The Akron startup, Ohio's first boot camp for computer coders, claims 90 percent job placement rate Watch video
AKRON, Ohio -- As he studied philosophy and political science at the University of Akron, Daniel Sass acknowledges, he failed to address the crucial question of the age: Who was going to hire him?
That lapse took on increasing weight as he sweated through manual labor while searching for that real job.
"I thought, 'I need to figure something out,'" said the 25-year-old Copley resident.
He got wind of the new movement sweeping the land, one that promotes computer coding as an essential life skill, and wondered if he were too late for the game. Then he discovered the Software Craftsmanship Guild, an Akron startup offering a speedy train to the innovation economy.
At boot camp for computer coders, Sass met other men and women like himself--non-techies seeking an abrupt career change. Sooner than he expected, he was learning languages called C sharp and Java and telling computers what to do.
"Oddly enough, philosophy fits into it more than I expected, because there's a lot of logic," he said. "There's math, but it's not obnoxious math. I'm loving it, really."
The success of his gambit will be better known in a few weeks, when he's to leave camp for the working world. But the odds of a liberal arts major finding a job in the tech industry are looking good, surprisingly good--if they can crack the code.
Nationwide, the economy is adding about 138,000 jobs in computing each year, while the nation's colleges produce about 40,000 computer science graduates, according to Code.org, a group trying to expand computer science education in schools. The skills gap leaves about 100,000 jobs unfilled or inexpertly filled.
In the local technology industry, hiring executives have complained for years about the lack of software developers.
Eric Wise was one of the complainers. As director of information technology for a Canton insurance company, he needed coders, also known as programmers, people who create the action steps for a computer to follow. That's done in a computer language, called a code.
"Whenever we were going to hire, we couldn't find anyone good," he said. "The college kids knew theory, but they couldn't apply it."
In desperation, he recruited two women from the company's call center and taught them how to code. That was his eureka moment. They were good. Or good enough.
"I just lightbulbed," said Wise. "I thought, you know what, there has to be a lot of people in dead-end jobs, people who want to try something new."
New apprentices for a new economy
Wise, a 35-year-old married father of two, drained his 401k plan to launch his company last June. He later partnered with Jennie Zamberlan, a software executive who added capital and management expertise.
He patterned the business after the craftsmanship guilds once common in Northeast Ohio, making the point that computer science can be learned on the job, and attained the accreditation of the Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools.
At the Software Craftsmanship Guild, students are apprentices working with a master--Wise or one of his instructors--in a hands-on, workman-like setting.
By focusing on computer languages that major employers prefer, the guild promises to instill marketable skills in 12 weeks. Provided one possesses the right stuff.
The popular image of the computer coder--a solitary figure staring at a computer screen and typing endless lines of code all day--is off the mark, Wise says. A coder is thinking, creating, and applying knowledge gleaned from conversations with sales people, engineers and co-workers.
"You have to have some creativity," he said. "You need to be a logical thinker. And we look for something called grit."
There's a reason coders must resist the urge to throw laptops out windows. Plans go awry. Bugs emerge. An elegant solution comes to naught as the company changes its plans.
Wise uses an assessment test that gauges math and logic skills. That, and an online interview flushes out about half the applicants. The other half are invited to come to downtown Akron, take up student housing near the university, and put their lives on hold for three months. The price: $10,000.
That offer is attracting men and women from an array of backgrounds and from around the country.
Happy, hard-working campers
On a recent morning, eight people sat behind wide computer screens in a high-ceilinged room on the seventh floor of the Akron Global Business Accelerator.
Wise, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, stalked the rows like an amiable coach, smiling, advising, his voice rising above the clatter of keys to point out shortcuts to building a database.
An enthusiastic teacher, he's been rewarded with a motivated class. Of the eight students learning C# (pronounced "C sharp") this day, six had quit jobs to be here. Most were from another state and another profession.
Similar demographics unfolded one floor down, where Eric Ward, a veteran software developer, was teaching the JavaScript class.
The region's newest craft guild attracts a far-flung flock of apprentices.
"Intellectually, I was bored," said Rebecca Pollard, 47, who until recently was a math teacher at a private day school in Vermont.
Pollard, a petite woman, has climbed each of the 46 high peaks in the Adirondack Mountains, but she smiles to reveal a secret side to her personality.
"I stay up 'til 10 or 11, sometimes 2 a.m., coding," she said. "I taught myself as a kid. This was something I always wanted to do."
David Johnson, 28, a private investigator from San Diego, left for Akron just days after his wedding in March, driving four days across the country.
A programming buff, he said he researched the scattering of code camps that have sprung up nationwide before choosing Akron's, partly because of the quality of local life. He and his wife hope to buy a home and start a family in the area.
"We looked at Austin, too," he added. "The key for me is, I use the hiring network here and get the job."
The camp has so far graduated 27 people from three classes, and 24 of them left with jobs--a 90 percent placement rate.
Wise explained that he is building a network of employers who enjoy first crack at his apprentices. Almost on cue, Erik Enright walked in. He's the vice president of technology services at CardinalCommerce, a growing Mentor software developer and e-commerce firm.
Enright, who has already hired several people from the guild, was interviewing students only midway through their program.
"We interview for personality first," he said, then look for technical skills.
The apprentices typically lack the fundamentals of coders with four-year degrees, Enright said, but they've been immersed in real-world scenarios and can jump right into projects.
"Most of them already have a professional background," he said. "They showed initiative and motivation to do this. That combination is very powerful."
He would be speaking soon with Lauren George, a fiction writer from Charlotte, North Carolina.
She said she worked hard to make her history degree work but ended up tracking accounts for a landscaper and managing offices.
With her husband's blessing, she quit her job, packed her car and drove to code camp.
"I took a big risk," she said. "But I've always liked puzzles, problem solving, chess."
Now she loves coding: sitting down before a blank screen and creating a set of instructions that can make wonders happen.
"To me, this is almost like creative writing," she said. "You're building something from nothing."
She'll always be a writer, an historian. But she's more excited to envision her coming title: Lauren George, junior software developer.
Robert L. Smith covers economic development for The Plain Dealer. Follow him on Twitter @rlsmithpd.