If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that bringing more women into the tech world is really important to us. We recently partnered with Czechitas — a non-profit with the goal of increasing diversity in IT — on their 3-month digital academy to help women become Front-End Developers which culminated in one intense, fun-filled weekend of coding. And we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Read on to hear from the ATA mentors and the winning Czechitas team about what they learned and what kind of behind-the-scenes fun they got up to.
Ataccama. Czechitas. One project. 2 days.
How did it work? Our colleagues Maryna, Pavel, Adam, and David teamed up with 6 tech-savvy women who have decided to become Front-End Developers by studying at the Czechitas Digital Academy: Web. Each team consisted of 2 Czechitas and one or two ATA mentors (our colleague Adam was so committed that he woke up at 3am to join zoom meetings from his hotel bathroom while on vacation in Mexico!).
Each team had an idea of what they wanted to accomplish and spent the whole weekend working on their projects with guidance from their mentors during one long hackathon at the Ataccama office. And one of these projects was chosen as the best one out of the whole digital academy!
What the ATA mentors say
“My team was working on an application for children to learn the alphabet. Basically, they wanted to have a learning section and some games, so that kids can practice their knowledge of the Czech alphabet. It was my job to help them with any problems they ran into and guide them towards a good solution in their limited time frame. The biggest challenge for me was to change my frame of mind. When I write software for Ataccama I try to solve issues as efficiently as possible. Here the goal was completely different. It was about transferring my knowledge to the team so that they, of course, finished the project in time, but also understood what they were doing, and retained the skills beyond the hackathon weekend.” — David
“I was a little nervous because all the teams had only been coding for 3 months and it seemed like a big project for them to tackle. But actually, I was amazed by their progress. They were able to do the project mainly on their own and I just helped them with problems and gave them advice. It was just about taking their idea and helping them execute it. It was really cool that I could have this experience and help them out on a real project that people will actually see.” — Maryna
“The most difficult part of the Hackathon was the beginning when we had to sit down and establish who would work on which part. Also, Adam was a mentor with me and he was working from a bathroom in Mexico, so it was a bit complicated to figure out how to work, with me in the office with the team and Adam remotely. We discussed the foundations of the project, and the mentees actually had their own preferences on what they would like to work on. One focused on the UI and another on the logic and code. Once we split the work, each of us had one person to mentor, and it was smooth. I was surprised by the amount of knowledge they had accumulated after only 3 months and I really enjoyed their enthusiasm. I missed the atmosphere when we went home. I had my ukulele with me and David can sing, so we actually played some songs and sang during the day.” — Pavel
What the winning Czechitas team says
The winning team created a logic game called Bulls & Cows. The goal of the game is to guess a secret number code based on the provided hints. Give it a try here.
“I learned a lot of background on programming from Adam. And coding of course. Sabina and I shared it so nicely. I spent more time on writing the code and Sabina played with the design which she has a talent for. We prepared our project in Illustrator/HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and then during the hackathon we implemented it into React and designed and used animations with the help of our mentors. For any woman thinking about getting into IT, if you enjoy something from the IT sector and have a goal, it’s definitely worth trying. Just make sure you’re ready to devote a lot of time to learning and self-study!” — Lucia
“What did I learn? Besides a victory dance to celebrate having functional code? 😃 A lot of things! We learned HTML/CSS, the basics of JavaScript, React, UX, and GIT. My nightmare was that our project would shut down after we started converting it to React. After all, we’re not skilled programmers (yet). Just doing the project in one weekend was the biggest challenge. I will remember the Hackathon for a loooong time, it was awesome! The most precious thing for me was the dedication and patience of our two mentors — Adam and Pavel. Adam, who was on holiday in Mexico got up at 3 am, and Pavel, who has a small baby at home, sacrificed all weekend to help us create our project. Without them, we couldn’t have done it! And of course, I can’t forget Pavel’s awesome performance with the ukulele!” — Sabina
As a thank you to Pavel and Adam for helping them, the winning team came up with an amazing design for their mentors. What do you think? Are they superheroes? We think so.
What a weekend
Coding and cool people. It doesn’t get much better than that. We really admire what Czechitas does and are thankful to them for giving us the opportunity to try out our mentoring skills. We had a blast and can’t wait until next time! We’re so proud that the IT world is 32 Front-End Developers richer now.
Like what you’ve heard and want to join a company that has your growth in mind? Check out our open positions and apply today!
Want to read about other Ataccamers and how their roles have evolved during their ATA journey? Interested in experiencing the day to day of different open positions? Head over to our blog.