Bitnami cofounder and COO, Erica Brescia says hiring good engineers is difficult. One of the greatest challenges facing companies today is that the younger, less experienced engineers may be a better culture fit than engineers with more experience. Also, more experienced engineers may not apply at all because they are secure in their current jobs.

To combat this problem, and improve their hiring process, Bitnami designed a process called “Bitnami Bootcamp.” Erica reports a high level of retention and that it has helped to build their brand. Plus, each hiring class gains comraderie which helps with satisfaction and retention. 

5 steps of Bitnami Bootcamp

1. Apply. Bitnami gets the word out via universities and social channels. It’s important to have a short answer question or two, to weed out non-serious candidates. The questions need not be on deep technical matters, and could be as simple as “What’s your favorite programming language, and why?” Ask questions that can’t be answered by a “yes” or “no.”

2. Phone screen. Next, ask candidates questions like “How did you hear about the Bootcamp?” Also, test at this point for basic Linux skills. At this time, the goals of the Bootcamp are given, along with emphasis on the intensive, fulltime nature of the Bootcamp.

3. Bootcamp. Those that move on to this phase are entrenched in a two-week intensive training of all tools and technologies used at Bitnami. There are lectures in the mornings, and labs in the afternoons. Attendees get to spend their lunches with Bitnami teams, where they can see the culture and ask questions.

4. Project. A small project is scheduled that should take about a day. This gives candidates an idea of the kinds of work they’ll be doing if they get an offer. This is the final step!

5. Onboarding. Typically, everyone who gets an offer joins on the same day. This streamlines the onboarding process, and creates a great sense of camaraderie among the hire groups.

The results so far have been astonishing. Over the course of four bootcamps over two years, Bitnami has had 425 applicants, 53 of whom (12%) were accepted as students in the Bootcamp. Out of those, 20 (38%) were hired, and only one of those has left the company. Additionally, the local community has benefitted from the students who were not given offers—the training they received helped them get jobs elsewhere.

This process might not work for all tech companies in all places, but Bitnami’s success suggests that this “bootcamp” style process can help create a strong workforce of awesome developers!