Light a Candle

Right now, there are nine, highly motivated people on the East Coast of Florida who are burning the midnight oil... focusing evenings on classes and labs, and days on projects and resources to master the Drupal skills that build new careers and make them valuable members of the Drupal Community. They are the select few of the 2014 Drupal Career Starter Program, and in less than two months, most will be ready for work experience as interns.

Despite its seemingly small size, this enlightened group is, most likely, the most intensive, collective effort of new Drupal Talent building in the world right now. Want first dibs? Contact us now if you would like to become a Work Experience (WE) Drupal host. Hosting a WE Drupal participant is a great opportunity to test-drive talent, get some decent help for you or your permanent staff, and help your recruiting efforts. Past hosts have had some great success!

DCSP internship-ready graduates are known quantities that have been vetted for technical and confidence readiness by DrupalEasy Academy. If you have tasks or internal projects that can use one or more highly trained new Drupalers, and you have the mindset and bandwidth to guide a trained newbie, send us an email before March 7. The introductions will begin shortly thereafter, with the goal of having all qualified graduates placed by March 20, 2014, and internships starting shortly thereafter.

The DCSP is 10-weeks of intensive training and practical skill-building designed to develop key skills, instill community, and spread the Drupal Way. Up to eight potential DCSP graduates will be available for WE Drupal at the end of March, once they prove themselves worthy. Right now, they are working through our intensive curriculum, getting guidance from community mentors, being encouraged to contribute, and becoming active in the community.

You will be able to select from qualified candidates that you can expect will have a strong foundation of Drupal core knowledge, commonly-used contrib modules, community contributions, and communication protocols (email, Skype, IRC). They will also have various levels of knowledge of a wide range of other Drupal contributed modules and themes, modules and theme development, version control (Git), and other Drupal-related skills.

Each potential participant will have a profile on the class page that potential WE Drupal hosts can access and will be available for interviews. You will be able to gauge which students fit best for you. Class profiles contain information about each student's interests (module development, in-depth knowledge of particular Drupal distributions, theming, etc). Once you decide whom you’d like to consider, DrupalEasy will make the introductions. The rest will be up to you and the WE Drupal participants.

Although compensation is not required, we highly encourage it so you can secure the top candidates and get the best results from the internship program. DrupalEasy has a great Internship Best Practices page for compensation options and tips for getting the most out of your intern. Learn more about the program at DrupalEasy’s WE Drupal page, and get the most from giving back to the community. As Winston Churchill said, “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.”