By Jeff Mazur, LaunchCode A portion of this blog post was originally published in the St. Louis Business Journal. Late last year, I was honored to be among a handful of area executives interviewed by the St. Louis Business Journal about leading their organizations. One question made me profoundly uncomfortable. It’s the one that has…
LaunchCode’s Moonshot Awards 2020
LaunchCode is excited to present the 2020 Moonshot Awards! In the spirit of entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, LaunchCode’s Moonshot Awards recognize the efforts of St. Louis trailblazers — those working toward new solutions to better our community. Congratulations to the 2020 Moonshot nominees who are trying audacious things to move our region forward! Moonshots are bold…
Preserving LaunchCode’s Mission Post-COVID-19
The past eight weeks have challenged all of us in more ways than we could have predicted. For LaunchCode, that has meant transitioning our community-centric courses to remote delivery, embracing a new pattern of teamwork and collaboration from our homes and adjusting to an employment landscape plagued by uncertainty. Now, as we begin to understand…
LaunchCode COVID-19 Updates
Check here for updates about LaunchCode operations as the nationwide COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. First, we want to assure you that the well-being and safety of our LaunchCode community is of the utmost importance to us. The team at LaunchCode is actively monitoring the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendations for higher…
We 💚 CoderGirl & A Community Supporting Women in Tech
It’s February, so let’s spread the love for CoderGirl and our community partners! xoxo, CoderGirl What started out as an informal meetup by women with the intention to ignite conversation, empower and support one another and build and refine computer programming skills in 2014, has since transformed into a robust education and job placement program…
Black History Month: A Look at Leaders in Tech
Black History Month is a great time, but certainly not the only time, to celebrate and further inform ourselves on the deep and intricate history and culture of Black Americans. Black history is just as much about the historical black figures, who paved paths and reached back, as it is about today’s black history-makers. Throughout…
LaunchCode’s Annual Trivia Night is Virtual This Year
Join the LaunchCode Friends Board at the annual LaunchCode Trivia Night — now virtual! Trivia is back, from the safety of your own home! Gather a team of up to 10 participants for 6 rounds of challenging trivia, raffles, a game, prizes and more. You’ll be able to chat with your team in a private…
Approachable Computer Science Education Goes Beyond the Code
By Carly Langlois, Education Curriculum Developer There are countless reasons why computer science education is important. Too many to fit into one blog post. Technology is everywhere. It infiltrates every industry and heavily impacts our day-to-day lives. Modern living is powered by algorithms and coded bits and bytes. Computer programming is the literacy of our…
What Four St. Louis Startups Say about the Region’s Tech Scene
At LaunchCode, we love adding tech talent to the St. Louis startup scene. Not only is LaunchCode fueling a pipeline for tech talent growth in St. Louis, but the city is being put on the map for growing a tech startup ecosystem. We reached out to four startups we work with to hear their thoughts…
Helping St. Louis Startups Launch Successful Tech Teams
Innovator. Scrappy. Grit. Collaborative. Visionary. Believer. Ambitious. Eager. Motivated. The exact words we use to describe the startup culture in St. Louis are the same ones we often attribute to our LaunchCoders. There’s no getting around the parallels that mirror the motivation and enthusiasm LaunchCoders and startups have for emerging technology. Another thing St. Louis…
CodeCamp Graduate: An Open Letter to Myself
What would it be like if you could travel back in time and talk to your past self before you had made life-changing decisions? Wouldn’t it be great to go back and encourage ourselves to trust others in certain situations, or empower ourselves to advocate for our worth, maybe even just give our past selves…
Hiring New Tech Talent with Sagitec
We recently got to catch up with one of our company partners, Sagitec, in Tampa Bay, Florida. Sagitec is a global technology company that delivers dynamic IT solutions to leading public and private organizations. Today, they provide innovative and continuously evolving benefits administration solutions to their clients that solve unique business problems and adapt to…
Fostering a Network of Opportunity Keeps Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Strong
Through no-charge tech training, LaunchCode is providing the skilled tech talent Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem needs to overcome its current growing pains.
Laugh! Cry. Be Moved… to Action!
