Our partners are exceptional employers and companies who support our programme and, just like us, aspire to evolve Aotearoa's tech industry.

Each year, our partners deliver an assortment of industry-led workshops that are free of charge and accessible to all students and graduates in our programme. These bootcamps cover technical and core skills such as negotiation, personal branding, impostor syndrome and many others!

In 2022, we are so grateful for the support of our partners in delivering 27 insightful and practical training sessions to over 622 attendees across Aotearoa, held in person and virtually. 

Read on if you couldn't attend these sessions or would like to learn more about what was covered! 

ANZ presented two bootcamps this year. The first was a panel discussion with past ANZ interns and grads, speaking about their different career journeys within technology, starting as students to where they are now working. The panellist lineup included:

• Heather Firth, a Summer of Tech intern in the 21-22 intake and is currently working as a Junior Cloud Business analyst in the Cloud Business office team. 

• Lauren Halka, a Technology Graduate currently in the Project Delivery team as a Business Analyst. 

• Chris Pidgeon, a graduate of AUT's Conjoint BA/BCIS programme, who came through Summer of Tech in 2021. 

• Rogan Frazer, who graduated with a Bachelor of Creative Technologies with a minor in design thinking at AUT and has been in the ANZ Grad Program since 2021.

Watch the ANZ bootcamp recording here: Career Insights Panel with ANZ, or read the blog: Career Insights Panel with ANZ . 

The second bootcamp from ANZ focused on wellness and connection and was presented by Cillín Hearns, director of Results Coaching. During the bootcamp, Cillín shared a simple framework in which to think about wellness and shared some simple strategies you can implement straight away and start to experience the results immediately.

“It was a very interesting and motivational talk from a panel of tech professionals working in different roles and from different walks of life, but most importantly who were all once in our shoes. It felt relatable, informative and inspirational.” - Candidate feedback.

Discover ANZ at: www.anz.co.nz

The team at FNZ presented a bootcamp on 'Algo-Trading' where FNZ developers helped participants through an interactive exercise.

It's always great to see some healthy competition while practising coding skills! This bootcamp was super fun to witness in action, with FNZ team members roving through the student teams to give advice and encouragement as students competed against each other for the winning title. It was very engaging - pizzas were left untouched in the middle of tables…a Summer of Tech first! Rest assured, all pizzas were consumed after the winner was announced - coding really does build the appetite!

Find out more about FNZ: www.fnz.com

The team at Pushpay delivered two bootcamps for Summer of Tech this year.

The first Pushpay bootcamp focused on giving and receiving feedback. How do you receive feedback? Are you able to reflect on it and improve, or does it simply add to the underlying anxiety and feelings of inadequacy that we all have?

Giving feedback is an essential part of our roles, whether helping a friend with an assignment, reviewing a code change, or giving life advice to your manager. How do you provide feedback in an encouraging way that motivates the receiver for success? This session explored some techniques and strategies to help ensure you get the best results when providing and receiving feedback.

Watch the Pushpay bootcamp recording here: Art of Effective Feedback with Pushpay or read more over on our blog: Giving and Receiving Feedback with Pushpay.

The second was an interactive workshop where attendees made a Twitterbot capable of posting to Twitter via API and automation. In this interactive, participants were able to gain an understanding of Twitterbots, APIs, Authentication and security, with an introduction to:

• Postman

• Twitter Developer Account

• Using Public APIs ethically

• AWS: Kinesis & IAM 

• GitHub + GitHub actions

Trade Me held bootcamps in their Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch offices. This was an awesome chance for our students in those areas to get in front of the incredible Trade Me team and ask lots of questions. The Trade Me team were really engaging and made sure the students had an opportunity to learn something, understand the Trade Me way of working, and feel empowered to ask questions during the bootcamp. 

“I liked this event very much as it brought us a package of experience, I enjoyed every little section: presentation & gifts, project trial, genuine Q&A, office tour, etc. Thank you so much for organizing this.” - Candidate feedback.

Check out some images of the bootcamp below and find out more about Trade Me on their website: www.trademe.co.nz

"Security 101" was presented by our partner, Aura Information Security. 

In this bootcamp, the Aura Information Security team presented some of the perks of being a Security Consultant or "Professional Hacker", telling some war stories of real-world hacks, and helping participants learn how to spot common website security issues, like those in the OWASP Top 10.

The bootcamp kicked off with some talks with Phil Dobson (General Manager), Julia Shan (Information Security Intern), Alastair Miller (Principal Consultant) and Joanna Mañez (Senior Consultant), followed by some optional hacking challenges towards the end.

”The Bootcamp is great from organization to implementation and helps attendees further their understanding of offensive security roles, especially being a penetration tester. Many thanks to the organizers of this event.” - Candidate feedback.

Read more about the Aura Information Security bootcamp over on our blog: Security 101 with Aura Information Security

Aviat Networks create embedded systems and hardware for wireless transport products. Their clients include major global telecommunications providers, mobile service providers, government agencies, and energy and transport companies. Students could visit the Aviat offices and "C" for themselves what the office is like and spend the afternoon with some real engineers!

After the tour, participants got into teams and, with the help of some of the awesome team members at Aviat, completed a C programming challenge followed by some pizza!

