I have done so repeatedly with various roles and would do so again.
I’ve had great success with new hires who are changing careers and lack any directly relevant experience or formal training.
My criteria is they must impress me that they are passionate and self-motivated and have spent at
least a year in self-directed or guided study in web development or another closely related programming niche. Typically this means they’ve logged a lot of hours on the weekend or nights after their day job, learning as much as they can with the clear goal in mind of jumping careers.
Likewise their existing experience or training is something I look at closely, even if is an unrelated field. For someone who knows how to thrive and keep learning and refining their skills In one field can often translate that to another.
And of course I wouldn’t hire them without a plan on how we will continue training them, and where we expect them to get to in terms of benchmarks in the next year.
It also don’t believe that project work is enough to train this type of hire, so in the first year we set aside 30% of their work hours for professional development in the form of self-guided learning, tutorials and classes.
It is a big commitment of resources to take on someone with no experience so it isn’t something we take on lightly. And it is not a highly paid starting salary as we are not going to get a lot of quality billable hours out of this person in the beginning.
But it is an investment, and one that has paid off for us repeatedly as career-switchers have proven to be among the best employees we’ve ever hired.
I should also point out that I am someone who didn’t study programming or design or start working in web design / application development until I was in my late twenties. So I can appreciate the challenges and the opportunities involved.
You say "yes" but I don't think your answer really matches the question. Have you ever hired someone with just some theoretical knowledge and high marks in soft skills? I would expect anyone with at least a year of study of programming to have a lot more to show for it than some theoretical knowledge.
Yes, I have hired people with no built work to show. No, imagine I’ve never hired anyone who couldn’t demonstrate some practical knowledge (not just theoretical).
However I would encourage anyone in this position to get some practical experience however they can. Go build some things. It will be a much easier path into a better job, with work to show.
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I have done so repeatedly with various roles and would do so again.
I’ve had great success with new hires who are changing careers and lack any directly relevant experience or formal training.
My criteria is they must impress me that they are passionate and self-motivated and have spent at
least a year in self-directed or guided study in web development or another closely related programming niche. Typically this means they’ve logged a lot of hours on the weekend or nights after their day job, learning as much as they can with the clear goal in mind of jumping careers.
Likewise their existing experience or training is something I look at closely, even if is an unrelated field. For someone who knows how to thrive and keep learning and refining their skills In one field can often translate that to another.
And of course I wouldn’t hire them without a plan on how we will continue training them, and where we expect them to get to in terms of benchmarks in the next year.
It also don’t believe that project work is enough to train this type of hire, so in the first year we set aside 30% of their work hours for professional development in the form of self-guided learning, tutorials and classes.
It is a big commitment of resources to take on someone with no experience so it isn’t something we take on lightly. And it is not a highly paid starting salary as we are not going to get a lot of quality billable hours out of this person in the beginning.
But it is an investment, and one that has paid off for us repeatedly as career-switchers have proven to be among the best employees we’ve ever hired.
I should also point out that I am someone who didn’t study programming or design or start working in web design / application development until I was in my late twenties. So I can appreciate the challenges and the opportunities involved.
You say "yes" but I don't think your answer really matches the question. Have you ever hired someone with just some theoretical knowledge and high marks in soft skills? I would expect anyone with at least a year of study of programming to have a lot more to show for it than some theoretical knowledge.
Yes, I have hired people with no built work to show. No, imagine I’ve never hired anyone who couldn’t demonstrate some practical knowledge (not just theoretical).
However I would encourage anyone in this position to get some practical experience however they can. Go build some things. It will be a much easier path into a better job, with work to show.