It is no secret that Betterez works with some top talent. As a company actively innovating with technology in the ground transport industry, we need to be. It is through the efforts of our skilled team that we identify as a leader in the Reservations and Ticketing Management (RTM) space.
Of course, we are always on the lookout for new talent and like to invest in the people that join our team. One such division is the developers who work for us and innovate our ticketing platform.
Hernán Gigena of Fiqus who works in our developer division, recently put together an educational Node.js course with a bit of help from various strategic partners within his reach. Betterez software is developed using Node.js, making it was an obvious area for our programmers to upskill in.
The idea was to spread knowledge and provide training through the course to other cooperative companies in the community, as well as identify developers from the final evaluation who meet Betterez’s programming requirements for possible recruitment.
Now that the course and evaluation are completed, we spoke to Hernán to see how things went and get his thoughts on its success.
Fiqus Cambá Node.js Course For Software Cooperatives in Argentina
Q: We are interested to hear all about the Node.js course. Tell us what motivated you to put it together?
A: Because of Betterez’s demand for developers, we started thinking about how we could evolve and better improve our output. After seriously thinking about how to achieve this in the best possible way, we decided to put together a course!
We’ve been working on node.js for Betterez for 5 years now. With our first-hand knowledge of the business, its customers, and prior experience in developing a similar course for an e-commerce company in Argentina, we were inspired to move forward.
Q: And what did you hope to achieve from purposing the course?
A: By doing this we could achieve two major goals:
- Share knowledge with other cooperative companies in the community, and
- Educate the next set of potential Betterez developers
Q: Tell us about the course practicalities, who got involved?
A: We have an excellent educator on our team: Diego Calero, who is an experienced instructor so he was a natural fit to lead the course.
To ensure the node.js course would be impactful for students, we developed a final evaluation to take place at the end which would test their knowledge on what they learned. We knew that our friends at Cambá were the right guys to do it and after speaking with them, they immediately accepted the challenge.
It was now a go for a 5-day online course and an evaluation. The course was a reality!
Diego got to work adapting the classes, and Gabriel Maljkovich and Gabriel Gonzalez from Cambá started to work on the final evaluation.
Q: How did you get the word out about the course?
A: We were quite excited to invite others from the cooperative community to sign up.
We announced the course in the FACTTIC (Software cooperative federation) and received an overwhelming response. Many were quite eager to learn node.js and work with Betterez in the future. Our goals were affirmed!
Q: Now tell us about the course itself. What did it involve, when was it held, and how did you deliver it to the students?
A: The course ran from March 11 to March 15.
We choose to deliver it online since most of the cooperative companies are located quite far from one another. Betterez is a remote-first company so this choice made sense. To further enhance the remote learning experience, we created a channel on mattermost (an open source alternative to slack) where people could openly communicate about the node.js course, ask questions, and share resources.
Each class entailed a theoretical and a practical component. Once they had a good grasp of the basics, we jumped right into the practical side of things which consisted of a problem the students had to solve in an allotted time. The practice was an enriching moment for everyone that attended.
Q: You ended off the course with an evaluation. Tell us how this went down.
A: We set the evaluation date for March 20 to give the students a few days between finishing the course and taking the final exam.
The Cambá guys set up a call to run through what was required in the evaluation. Students had the chance to ask questions and once everybody was clear on the instructions, they had 24 hours to deliver their solutions. During this time they could use the mattermost channel to ask questions if they had any.
Once the solutions were in, the Cambá guys started to correct the evaluations. Participants were scored according to certain aspects, and on completion, we had a developer ranking that provided Betterez with insights on the course results.
Q: Overall, how do you think it went, and what did everyone take away from the course?
A: Fiqus and Cambá worked on a really motivating and challenging project together here, and overall, we think that it was a truly productive exercise which achieved our goals. The cooperatives who partook acquired relevant, in-demand technical knowledge and Betterez received a list of devs who were ready and motivated to join the team. As an extra bonus, we raised awareness and interest around Betterez in the cooperative community.
Thank you to Hernán, Diego, Gabriel, Gabriel, Fiqus, Cambá, and everyone else who was part of the organizational process for putting together a successful course that Betterez is proud to have been involved in.
We are always on the lookout for innovators to join our team, so if you think you have what it takes, check out the latest career opportunities here.