Weekly code review is an essential part of an engineer’s development at Codesmith and, as an industry practice, it also reflects the professional process residents will experience when they move into the tech industry, so preparing them with a realistic work environment.
We sat down with two Codesmith alums, Katie Sandfort at Armoire and Diane Moon, now joining Macedon Technologies, to discuss their smooth transitions from Codesmith to the industry, what parts of the program helped them the most, and how they now help other residents as Code Review Engineers (CREs).
Katie Sandfort, Armoire
Armoire is a fashion software designed to challenge the industry’s status quo on fast fashion and waste and transform attitudes by offering high-quality garment rental services.
“My transition from Codesmith to Armoire was very smooth. I did the West Coast Remote Intensive and graduated in March 20203 and my job search lasted two months.
It was her first round of interviews when she got the offer. “The company culture really resonated with me, and I loved their team and the general vibe of the company, it’s healthy and balanced.”
“My ability to quickly learn and settle into my engineering team was due to Codesmith. Friends from my time at Codesmith—like Chris Suzukida now at LinkedIn—also entered the industry fairly easily too.”
Katie clearly identifies certain elements of Codesmith’s program, aside from coding, that stood out when looking for work.
“What helped most was Codesmith’s hiring support, resume reviews, and all the techniques for standing out to employers, like double downs.”
This means contacting an engineer from an organization you have just applied for and letting them know you’ve applied for a job with them “to demonstrate you’re enthusiastic about the role and proactive.”
“I bring my perspective and experience from working in the industry to my role as a CRE, including feedback I receive in my own code reviews at Armoire, and I pass that along to residents, as it's relevant for their own transition."
Code Review Engineering Role at Codesmith
Residents at Codesmith now benefit from industry-level engineers like Katie analyzing their code each week on the program and bringing back industry insights.
“I bring my perspective and experience from working in the industry to my role as a CRE, including feedback I receive in my own code reviews at Armoire, and I pass that along to residents, as it's relevant for their own transition.
“This includes things that seem minor but end up being important, like declarative variable names, function naming—I’ve received feedback myself a couple of times in the industry—and making code readable.”
Code Reviews are great for residents as they reflect industry practice as well. Katie explains that at Armoire engineers receive reviews with every change made to the codebase.
“When working engineers have tickets. The task is outlined, you execute the task in your code, submit a pull request, and then someone else reviews your code. Anyone could review anyone’s code, it’s hierarchy ambivalent, but it's usually someone who’s worked on a similar area. I review other engineers’ code at Armoire too!
“The things I’m asking are: does it follow best industry practices? Does it do what it’s supposed to do? And does it follow established patterns in the codebase?”
Acclimating residents to this process and the thinking behind the practice is key to why Codesmith residents transition to the industry smoothly and settle into tech teams with ease.
Training for the Tech Industry
The parts of Codesmith’s pedagogy Katie feels truly elevated her to the industry standard when a resident herself was the focus on technical communication, talking through the various considerations made, pros and cons of certain choices, but most of all it was the Open Source contributions that residents make at Codesmith.
“This is something tech firms value hugely, it demonstrates you’ve worked in a team engineering environment, and had code reviewed, and it gave me so much relevant experience to talk about clearly in my technical interview with Armoire, even if I perhaps didn’t have as much industry experience as other applicants.”
“I've been to career fairs where they say they want someone super nerdy, but also with strong social and communication skills. They don't want engineers who just jot down code that works but that others can't decipher."
Diane Moon, Macedon Technologies
Diane is in the process of joining Macedon Technologies, after securing an offer recently, and she has been a CRE at Codesmith since November 2023.
She explains what is expected of code at the industry level, and common themes that arise, and discusses the “feedback that residents can actually use in future in the industry.”
Elevating Residents’ Code To Industry Standards
“My feedback focuses on making code more readable and organized. It's something that I do in my own code. It elevates residents’ thinking processes and helps other engineers iterate on their code—or anyone who may need to look through it from a nonengineering background.
Something Diane often tells the residents preparing to transition into the industry is to be intentional when implementing their code. The ability to work effectively in a team environment is more important than coding skills alone and, as Diane says, other engineers and even stakeholders with little understanding of engineering may review the code and need to be able to comprehend it.
“Don't just go straight in and start writing any code. Write your code so even a non-developer can understand it. You won’t stay at the same company forever, others will iterate on your code, and it’s important for teamwork generally as you won’t be building an application alone, but as part of a tech team.”
This may include assigning variable names clearly or writing functions so that the result has a proper variable name, so those generally familiar with the layout of functions can understand it.
“These communication skills really help in interview settings as well, by showing that you can talk to people as part of a team and that you can explain your code is essential to swiftly settling into an engineering role.”
Communication as a Key to the Industry
Diane also says instilling strong technical and non-technical communication skills in residents helps them move into professional work smoothly as the industry is very keen on engineers with these abilities.
“I've been to career fairs where they say they want someone super nerdy, but also with strong social and communication skills. They don't want engineers who just jot down code that works but that others can't decipher.
“These communication skills really help in interview settings as well, by showing that you can talk to people as part of a team and that you can explain your code is essential to swiftly settling into an engineering role.”
Diane states that as a resident herself, it was these code review sessions that helped most to build these industry-level collaborative communication skills.
“You have to work together to actually learn the content. Personally, that helped me a lot and improved my communication skills when it came to both technical work and working within a team environment.”
These experiences of overcoming technical challenges in a team environment was highlighted by Tinder’s Serge Vartanov as more important to tech firms today than a traditional computer science degree. For Diane, as well as code review, the pair programming and group code sessions helped the most in this regard.
“In the beginning stages, we did 1:1 sessions and then later moved on to group projects, with four or five people in a group. It gave us experiences that reflect working in the industry, like task delegation and leadership in a group setting, while you're learning new and different concepts. Being able to apply that later on in actual projects is crucial when transitioning into the industry.”