Your top 5 favourite Codecool blog posts from 2021

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Read again and get new inspiration from your favourite articles by Codecool about training, recruitment and management from last year.

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It’s almost the end of the year, a great time for some nostalgia. We thought we’d look back and see which of our articles you enjoyed the most last year, which ones generated the most heated discussions, and which ones inspired you most. It was great reading back all your thoughts in comments on LinkedIn under some of them, or just see how many likes and other emojis each got. 

Here goes the top 5 of your favourites. Enjoy (re)reading them!

1. 7 reasons why the IT talent gap is still growing

This was by far your number one favourite post this year. It’s about what we found to be the biggest obstacles to closing the ever growing IT talent gap. The fact that it was so popular shows how important the topic today is, and how many companies struggle with the gap.

4 of the 7 main reasons we found about why it’s still there were:

  1.  Going digital beyond IT, or the fact that more and more digital positions are opening outside of IT, too, in business departments
  2.  COVID-driven digitalisation of not just those innovation areas in previously defined digital strategies, but also forced, quick digitalisation of further, business-as-usual processes
  3. Inflating prices in some countries raising salaries of anyway-not-cheap tech professionals, too
  4. Growing EU and VC funding creating more-and-more IT jobs to fill, especially from 2014 on
Curios about the remaining three? Read the article now, and get inspired about the complex background of this global challenge.

2. Still hiring tech people for a degree? Think again

We found that quite an intense discussion started under this post on LinkedIn. It seemed that everyone has an opinion about this controversial topic, and loved seeing your arguments and examples.

Our view,  explained in the post in detail, is that university education has many values, and there are positions where it’s absolutely necessary to have as a background, but there are many more, where it is not. We looked into some statistics from a related research, looked at reasons why we’re biased towards university graduates, and how it can be harmful. We also gave practical advice on how to adjust your selection criteria, if you decide to drop the university degree from your list of primary filters for a candidate.

The article was posted last January, but it still does have its relevance. Open to consider its facts and arguments? Read it (again) here.  

3. 3 IT recruitment challenges in 2021 – and why they are great opportunities

Have you seen the meme, where a woman jumps from a burning building with a sign saying “2020” down into a huge round sheet stretched out by firefighters, only to bounce back and fly into another burning building through the window, with a sign saying “2021”? Well, let’s just say, 2021 didn’t really bring the relief of the pandemic situation and it’s effects that everyone hoped for in the beginning of 2020. 

Recruitment faced its own challenges, after the initial freeze in 2020 through gradual revival, but complete overturn to online and remote operation. The difficult part of writing this article wasn’t the collecting of the challenges, it was to show the opportunities. But we managed, and this became one of your favourites from our blog posts this year.

Wonder how the impersonal, tech-dependent online recruitment process can bring advantages? How the insecurity of jobs in 2020 resulting in lower number of candidate open for a change could work for you? How the digital skills gap can shake your HR strategy up in a good way? Give the article another go, and collect fresh inspiration.

4. Get more women into tech with us – learn about our new CoderGirl Scholarship

Besides closing the tech talent gap in general, getting more women into tech has been a major focus for companies all over the world in the past years. Since we wanted to do something, too, we created the CoderGirl Scholarship in Q3 2021. The scholarship allows talented and determined women and girls to learn tech for free with us with a guaranteed position in the end,  matching their new skills . We even started a whole new Cyber Security Specialist Course solely for women, with scholarship places only, in November.

In the article, we brought you some facts and figures about the gender gap, as well as some interesting examples when digital product launches went bad only because there were no women involved in the development. We also asked you be part of the change and join us in inviting more women into tech. 

Doesn’t ring a bell? (Re)read the article and be inspired.  

5. Starting the new year stronger and more mature than ever before

This las one on our (your) list was actually our very first post in 2021. It was a very personal look back at 2020 and look ahead at 2021 by Jozsef Boda, global CEO of Codecool.  It’s quite interesting to reread it and see how we realised our plans (like our series B expectations and the opening of our newest campus in Austria). 

How does he evaluate 2021 and what are his expectations for 2022? You can soon find out from another similar post to come early next year. 

Until then, read (again) this article for a bigger context and some nostalgia.

The above are just a few examples, of course. There were quite a few other blog posts you really liked, like our collection of inspiring podcasts, a success story of one of our graduates featured in a BBC StoryWorks video about our school, and a behind the scenes guide to how we put our company values into practice in tech training.