Purchase your tickets now and join LaunchCode on Thursday, September 26th as we geek out over changing lives while building the St. Louis tech workforce.
Filling the Tech Talent Gap with Balto
LaunchCode recently spoke with Chris Knotes, the COO and one of the founders of Balto, a real-time speech analytics technology company based in St. Louis. Balto is a company partner to LaunchCode and has been filling their tech talent team with LaunchCoders since 2017. Tell us a little bit about your company: Founded in 2017,…
Commitment to Community Changes Lives and Companies
An international leader of aerospace innovation for over a century, Boeing has been breaking barriers in the sky, and now they’re paving pathways to tech careers for people with non-traditional credentials. Employing over 150,000 people globally, Boeing is committed to crafting teams with diverse skills, strengths, and perspectives. Through corporate practice and community partnerships, Boeing…
A Life-changing Experience
By Guillermo Zerpa, LC101 Graduate and Apprentice As a Venezuelan, leaving my family and country and becoming an immigrant was difficult, especially when trying to land a job in my specialty in a new country. Because the people are different, businesses are different, and hiring systems are different I had to start from zero. Even…
Best. CoderGirl. Ever.
Over the past five years, CoderGirl has transformed from a group of passionate women organizing a meetup to a full-fledged education and job placement program. It’s benefited from the hard work and dedication of countless fearless females, and as the program turns five, we’re so appreciative of all who have touched the program in some…
STL Grand Pride Parade: Walking the Walk With LaunchCode
LaunchCode’s diverse community is made up of people from all backgrounds and walks of life. A fundamental value of our organization is a commitment to celebrating our differences and championing all of our fellow techies. A Human Rights Campaign report found that 46% of LGBTQ+ employees in the United States hide their sexuality at their…
LaunchCode Wants Companies to “Hire Different”
Every day we’re inspired by our LaunchCoders who work hard to pursue their dreams. From pastry chefs to dancers, to soldiers, to moms – every LaunchCoder that comes through our doors has lived a unique story and has a set of skills that attribute to their overall drive to pursue a career in tech. When…
Ways to Rock Your LC101 Application Assessment
If you’re visiting this blog post, you’re probably about to approach your LC101 application and are curious about the HackerRank assessment portion of the application process. That’s good. It means you’re already thinking ahead and planning out ways to solve the assessment. In fact, planning & problem solving is a big part of computer programming…
LaunchCode’s Moonshot Awards
This Event is Currently Sold Out To add your party to the waitlist, please email [email protected] LaunchCode is excited to present the 2019 Moonshot Awards! In the spirit of entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, LaunchCode’s Moonshot Awards recognize the efforts of St. Louis trailblazers — those working toward new solutions to better our community. We invite you…
5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Personal Project
One of the best things you can do for yourself as you pursue a career in tech is to build a personal project. Not only do personal projects allow potential employers experience your coding chops, but it provides you with a growth mindset. Your programming knowledge and skills are not fixed qualities, you are constantly…
What it’s like to be a LaunchCode Company Partner
Q&A with LaunchCode Company Partner, QDivision So, let’s say you’re looking to grow your tech team. You’ve searched high and low for candidates with the passion, drive, and aptitude, but you fall short and continue to look for the right people. LaunchCode introduces highly talented local developers who bring these attributes to help your business…
DevOps In the Wild
Whether you’re a developer early in your career, a student new to the joys and struggles of programming, or a non-technical person that works with programmers, you’ve likely encountered the trendy term “DevOps” (short for “developer operations”). It’s also likely that you have a very vague and incomplete sense of what DevOps actually refers to.…
Confections to Coding: Maroua From KC
My path into tech isn’t what most would call “straightforward.” Growing up as a first-generation Moroccan immigrant, I never envisioned a career in this field. Although both of my parents had college degrees and strongly valued education, the tech field was never on my radar. I wasn’t offered programming classes at school, and although I…
Expanding The Toolkit: Jacob from STL
A Precarious Assemblage For years I pursued a career as an artist and an educator. Art has always been a mirror of the time in which it was made. As a sculptor, my work often mirrored a rapidly evolving world that was driven by technological innovation. I found myself making objects that strayed from representations…
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