From May 16 to September 2, seven students will have the opportunity to undertake the Momentum Learning full-stack engineering immersive course free of charge. And what’s more, they will receive a $1,000/month cost-of-living stipend—and potentially a fulltime job at the end. It’s an offer made possible because of Momentum’s recently unveiled partnership with insightsoftware.
insightsoftware, a Raleigh-based software unicorn that makes solutions for CFOs, plans to hire the majority of those graduates at the end of their Momentum training. It’s a way to both support career-changers and solve a key business problem—the staffing shortage affecting tech companies in the Triangle and beyond.
“Everybody’s facing the talent crunch,” said Momentum’s CEO Jessica Mitsch Homes. “It’s been on the mind of people with startups and fast-growing companies like insightsoftware: how are we going to recruit the best talent and build companies here and also address the challenges that come with finding talent?”
Mitsch Homes said the rapidly expanding Triangle tech ecosystem can look to other tech regions to see how they’ve handled similar growth. A Momentum partnership might be an answer to the inevitable talent shortage problems that can come with such an exploding scene.
“I think that us taking a more collaborative approach where we’re saying, we’re going to invest in the talent that’s here, we’re going to look towards people that already exist in our region but haven’t had the opportunity to work in the tech workforce yet,” said Mitsch Homes. “We’re going to pull them from other areas—incredibly talented, dedicated people—and we’re going to give them all the skills and tools they need to succeed here in tech… It’s a really proactive way to think about the talent shortage.”
insightsoftware’s CEO Jim Triandiflou said the company is excited to build new tech talent to support its own growth trajectory as well as the entire tech community in the Triangle.
“It’s a great time to join insightsoftware, as we’re building a culture and community of humans who want to change how work is done,” Triandiflou said. “And, that’s what we are doing in partnering with Momentum, who will help us find and build technology talent in a new way.”
In order to get a chance at being one of the lucky few sponsored by insightsoftware, applicants should send their resumes in by no later than April 20. And because Durham-based Momentum accepts students on a rolling basis, early applications are encouraged.
Historically, Momentum has enabled people to leave careers they are no longer happy with in order to pursue roles in software engineering. insightsoftware has hired Momentum’s graduates over the past few years, but it wasn’t until now that the company invested more fully and directly in Momentum’s mission to solve the talent shortage by providing professionals with the tools to change careers.
By offering the cost-of-living stipend, insightsoftware will allow a career-changer to feel more comfortable leaving another job knowing they will have some income during the four-month training period, according to Mitsch Homes. This could be for rent or childcare or anything else that traditionally prevents someone from making the leap into a new field.
“I think what insightsoftware is providing is so compelling,” Mitsch Homes said. “This is for anybody that’s thought about making a career change into tech, anybody that’s been sitting on the sidelines, really eager to learn software development but not in a financial position to leave their job.”
Momentum is in conversations with other companies locally to offer more partnerships that would allow students to take courses for free and secure employment after the program’s completion. LexisNexis and Durham’s web development group Caktus also supported Momentum’s students with funding and job potential. [We wrote about the Caktus partnership in February.]
Mitsch Homes encourages applicants not to wait—to apply for the opportunity today at Momentum’s website.
“This is a really incredible opportunity with a lot of security to make a career change,” Mitsch Homes said. “You have an immediate interview at a company to get hired and start immediately after you finish training and to work for a company that has that mindset of investing in you.”
