7 Melbourne Tech Companies With Software Engineering Grad Programs
Wanting to go to a company that had strong mentoring was what my bootcamp cohort and I all had in common in our job search.
Which is incredibly hard to find.
Here’s a list of the programs, where mentorship is built in. With added information on when applications open, when it starts, length, who it’s for, and what it is.
There’s some missing information here and overtime things will get out of date but I found myself always listing off the companies to people and thought it was high time for a post about it.
Eventually I would love to add a more critical lens to these programs, encourage more companies to have them and involve feedback from alumni. But until then, here’s a start!
1. Envato
Developing New Pathways For Women In Coding
When applications typically open: No set start date. It varies depending on when the cohort finishes.
When program starts: ^ See above
Length: 10–12 months depending on the pace of the apprentices
Who it’s for: Women with untraditional backgrounds who have a desire to career change into software engineering
What it is: The grassroots program was conceived and developed in-house by Mario Visic and include a mix of classroom-style teaching and immersive work in developer teams across the business. Each apprentice develops real-world software development skills across broad areas such as planning, estimation, communication, collaboration, writing and testing code, deployment and monitoring their changes through to production. There are also deeper dives into technical learnings that focus on Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript CSS, HTML, object modeling, tooling, source code control and more. There are only two apprentices each year, with a job as a Junior Developer on offer if the apprenticeship is successfully completed.
My personal experience: Applied, offered position, accepted.
2. MYOB
When applications typically open: ~April
When program starts: February
Length: 1-year
Who it’s for: People with “some programming experience (University CS Degree or alike, Coding Boot Camp or self-taught to a semi-professional level).”
What it is: Our program is all about bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to build meaningful software. It provides the right foundation for those taking the first steps in their career. Plus, it’s not just about writing code either; it’s about having a growth mindset, teamwork and continuous learning.
You’ll start in our Future Makers Academy on a guided learning journey where you’ll be mentored under dedicated mentors, with the purpose of accelerating and mastering your craft. Under their guidance, you’ll work through a series of increasingly complex problems aimed at identifying and stretching your core skills, followed by placements in engineering teams working on different parts of our platform.
By the time you progress out of the academy, you’ll have developed the technical and teamwork skills we know are key for a long and successful career as a software professional at MYOB and beyond.
My personal experience: Applied, rejected based on lack of enthusiasm.
3. REA
Software Developer and Engineering Graduate Program
When applications typically open: March
When program starts: February
Length: 1-year
Who it’s for: People who “have recently completed or will complete before February 2022, a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a technical boot camp”*
What it is: Our 12-month rotational Graduate Program will have you embedded in Agile teams where you will be exposed to all aspects of our technology business with a focus on software development. The aim of our graduate program is to mentor, coach and develop you by giving you opportunities to learn relevant skills.
Life at REA as a Software Developer and Engineering Grad is diverse. You will gain exposure to cutting-edge technology, languages & best practices like modern Ruby and Functional Programming with Scala. You will learn about new and emerging practices like Test Driven Development (TDD) and work on a range of projects from new web and mobile apps & products to core teams like Data Services and getting exposure to our DevOps teams working on AWS architecture and CI/CD pipelines.
My personal experience: Applied, interviewed 3 times, rejected based on lack of technical ability.
When applications typically open: October
When program starts: February
Length: 1-year
Who it’s for: Women*
What it is: REA’s Springboard to Tech program is a 12-month program where we offer on the job, formal training, mentoring and coaching opportunities. At the end of the program, candidates will be offered full time employment with one of our teams.
4. Zendesk
Only online information found is through glassdoor. Their application windows are really tight. Here’s a now closed listing on LinkedIn.
When applications typically open: April/May
When program starts: August
Length: 6 months
Who it’s for: Open to anyone who knows how to code but with no commercial software development experience (open to bootcamp grads and self-taught)
5. Mantel Group
No online information. The best information was this blog post written by Tess Gard.
When applications typically open: November
When program starts: February
Length: 9 weeks, 3 days a week
Who it’s for: Women starting out in the industry
My personal experience: Applied, interviewed 2 times, rejected based on lack of technical ability.
6. ThoughtWorks
When applications typically open: March
When program starts: May
Length: Beyond the five-week training program there’s no stated timeline
Who it’s for: Whether you’re a Computer Science major with less than 1 year of professional experience, a coding boot camp graduate or a “career changer” who is working toward becoming a software developer, you have the opportunity to join our community.
What it is: Our Graduate Consultants jumpstart their careers with a trip to ThoughtWorks University (TWU): a five-week training program in India or China (seven weeks virtual at present). When you return home, our Graduate Experience Lead will provide continual on-boarding support to help you settle into ThoughtWorks.
7. Xero
When applications typically open: March
When program starts: November
Length: 3-months
Who it’s for: People who have “technical examples of work outside your course, such as developing a new framework, learning a new language, being active on Stack Overflow, or have a great GitHub profile.”*
What it is: As a graduate engineer you’ll have the opportunity to rotate through different specializations in both product and platform teams.
In our product teams we innovate new features, fix bugs, and enhance functionality. Our teams are made up of front-end and back-end specialists, work on desktop and mobile applications, and do full-stack development.
In our platform teams we build things that last a long time and everyone relies on. Rotations include platform development, site and data reliability, development, architecture, integration, and platform-as-a-service engineers.
With a choice of rotations throughout the grad year, you’re empowered to drive your own learning and explore different roles before making a decision on what you want to specialize in.
My personal experience: Didn’t quality based on my VISA status.
*requires PR or citizenship
