Disclaimer: This guide is under construction. We are slowly translating our Sparkbox apprenticeship content into a useful format here on GitHub.
Sparkbox is a team that values education. We offer paid apprenticeships at our Dayton office because we love what we do, we want to help create new talent, and we genuinely care about the future of the web.
We hate the idea of keeping our apprenticeship program to ourselves, though. If you're not in our area, no problem! We're outlining our entire program here for you to do on your own - or to introduce to your team. If you're crazy about the idea of becoming a well-rounded web developer, yet aren't quite sure where to start, we think you've found just the right place to begin.
We build responsive, standards-compliant, content-focused, well-crafted, accessible, beautiful web sites and apps, and we're looking for other web geeks who want to do the same. Passion, character, and initiative are a requirement. A long resumé is not — as long as you care about the right things, we can help build your skillset.
This isn't for the faint of heart. Learning technical skillsets isn't easy work, and the curve can be steep. This curriculum is for the kind of people who are ready to pour themselves into it - eager to pick up everything they can. We're looking for folks interested in web development — frontend, backend, or anything code related.
In the first months of your apprenticeship, you'll be exposed to the core technologies of our work and work flow. Everyone, regardless of job title, will be brought to an understanding of Sparkbox's convictions on the priority of content, value of design, semantic HTML, and mobile-first CSS.
We'll start with a philosophy of learning - we want you to get the most out of your education. Then you'll be exposed to programming languages, our Github-centric project management, our highly specialized frontend development workflow, our deployment processes, best practices for clean code and separation of concerns, and unit testing techniques.
If you're local to Dayton, Ohio (or want to be for 6 months), we invite you to take on a full-fledged apprenticeship in our office. We run the 6-month program once per year (typically, January through June). You'll get a seat right in the middle of our office, and hands-on training in a real web shop. Visit the Sparkbox Apprenticeships website for more information and to apply.
Otherwise, this guide should provide you with everything you need to get started on your own.
Enough jabber. Let's get going.