If you’ve enjoyed reading our blog posts this year,  make sure to subscribe to our Codecool Business newsletter for more.

Stay with us and keep getting inspired for a better digital future in 2022, too.

“I Found My Place in the World” – Codecool in DIGITALEUROPE Video by BBC StoryWorks

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At Codecool we believe in a digital future built by amazing, everyday people – changing the world, starting with themselves. These hard working individuals all have a strong drive and shared passion to start their lives anew in future-proof tech careers.  We do our best to help them on their journey, and in the end connect them with innovators so that they can contribute to corporate digital strategies with a purpose.

Our mission and one of our Codecooler’s story inspired DIGITALEUROPE. They decided to share it in a video produced by BBC StoryWorks, in the scope of a new video series, titled ‘Digitally Enlightened‘. 

We are proud to be featured in the series and hope to inspire others, too, to believe in a bright digital future for Europe. 

A story of self-realisation and special value

In the video we get to meet Dóra Koreny first, an ex-Codecooler. Previously, Dóra studied hard for years to realise her ambitions, only to find out she couldn’t find happiness in her job in public healthcare. To reinvent her life, she decided to learn programming at Codecool. Today, she feels she made the best decision, and is happier in her new work than ever. 

We also get to know John Ford, VP Engineering & Site Leader at LogMeIn. John sees Codecool graduates as being “very rounded”. He believes that the fact that Codecoolers often come from different backgrounds makes them really special candidates, and great team members that are easy to work with.

Calling to action for a stronger, digital Europe

With 82 corporate global leaders and 39 national trade association members representing over 35,000 businesses, DIGITALEUROPE is the leading trade association representing digitally transforming industries in Europe.

They stand for a regulatory environment that enables European businesses and citizens to prosper from digital technologies. They wish Europe to grow, attract and sustain the world’s best digital talents and technology companies.

In the end, DIGITALEUROPE strives for a Europe where digital technologies, innovation and artificial intelligence can provide citizens with competitive jobs, better health and better public services.

Taking our story further to inspire

BBC StoryWorks is the content studio of BBC Global News. Building on their century-long pedigree as the world’s most trusted storytellers, they work with brands to create beautifully crafted stories that move and inspire curious minds, across platforms and across the globe – in a way that is consistent with BBC standards and values.

Exploring Europe’s workforce expanding the digital frontier

The landmark film series titled ‘Digitally Enlightened’ was created by DIGITALEUROPE together with BBC StoryWorks , to share great ideas and success stories of Europe going digital. 

The series was launched on 14 April, and explores how a common vision would help digital innovation scale up and flourish to the benefit of consumers and companies.

More Women into Tech!

There are still much fewer women participating in the software development projects of the future than what would be healthier for society. Learn how Codecool strives closing the gender gap in IT.

There are still much fewer women participating in the software development projects of the future than what would be healthier for society.

The IT sector has been struggling with gender diversity problems for a long time, and in spite of the fact that this issue has been discussed more and more often in recent years, no significant change has taken place. In Hungary, the rate of women working in the IT sector is still around 10-15%, which deeply underrepresents society – although by now it has become a fundamental truth that diversity is desirable on the basis of both moral and business considerations.

Technology influences all aspects of our lives from healthcare through traffic to personal relationships. Programming has an impact on an increasing proportion of our lives, while only a tiny minority of mankind understands code, algorithms and artificial intelligence. This small group of the population has an enormous responsibility for creating code that take the problems of entire societies and the differences within society into consideration , as well. An unbalanced representation of coders may indeed affect our future!

Most programmers, of course, do not create biased apps deliberately. But our own experience and past inevitably influence us when we make decisions; and such decisions are then integrated into the technology we build. It will form the way we live and might cause significant damage without diversity. For instance, underrepresented social groups may be put at disadvantage – including the social group of women.

But the lack of diversity raises not only ethical questions. It may significantly affect business results and innovation capability, as well.

“Several studies and our partners’ experience also prove that more diversified management teams are more likely to have higher profitability than companies run by homogenous C-level managers. The teams within Codecool also operate by putting this principle into practice: the proportion of our female managers is 50%. More diversified teams bring new points of view to the discussion and come up with alternative solutions that could not necessarily have been developed by a more homogenous group. The multilayered approach and the ability to solve problems more successfully contribute directly to better business performance at the end. We strive to provide our corporate partners with a more colourful and versatile coder and tech talent base in the well-known Codecool quality, so that they could benefit from the advantages of diversity, too,“ said Lea Kalocsai, Head of Sales at a leading Hungarian programming school Codecool.

