Speroteck Speroteck

As you know, a few months ago, our company conducted recruitment for the SFCC Backend Trainee Program course and now the classes are coming to an end.

Therefore, we would like to share with you some feedback about the course from our graduates.

Among the questions we raised:

1. Expectation vs Reality?
2. What were the most difficult moments for you?
3. What comments or wishes can you express (on any points from organizational to technical)?

Arthur Voshchanikin

“Well, my situation is not standard… I knew where I was going.

Having no commercial experience in development, there are inexplicable difficulties associated with simple things at every step. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the technological chain.

I would probably give more answers to the trainees’ questions. I would not give straight answers. It seemed to me that people were missing that. In general, this is a good test for finding answers to the questions.”

Ilya Shevchenko

“My expectations were not met, because I thought there would be a canonical lecture/practice format, but instead we got a more flexible one, with meetings only when necessary and independent study, which I consider very successful.

The most difficult points for me were probably the training model and documentation, which was also only a positive experience. Many things had to be tried independently, without ready-made tutorials, which led to a deeper understanding of the material.

In general, there are no comments on any processes, mentors and recruiters organized a friendly and informative atmosphere. I really liked when they invited the manager, who spoke in more detail about the company and its processes.

Regarding wishes, I think it would be good to hold a mini-lecture before each module, where mentors would pay attention to key points. I am satisfied with the course, I received a lot of positive emotions and experience!”

Olena Patlata

“Starting from September 5, 2022, I am studying at Salesforce Commerce Cloud courses in the Back-End direction as a trainee. My expectations regarding the learning process were based on my previous experience of learning in Full-Stack Developer courses.

For example, we would learn using detailed notes for each topic, we would have the opportunity to get clarification from mentors on any unclear points, homework tasks would consist of carefully listed items that must be completed, etc. But learning quickly put all expectations in place and showed the difference between expectations (courses where students are helped and cared for from all sides) and real life.

Yes, Salesforce Commerce Cloud courses are as close as possible to real work, when you have to deal with a new library, master its methods and approaches on your own, you have a clear time frame for completing tasks. Therefore, the quality of the work done depends only on you, on your persistence and desire to understand new material.

In reality, the practical tasks were not as simple as expected (which was really pleasing). Because the tasks seem to list the items that need to be completed, but as it turns out in the process, half of the items with intermediate tasks are missing.

So, in order to complete the weekly practical tasks, it was necessary to independently guess and independently configure entire sections, study and understand individual sections from the Salesforce library, which were not even hinted at in the theory before the lessons.

As for communication in a group with other students, the reality even exceeded expectations, every student who can help, helps. And the main thing is that this help is not direct hints, not ready-made solutions, but an explanation of how to look at the problem in general, which section in the library to study. In addition, a sense of humor helps us during our studies, we know how to laugh at our mistakes in a friendly way and support each other.

The most difficult moment, as it turned out, was the need to study new material based on videos voiced not in English, but in “Hinglish” (as we students called it among ourselves), the lack of native English speakers in the videos greatly hindered and slowed down the learning process.

Remarks: reduce the workload of our mentors so that they have a little more time to check students’ practical tasks and write comments and remarks on the code.

Wishes: continue to teach beginner developers, because it gives an opportunity to master a new direction and get a job offer in the absence of commercial experience.”

Oleksandr Stinkovyi

“I expected that there would be fewer people on the course, but it was fine. I thought that it would take a long time to load and lag on the test sandbox, but everything worked quite smartly. At first it seemed that the tasks were too simple, but now it does not seem so.

At this point, jQuery was the hardest part to figure out. There were small difficulties with the project build and styles.

And in general, in each new topic there were some moments where you got stuck, but after a few hours of trying and reading the docks/chat in Skype, enlightenment came. Probably it makes sense to make calls more often.”

Pavel Navrotskyi

“The first thing I liked was that, apart from the test, each participant was personally interviewed first by the HR, and then by the mentor. The conversation was quite easy. Therefore, the acquaintance made a positive impression.

It seemed to me that the course would be more loaded. I expected that I would be able to study something in my free time – but there was not enough information on SFCC. Also I didn’t expect the deprecated syntax, Bootstrap and Jquery. I thought there would be competition and selection, but if you cope with everything, they will continue to work with you.

There is critically little information on the most difficult points. You have to collect bits and pieces from the forums and from the Indian colleagues, if you are lucky, of course. The material is best learned in practice. In web development, you can find many video guides, code examples, and create, edit, and expand applications yourself. And here is the problem. It’s good that interesting tasks were selected for us.

There are no comments as such. Information is given, tasks are checked, there is feedback – it’s a thrill. Perhaps a little more attention from mentors would be desirable. You need to know how to Google, but you really want them to reveal the problem to you, show you the solution and explain something. The central nervous system suffers when you stomp in place for hours because of a short-term problem that can be solved in 5 minutes.

You could also deepen and expand the course. Because people who are determined to go through it have something to count on. As I said – SFCC is a very specific area, and information is scarce. Therefore, apart from courses, it is impossible to develop yourself.

In web development, you can monitor vacancies, requirements and teach yourself the necessary technologies – there are plenty of materials. And here it will not work like that. If the course is completed, that’s it, you don’t know what to do next. Then there is no point in taking it. Therefore, the knowledge given must be relevant in the market.”

Valentin Kovalenko

“I often follow the rule “Accept criticism and don’t be afraid to criticize”, however that time there was no criticism, because the course met most of the expectations and even surprised at certain moments. I’d like to share some of them.

I was impressed by the company and the courses which were the continued development and the appearance of new, qualified and certified specialists on the market, even during difficult times for many. Of course, that set the mood for optimism and a desire to successfully complete the courses.

Expectations regarding the company’s approach to training and the type of courses were also very much met. It is difficult not to appreciate the professional approach to teaching, especially when you expect daily meetings and lectures with boring homework.

But in reality you get a progressive platform with a good and diverse knowledge base, tasks from real projects and support of participants, a Sunday call with mentors – it is certainly impressive.

Similarly, the attitude towards taking courses was also impressive. I expected to be able to progress beyond the team and the course plan during my studies, however, I saw that it was important for the company that everyone was on equal terms and finished the course together.

Of course, difficulties arose during the course, which was inevitable. But the documentation, videos, thematic blogs and friendly co-participants helped to solve them. Among the most difficult sections for me was “Jobs”, because the first task was close to a real project, but enough time was allocated for it, so I had to cope with it.

In the end, I would like to wish the company to continue to develop and improve, and to continue to be an exemplary IT company.”