How srcLogic's Training Program Set Me Up for Success
Written By: Thomas Ware
That’s a common refrain during training, as computer scientists, industrial engineers, and liberal arts majors all struggle together to embed a section from a clipboard page. You quickly realize that it doesn’t matter how much coding experience you have or how many internships you took. The Pegasystems low-code platform is baffling at first glance, with confusing terminology and hundreds of moving pieces. During new hire training at srcLogic, everyone is equally unprepared.
Despite the steep learning curve, srcLogic churns out a new crop of Certified System Architects every recruiting cycle, almost all of whom go on to become Senior System Architects. The eight-week intensive course is mandatory for new hires and teaches not only how to develop in Pega, but how to succeed as a consultant.
For the amount of content srcLogic crams into such a short period, the program is surprisingly fun. The first two weeks are low-pressure, instilling the basics of effective communication, data modeling, and project management. Deliverables like a mock demo or a database design diagram keep you focused, but not stressed. The idea is to ramp up to technical topics while getting familiar with the company culture and best practices.
Then you get to ServiceCorp. ServiceCorp is a fictional company specializing in printer maintenance and repair. By the time you graduate from training, you know ServiceCorp inside and out, and you never want to hear about it again. New hires organize into teams and build a series of applications for imaginary printer technicians. Learning how to work in a team, presenting your application, and keeping to a tight schedule are considered just as important as the actual quality of your service website.
Remember, no one comes in knowing Pega.
In fact, the first three weeks feature surprisingly little Pega development. That’s ok – you’ll catch up in the next five. srcLogic’s famous Experiential Pega Training, or EPT, is a week-long, hands-on primer on Pega. It’s so effective that we sell it to other companies. New hires, of course, are held to a higher standard, and go through about three full weeks of advanced EPT, alternated with studying for the Pega certification exams and still more ServiceCorp apps. By the sixth week, new hires are expected to have taken and passed the Certified System Architect exam. Most go on to get their Senior System Architect badge by the end of week eight.
If that sounds like a hell of a lot to learn in eight weeks – well, it is. The real competitive advantage that srcLogic’s training program has is that it is taught entirely by real srcLogic consultants, all of whom went through the same training themselves. Because your teachers are also your peers, your learning environment is collaborative and interesting. And after each training period, an open team conducts interviews and reworks the curriculum based on feedback, in true Agile spirit. Training is an integral part of the srcLogic experience, and a pillar of company culture. It’s how we turn people from rookies to experienced developers who, in a year or so, will then be teaching new rookies.
After all, no one comes in knowing Pega.