This is part of a series on my apprenticeship at Obtiva. The full series can be found here.

Apprenticeship?

I suppose I should start by explaining what this apprenticeship is all about, so let’s start from the beginning…

I had a relatively stable job, people looked to me for ideas and advice, my opinion was respected. And therein lies the problem, I was quickly becoming king (well maybe not king, but higher royalty) of the hill, but I didn’t feel like I should be at that level. And worse yet, I was starting to stagnate in my personal learning.

So I did something that some said was foolish, I left that position to take on the role as a software apprentice. A role that places me at the bottom of the proverbial hill, where I am, by leaps and bounds, the worst.

I couldn’t be happier.

Over the next six months, I’ll be working at Obtiva as a software apprentice. Obtiva’s apprenticeship program takes people who are passionate about software development, someone with lots of potential, but not a whole lot of marketable skills, and guides them into being a software craftsman.

Here’s an excerpt from Obtiva’s website:

Joining Obtiva as a Software Apprentice means that you’ll be working shoulder-to-shoulder with experienced Obtiva craftsmen on exciting client projects. A successful apprentice is focused, passionate and hungry for knowledge. Our apprenticeship program has proven that our one-on-one teaching, directed study, and client projects leads to rapid growth in the skills and abilities of our apprentices.

The end goal of this apprenticeship is to prove that I have what it takes to be a consultant at Obtiva. Which, judging from the massive amount of talent they have acquired, I’ll have my hands full. I’ll be working on a variety of things over the next 6 months to get to that point, but there will be an overall pet project that will be used to asses my growth as a developer. Over the next couple of days I plan to iron out the details of this project, I’ll be sure to post when that is finalized.

Change in Culture

One of the things that has been the hardest to get acclimated to, is the change in culture. I went from a company that employed thousands of people in all different business aspects, software just happened to be something that needed to be done, much like accounting and janitorial duties. Don’t get me wrong, I learned an incredible amount during my time there, but it did leave me wanting more from my place of employment. Transitioning into a small agile company that not only lives off the software they develop, but is also deeply passionate about it, has been refreshing so far.

One major cultural difference I noted, happens to be something rather insignificant. At my previous employer, I couldn’t take a piss or get a drink of water without punching out, so you can imagine my shock when I learned that Obtiva provides soda(!). It’s the little things like that which tell employees, “Hey, you’re a real person, not just a code producing blob that sits in a chair”.

I’m sure this is a topic that I will revisit a lot over the next six months. I’ve always found the ways employers treat their employees and general office culture a fascinating thing to write about.

Moving Forward

After writing this post, I’ve come to the realization that weekly installments may not work as nicely as I thought. There’s just too many topics to write about. Writing about a whole week leaves the post feeling strained and unorganized. In the future I’ll probably do several posts with specific topics in mind.