Education is the key
There will be more female programmers only if more women are trained. However, in Hungary the rate of female students in IT training is only 10-15% today. This ratio is in line with the also ver low rate of women working in IT, and is still far from the 30% threshold, above which minorities do not feel disadvantaged.

There are still several stereotypes associated with coding. People tend to visualise coders as men wearing glasses and sitting in a dark room all day long. It’s a long process to change an image like this, and besides IT companies, educational institutions must also take an active part in changing this mindset.

“Codecool would like to make girls and women be aware of the fact that they are welcome in technological, digital and programmer training and career paths. As an open-minded, transparent company, we strive to get rid of the stereotypes connected to technology, programming and managerial roles in Central and Eastern Europe. One of our main objectives is to continue increasing the 20% rate of our female students – which otherwise even now exceeds the local averages in this sector – and to help a generation of much more diversified professionals and start-ups to start and develop their careers,“ says Codecool’s Head of Marketing, Anna Ferenczy.

From the economic performance’s point of view, it is crucial to have more and more coders in Hungary. Similarly to international trends, the number of IT graduates is less than the vacant positions in Hungary, too. There are about 22-22.5 thousand IT positions to be filled in the labour market, currently. From the aspect of companies’ competitveness and the establishment of social equality, it is essential to fill many of them by women in the future.

For more inspiration take a look at our blog post on Forbes’ ’30 Successfull Coder Women under 30’ list, and meet 11 super talented female coders who studied at Codecool.

This article was published on forbes.hu on 7 December 2020.,

11 Codecoolers in 30 Successful Coder Women under 30 in Forbes Hungary

Forbes Hungary collected 30 outstanding programmer women under 30 in their December issue. 11 of the 30 are former Codecool students, confirming that our unique training methodology works, and our inclusive culture is truly empowering young women to find their passion in tech. And making us super proud again about our amazing alumni.

The Forbes article introduces each specialist through a short profile and makes a point: women programmers do exist in Hungary, they are smart and ambitious, and they won’t be discouraged by prevailing gender stereotypes. In fact, most of them don’t even see themselves discriminated against at the workplace. However, many of them are still met with surprised faces when people outside work learn they have such “masculine” professions.

 

Coding “like a girl”

Gender gap in programming is a global concern, but also a complex topic to research. Different statistics show different ratios for women in tech. Numbers obviously differ by country, sector, company and even specialisation. Most generic research puts this ratio somewhere between 10 to 30 percent – that is having 1 to 3 women among 10 programmers. We could do all better.

Especially that there is zero research evidence showing any difference based on gender regarding talent or competence required for programming. The apparent differences are elsewhere: regarding opportunity, (lack of) social support and confidence (not unrelated to the other two key factors.)

Even Codecool statistics show looking at our 1000+ alumni internationally, that we have only 1 woman or girl in every 5 students. This is a number we are continuously trying to improve.

Our strategy is based on clear and active communication of our open approach, zero discrimination in the application process or at school, and a growth mindset as a foundation of our training philosophy. Obviously we are also fighting the consequence of social bias: a low ratio of girls applying in the first place. However, the result of our efforts is an inclusive environment for girls at our school, where they are not only able to build a developer’s mindset, and hard and soft skills, but also their confidence as tech professionals.

 

Wall of pride – meet the 11 Codecoolers listed

„The ideal situation would be not to talk about male and female programmers, just programmers” – says Zsuzsa Gerendai, one of the coders on the list, quoted in the article. We couldn’t agree more.

However, to get there, the best strategy may be to motivate more girls and women to become coders by showing examples. And the programmers in the article do set an amazing example each.

These are the 11 inspiring Codecooler women under 30 listed in Forbes’s list of 30:

 
 

Let’s fight the gender gap in tech together

We are super proud to see our alumni on the list and succeeding in their careers after putting in the hard work to learn tech at Codecool. We have many more amazing success stories in our alumni obviously, not fitting any magazine article or blog post.

But we would love to even have more, and we know our partners would love to have even more talented women and girls working for them in diverse tech teams. We really hope to see many more girls and women join us like these strong and smart women.

We will continue to work on opening the world of tech to everybody, regardless of their gender. Determined to make not only the IT talent gap, but also the IT gender gap a thing of the past.