Success in bootcamp

Welcome to the final selection phase! If you made it this far, well done! You’re a star.

For the next two weeks you are expected to behave like a full time Umuzi recruit. That means you need to work hard. You’ll be using our custom learning platform and you’ll be interacting with our staff and each other as though you are already part of our community.

And, it’s going to be hard work!

We don’t expect you to finish everything, but try to stretch yourself!

We’ve given you a lot of stuff to get through. For most of you it will be WAY too much. Just do your best and focus on understanding. If you don’t finish all the excercises it’s alright. Just take them one at a time and do your best.

There are three projects we really really need you to finish no matter what. That is:

  • the gnomio assessment
  • the first coding excercise
  • the writing excercise

After those, just do as much as you can. The more you can show us the better. But please always remember to focus on understanding. The skills you are learning here will be the foundation of everything you do as a recruit.

Intelligent things that you should do

If you get into Umuzi you’ll be expected to seek out help when you need it, and you’ll be expected to help each other. Practice that now.

If you get stuck: Don’t suffer in silence. Ask the other bootcampers, and ask the staff. Be a team player.

If you help someone, don’t just give them code to use. They need to understand how to solve the problems themselves.

If you ask someone for help, don’t just ask them for answers. You need to understand how to solve the problems yourself

Silly things you really should avoid doing

Ok, this is a bit heavy. But it’s really important that you understand this stuff.

If we catch you copying each other’s work, we’ll immediately take you off the program. Why? Because we need to train professionals who can actually do work and add value.

If you are disrespectful or abusive towards any of your peers or staff members and we see it, you’re out. We don’t expect you to be super formal or anything, just be kind to each other.

If you don’t make a plan to show up for your interviews and tests then we wont be keen to work with you. That said, we are reasonable people so if you need to reschedule something or you are having a problem, let us know so we can make a plan.

If you suck up to staff members or try to bribe your way in, you’re out.

How we choose who stays and who goes

We value teamwork, honesty, clear communication and professionalism. We’ll be looking for that stuff.

We’ll also be looking closely at the work you do of course. The code you write should be tidy and clear, and it should work.

We’ll also be scheduling a few interviews with you where we’ll test different things. So keep an eye on your Google calandar, and Gmail inbox!

Once we have all the info we need to make our decisions, we’ll start crunching the data. You’ll get the results within two working days of the end of bootcamp. So if Bootcamp ends on Friday, you’ll hear back from us on Monday or Tuesday.

What happens if you don’t make it?

We believe in second chances. If you don’t make it through our bootcamp and you want another shot then that’s fine with us. You’ll be able to prepare a bit better for the next bootcamp now that you know how things work.

Just so you know I’m serious: There was once a recruit who tried to get into Umuzi 3 times! Eventually he got in. His hard work and persistence paid off. After his learnership was done we liked him so much that we hired him. And now he’s living the dream, and working at TIH.


RAW CONTENT URL