Understanding The Apprenticeship Process

When Shamma Qureshi embarked on her higher education, all signs pointed toward her becoming a nurse. While that wasn’t her passion, it was a stable profession and one her family supported. After practicing as a medical scribe and a physical therapist’s aid, Shamma was prepared to take the next logical step: nursing school.

In 2020, the pandemic started dangerously impacting patient care settings. The pressure from family to become a nurse waned as the reality of the healthcare industry started to emerge. Shamma was now free to explore other options, and her brother, who works in technology, suggested a software development bootcamp. After some research, she settled on General Assembly and went to work learning a new trade. She was able to parlay the problem-solving skills that she acquired from the life sciences degree she had earned in her undergraduate degree into this new world of ones and zeroes.

However, as the immersive software engineering program neared completion, Shamma began to worry about what came next. By this point, the pandemic had created an uncertain economic environment, and nothing was guaranteed. Then she read about the Apprenticeship Program with Codence in the student Slack instance. Excited about the prospect of real-world experience and training alongside a professional software developer, Shamma eagerly applied. 

An Expanding Partnership

Codence had been working with Jared Rosenthal, President of Sansei and Health Street, an employee screening service. Together, they built a unique application on the Claris FileMaker platform: a modular content management system called GLASS that Sensei would then resell to small business owners.

GLASS was crafted to create an intuitive administrative user interface for business owners that allows them to update, edit, and publish websites with just a few clicks. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a Claris FileMaker script executes a series of actions to ensure that the publishing experience is seamless and the search engine optimized.

As a small team, Sansei needed someone excited about learning, who would be capable of wearing multiple hats, and ready to start building new features.

The Hiring Process

After establishing she would be a good culture fit, she was moved to the next round of technical interviews. Finally, she met with her potential employer.

To Shamma’s delight, Sansei and Codence chose her to be their next apprentice. And now, the real work would begin. She would start by working with Codence to flesh out her Claris FileMaker knowledge, build her technical skills, and familiarize herself with the GLASS project that they had created for Sansei. Thanks to a rigorous training schedule, she was able to be hands-on with real coding projects in just three months.

An On-The-Job Experience

Finally ready for work in the real world, Shamma was brought into the Sansei team. From the outset, Shamma was an integral part of the team, working alongside the CEO, the AVP for Information Technology, and the Codence team.

“I’m very involved in the development of new features,” Shamma shared. “Jared, Kevin and I collaborate, brainstorm, and work together to build elements of the CMS to help provide a progressively better user experience. I’m excited that I get to have so much involvement in my first technical job. It has really accelerated both my learning and marketability.”

Now six months in, Shamma is continuing to build and maintain GLASS. She also helps test front-end features to ensure that everything integrates well with the back-end Claris FileMaker infrastructure.

“Codence was able to recruit and train a talented person who has really hit the ground running in a new position … we’re delighted with her performance.”

– Jared Rosenthal, President of Health Street

A Safe Bet

Ultimately, Shamma was prepared to dive into this new career because she knew she had Codence by her side. Alan Kirtlink, Technical Lead and Kevin Frank, Senior Application Developer were available to answer questions, encourage her, and ensure that she had the technical resources she needed to be successful.

“Codence gave me the opportunity to learn while working. It was a marketable skill that I could learn without the pressure of performance reviews. I was still held accountable, but I had the support I needed to ask questions. Thanks to this experience, I know I have a bright future ahead of me”.

Building a Talented Team

As for how Jared feels about the experience? “It’s a great program–so much so, that we’re turning again to Codence to hire another on our behalf.”

If you’re curious about the Codence Apprenticeship program as an apprentice or a sponsoring company, read more about our program.