“They clearly put a lot of effort into making it a good experience, and it showed. I really liked all of it.” - Candidate feedback.

Find out more about Aviat Networks: www.aviatnetworks.com

DataTorque held a bootcamp titled 'Masterclass - Corporate World 101', which was about transitioning into the professional working world. This session helped attendees feel more at ease about this next step in their career by covering what it's like in the professional working world and how to feel more prepared for the transition.

It was great to be hosted at DataTorque offices and for the students to get a tour of the teams, the flash beverage fridge and, of course, the super important dogs of DataTorque! One of our most social bootcamps of the year, the wider DataTorque team came in at the end for pizza and networked with our students and graduates. 

Find out more about DataTorque: www.datatorque.com

Microsoft delivered a bootcamp called "Functional Programming", a programming paradigm like imperative or object-oriented programming. Functional programming borrows ideas from mathematicians, who invented functions centuries ago. Functional programming is a different way of breaking up the world and putting it back together through code to model the problem we are trying to solve.

Ahad Rahman, Software Engineer at Microsoft and Summer of Tech Alumni, covered the origins of Functional Programming before discussing the key concepts and how it differs from the norm when programming. The bootcamp ended with a demo in F#, a functional programming language. 

“A simple introductory workshop to functional programming as it said. Easy to follow and understand concepts and well explained by the lecturer.” - Candidate feedback.

Watch the Microsoft bootcamp recording here: Functional Programming with Microsoft.

Serko was another partner who presented two bootcamps this year. 

'SERKO - 101' was an introduction to pair and mob programming. Programming in pairs and groups (mobs) is becoming a popular practice in software companies and is a core part of how the team at Serko work. The bootcamp helped participants to gain a foundational understanding of how and why of pair and mob programming, key benefits and risks and conditions for success. 

”Pair & Mob programming are effective practices for software development in teams. This bootcamp was very informative, delivered by knowledgable and experienced people that could answer questions well.” - Candidate feedback.

Watch the Serko bootcamp recording here: SERKO - 101 Introduction to Pair and Mob Programming.

'Pair and Mob Programming 102' was a follow-on from the first bootcamp where attendees put the concepts they learned in the 101 bootcamp to practice by participating in a mob. In small groups guided by a Serko mentor, participants gained first-hand experience with mob programming by working through a challenge together.

Learn more about Serko: www.serko.com

TechTime's bootcamp focused on Insights into their agile development process: 'Sprint Planning'. 

It was a great chance for students to get into the TechTime offices, scope out the view of the Petone foreshore, and soak up some knowledge from Ed Letifov, TechTime CEO. Ed is an incredibly engaging speaker. He hooked the students with one of his famous EdTalks, giving them insight into how work gets executed at TechTime, and dropping some great life hacks into the mix. 

TechTime ensured that many team members were present so our students could ask questions about all different business areas. It was a rare opportunity for students to ask the senior leadership team frank questions and a great chance for TechTime to demonstrate that if you get a job with them, you will always have a say in the business, no matter how junior you are.

Find out more about TechTime: www.techtime.co.nz

Our partner, Trustpower's bootcamp "Agile in Action", was presented by: 

• Wayne Annand - Technical Team Lead

• David Maris - Senior Business Analyst

• Samantha Dawson - Software Developer

This bootcamp covered how a project at Trustpower becomes a chunk of code as the team starts from a business need and refine it into coding tasks. Being alone is one of the scariest parts of coding, so the bootcamp also covered the peer support available at Trustpower.

“It was very informative while being easygoing and entertaining. The hour went super quick too. The presenting team from trust power made it very interesting by adding a personal touch.” - Candidate feedback.

Watch the Trustpower bootcamp recording: 'Agile in Action' at Trustpower.

Xero's bootcamp covered "Setting yourself up for success: What is one thing I can do now that 'future me' will thank me for?"

Tamara Wright (Junior Talent People Lead) shared her journey and what she learned to help our candidates succeed in studies, relationships and work. We were thrilled to have her insights!

The bootcamp also included Jono (Candidate Care Coordinator), who shared their insights about the Xero recruitment process and what employers want to see from their job candidates. 

“I liked the presenters; they came across genuine and provided good advice to people looking to join Xero's internship or any internship. My favourite thing I learned from the presentation is when you are talking to someone in tech, assume that the other person is interested in what you have to say and wants to see you succeed... I.T. can feel like every person is for themselves, especially before you have a job, and this answer was reassuring and realigned some of my nerves.” - Candidate feedback.

Check out Xero at: www.xero.com/nz

What a year of professional growth for students and graduates at Summer of Tech. Thank you again to our 2022 partners who hosted bootcamps and made some tech magic happen.

Thank you to ANZ, Trade Me, FNZ Group, Pushpay, Callaghan Innovation, Momentum Consulting Group, WellingtonNZ, Aro Digital, Serko Ltd., Microsoft, Aura Information Security, Z Energy NZ, Aviat Networks, Trustpower, Xero, Snapper Services Limited, TechTime Initiative Group Limited, DataTorque, Development West Coast, NZX Limited, TTC, Deloitte Digital, Bank of New Zealand, Spark New Zealand, ACC New Zealand, NZ Police and PartsTrader Markets Limited for their mahi and support.