Developer Training 1C-Bitrix: sharing our approach to the "cultivation" of personnel

When the personnel shortage becomes unbearable, digital companies go in different ways: someone under the guise of "courses" opens their own forge of personnel, someone comes up with attractive conditions and hunts specialists from their competitors. What to do if neither the first nor the second is suitable?

That's right - "grow." When there are many tasks in the queue, and there is a risk of “overlapping” of some projects in the production schedule for others (and at the same time you want to continue to grow in performance), then there is no time to open universities. And to “steal” cadres from others is not allowed by morality. Yes, and the way of hunting carries a lot of pitfalls.

We have long decided that we need to go the best way - not to neglect the young staff with little experience, time to take them from the labor market while they are free, and raise them.

Who are we learning?

If you take into your ranks everyone who has mastered the creation of a resume on HH.ru, then it will be too “wide targeting”, as advertising specialists would say. A certain narrowing is required:

1. Minimal PHP knowledge. If a candidate declares a desire to develop in the field of web development, but, moreover, he has not reached the theory of the most common scripting language, it means there is no desire, or it is too “passive” (and it will remain so for a long time).
2. Passing the test task. The problem is that the impression and the real abilities of the candidate are often completely different. A potential employee who has zero skills sells well. And the one who looks at the first stage is not very interesting, may have good knowledge. And the only “filter” in this question is a test task.
3. Passing the standard stages of the interview.

1st month

The whole learning process is divided into 3 months, which represent a conditional “probation period”. Why conditional? Because it is not just an internship, during which the employee is tested and gains some basic skills. No, this is a complete training program. And at the exit, we get full-fledged specialists who are not afraid to entrust a real client project.

What is included in the 1st month of study:

a) Bitrix theory:

• The first acquaintance with CMS.
• Passing courses and obtaining relevant certificates:

- Content manager.

- Administrator.

b) The first programming tasks. When solving them, it is forbidden to use high-level functions — that is, those in which certain algorithms are already implemented.

c) Familiarity with corporate standards and web development culture:

• CRM - let the employee in our portal.
• Training in internal regulations and principles of work. Including:

- Rules for working with tasks.

- Development of documentation.

- Communication with managers.

d) And only then GIT (version control system).

The important point is that we believe that higher educational institutions follow the right path when they first teach students principles, and not some particular languages. And although the initial knowledge of PHP is a prerequisite for getting into our training program, it still does not replace the skills of algorithmic thinking.

2nd month

a) The continuation of the theory of Bitrix. Only this time there are already other courses:

• Administrator. Modules
• Administrator. Business.
• The developer.

b) Working out combinatorics. Object Oriented Programming. The complexity of the algorithm, work with objects.

c) Tasks from the Beatrix Paid Exam - acquaintance with the framework architecture.

d) Practice - writing your own framework for developing a website with simple functionality. Mandatory requirement - the architecture should be similar to Bitrix. The assignment is supervised by the technical director. As a result, the employee has a deeper understanding of how the system works from the inside.

d) git.

Pay attention to how smoothly the employee’s competencies develop in relation to Beatrix itself. If in the 1st month we taught him basic things related to administration, here we are already moving a step further. It is very important that the developer can do things that seem at first glance very simple and even more “low” (in the hierarchy of task complexity).

3rd month

a) Again the tasks from the paid exam.

b) Integration of the layout of the online store on Bitrix.

c) Continuation of work on writing your own framework.

d) Small tasks - "combat" practice.

d) And again GIT.

Throughout this period, a clear record of performance is carried out, debriefing is conducted with each employee 1 to 1. If someone lags behind on a particular topic, we immediately adjust the training tactics - we add additional materials to the plan, we return to poorly learned points, we disassemble together concrete "snags." The goal of each analysis is to turn the weaknesses of a developer into strong ones.

Total

After 3 months of training, an employee who has completed the entire program automatically receives the status of “junior”. What is the feature here? In many companies, the experience of specialists is estimated incorrectly - hence the incorrect naming. In the "juniors" they record everybody indiscriminately. In our country, only those who have already really been “in battle” and are not deprived of a theoretical base deserve this status. In fact, such a “junior” can be in some moments even stronger than the “middle” from other companies, whose training has not been controlled by anyone.

What happens to our junior next? It is assigned to a more senior developer, who further oversees his work and keeps track of all the important milestones of development and tasks for projects.

Is the circuit working?

Definitely - yes. It has already established itself as a proven training program, as confirmed by experienced (already “grown”) developers. We pass through it all. Everything. And as a result, they turn into experienced combat units for outsourcing development tasks.

We shared our approach. The next step is yours, colleagues. Dare!