Why Fast Enterprises Continues to Hire Tech Elevator Grads

Fast Enterprises has long been revolutionizing government service delivery worldwide with its innovative FastCore platform. Since they value skilled, adaptable professionals with knowledge of Java and strong communication skills, FAST has looked to Tech Elevator for new tech hires. We spoke with Christina Concilio and Aliya Getchell, two recruiters from FAST, about what sets Tech Elevator coding bootcamp graduates apart. Christina and Aliya share what future tech hires can expect in the Fast Enterprises hiring process and how to stand out and land the job. 

Tell us about Fast Enterprises! What kind of solutions does FAST build?

Fast Enterprises is an IT consulting company that exclusively works with government clients to help modernize their legacy systems. We offer a commercial, off-the-shelf product that is customizable, which we sell to our clients. If we sign a client after going through the proposal and bidding cycles, we remove their old system, put in our commercial solution, and then, with the help of our implementation consultants, tailor it to support their needs. The main product areas that we work in are taxes, driver and vehicle services, unemployment insurance, and child support engagement. For example, we recently helped the DMV in Colorado configure a mobile driver's license system.

Which technical roles are you recruiting for at Fast Enterprises?

We recruit for various roles, but our primary role is implementation consultant. The implementation consultant role is a blend of software and consulting. They need to understand how our system works and the programming behind it, so they can understand how to configure it for the client. They should be comfortable talking to and working with clients to understand their pain points and needs. This role requires some coding, but I like to emphasize that the role is more focused on configuration, technical problem-solving, and talking to people.

We also hire bootcampers for a specialization in the implementation consultant role, which is called Tech Team Member. That role does a bit more on the IT side of things, but it’s still a consulting role, working with clients on project sites. 

What does the engineering team look like at Fast Enterprises?

At FAST, we have around 2,500 folks in total, with a lot of folks on smaller project sites. Since most of our employees work directly on the project sites with our clients, one of the unique things about FAST is that we relocate our employees on average every two to three years to support those various business needs and changing projects. Our consultants are primarily working in government agency buildings, and team sizes can be anywhere from eight to 80 people on a project site, depending on the phase and size of the project. Our employees may also switch back and forth between a production support environment and an active site.

At this point, how many Tech Elevator graduates has your team hired?

We transferred to a new ATS two years ago, so our data isn’t 100% accurate, but it looks like we’ve hired over 20 Tech Elevator graduates. We’ve hired eight Tech Elevator graduates in the past two years, mostly in that implementation consultant role.

In today's market, does your company still see value in hiring career changers or junior developer talent? 

We definitely see value in hiring junior talent and career changers. We hire entry-level candidates for most of our implementation consultant roles, so we hire career changers, entry-level people in software, and those just coming out of university, looking for their first job. There is a lot of value in that because we value potential. We see people who are coachable and excited to learn. 

Career changers have been very successful at FAST, since our role is a bit more unique because it involves software and consulting. Many of our career changer employees come from people-facing or people-centric backgrounds, which work well in this role.

What stands out about Tech Elevator bootcamp graduates compared to other bootcamp graduates you’ve hired?

We have hired from other bootcamps and hope to hire more bootcamp students in the future, but Tech Elevator graduates have by far been the most successful hires for us. Their program is well-aligned with what we're looking for in the technical foundations. Tech Elevator graduates have a strong foundation in Java, and that is one of the languages that is particularly transferable to what we do here. The pace and rigor of the program at Tech Elevator are similar to what happens on our project sites, since we use a proprietary system, and this role requires a lot of learning as you go. Bringing in that knowledge of Java, and also being able to think critically on your feet and apply that knowledge, is important at FAST, and we've seen Tech Elevator do a great job with that.

Does Fast Enterprises attend Tech Elevator’s Capstone Demos, where students present final projects to hiring managers and others?

Right now, we are not attending demo days, but in the past, we have had recruiters present at them.

How can bootcamp graduates stand out in the Fast Enterprises hiring process? 

We’re not looking for a specific project or portfolio. We also aren’t currently looking for AI skills since we work with government agencies and are not able to integrate as much AI into our systems and our technology. Instead, we’re looking for candidates with strong communication skills and professionalism. We have had a lot of success with career changers. They have been in the workforce already, so they understand how to communicate with people from different backgrounds. 

One of the things that makes bootcamp graduates, especially Tech Elevator graduates, stand out in our hiring process is that they have had the opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds. They know how to present things in a way that would make sense to somebody they were working with.

In general, are you seeing Fast Enterprises switch over to skills-based hiring? 

Our positions do require a bachelor's degree, but not specifically in computer science. The needed skills are the most important part of our hiring process.

Has Fast Enterprises updated its hiring processes? 

The hiring process at FAST will always be evolving. We are really big on the candidate experience, and we've been doing a lot to continuously evaluate that. We send out a survey to our candidates who go through the process, and it’s completely anonymous. This allows us to continue to get feedback and input on how they think the hiring and interview process went. In those final rounds, we ask for feedback about communication during the interview. 

Something that I don’t see changing is how we review applications, which we do manually to ensure we evaluate every candidate with that human element. Candidates have shared concerns that their resumes are just being put through an AI scanner and never looked at by an actual person, but that is not what we do at FAST. At FAST, we also value transparency in the recruiting process. We are not a company that ghosts our candidates or doesn't get back to them. We value constant communication throughout this process.

We have streamlined our process by adding info sessions where candidates can chat with recruiters. If a candidate gets an interview invite, they can get their questions answered ahead of time, or if they aren’t sure if the role is for them, they can get more information in one of those sessions. These sessions are weekly in a live group Q&A format, and they are recorded in case someone can’t attend. We've also created videos for candidates about what it’s like to work at FAST on a project site. 

Will Fast Enterprises be hiring Tech Elevator graduates this year?

One of our recruiters just participated in matchmaking with the bootcamp, which we’ll continue to do with the hope that we’ll bring in more Tech Elevator candidates soon.

Find out more and read Tech Elevator reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with Tech Elevator.