible). You can give them homework to make the sessions more productive. No teaching experience or Engish native language are required. | 30min - 1 hour. Flexible |
Most of our communication is done via Slack. This is the place where we ask you if you can help out with a certain module, and where you can keep in touch with both trainees and other mentors. There, we have channels for each cohort and each different main volunteering domains (English, tech and HR). If you are not in Slack yet, ask Joséphine 💁
For an overview and explanation of our core values, check out this repo.
As mentors, it's important to know that you're a role-model for our trainees. They can learn by example to:
- Stick to deadlines
- Communicate professionally and on time
- Be proactive
As part of our mission to diversify the tech world, we also strive to make HYF less male-dominated. More women mentors are a great source of inspiration for trainees, they are role model that help fight inpostor syndrome, so we encourage you to apply to visible position, such as Q&A lead :)
We hope that by reading this, you have a better idea of what it means to volunteer at HackYourFuture. If you have any question, you can always send us an email at josephine@hackyourfuture.net or (once you have been added to our Slack channels) send us a Slack message.
Looking forward to working together!