Together and with The Power of We, we can start a revolution. One Soul at a time... ~Jon Bon Jovi *** There's a Story on every street corner, my friend. All you have to do is open your eyes... ~Richie Sambora

A New White House Initiative...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

From Forbes:

Bon Jovi Teams Up With NY Tech to Create Summer Jobs



 SummerQAmp will give young adults without technical training a chance to create a career in the tech world. By encouraging companies to create 1,000 summer internships focused around the task of Quality Assurance (QA) – testing software before releasing it to the public – the program hopes to attract even those marginally curious about web and smartphone applications to a fast growing industry. The initiative is led by former White House CTO Aneesh Chopra, GroupMe co-founder Steve Martocci, Gilt Groupe VP of Quality Engineering Kevin Haggard, Onswipe CEO Jason Baptiste, and yes, rock star Jon Bon Jovi.


 “There are hundreds of thousands of jobs in the apps economy alone,” said Chopra on a conference call this morning. “We think this program will help people to see tech as a path for everyone. It’s a great starting point for kids to feel connected.”


 As part of the White House’s Summer Jobs+ initiative to create 250,000 summer internships for young adults in 2012, the SummerQAmp effort will include online courses that introduce programming concepts to participants. Although restricted to those aged 18-24, there are no income or educational requirements to apply to the jobs created through the program. In addition to the founding team’s companies, eBay and Boxee have also committed to hosting interns.


According to Martocci, SummerQAmp’s genesis came at a dinner with Bon Jovi earlier in the year. After Martocci broached the subject of  QA as a source of quality entry-level jobs, Bon Jovi, a member of the White House’s Council for Community Solutions, connected the GroupMe founder with Chopra. The program made an easy fit with the White House’s Summer Jobs+ initiative.

Having spent long hours doing QA for my old startup, I can attest to two things: 1.) It’s hard, detail-oriented work and 2.) It’s a fantastic way for non-technical people to gain insight into the process of creating and managing software applications. For our company, the task consisted of walking through every possible user scenario in each major browser to make sure new features worked as planned. Any glitches, no matter how minor, were then meticulously documented so our development team could go in and make fixes.

Although I didn’t end up going any further into a technical career path, the QA process really helps to solidify the connection between what you see on a web page and what goes on in the back end.  Since the job requires absolutely no technical background, it’s a really useful entry point for attracting capable, non-technical young adults into the startup community. As Haggard noted during the conference call, lot of QA work is done offshore. If companies can transfer that work to cheap domestic interns instead, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Queenie would love to know who's following along. Comments are both encouraged and appreciated!

Queenie's Loyal Subjects

About Me

My photo
I am and always have been a Bon Jovi fan. This blog is just my obsession taken a step further, my imagination in high gear if you will. I love to read and decided to see what would happen when I took that love of the written word and ramped it up a bit.

You Can Go Home

Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation

The Traveling Guitar

What Q Has to Say

30th Anniversary Access Hollywood Advil Aftermath of the Lowdown Albums AMAs American Idol Articles Auctions Avon Awards Bamboozle Festival Because We Can Because We Can - the Tour Benefit Concert Biker Bash Billboard bits and bobs Bon Jovi Books Born to Be My Baby Bruce Springsteen Burning Bridges Calvin and Hobbes Campaign Can Do Awards Cari Quinn Characters Unite Christmas CNN Comics Concerts Contests Danny Gokey Daughtry David Bergman David Bryan Digital Download Disaster Aid Discography Diving Into Hampton Water Do What You Can DVDs DVR Alerts Extra Facebook Fan Club favorites Fictionistas Football Forbes Fun Stuff Fundraisers Golden Globes Golf Greatest Hits gulf shores Hamptons Happy Now Hard Rock Calling Holidays Hugh McDonald Hurricane Sandy In Memoriam Inside The Actor's Studio Interviews Jazz Fest Jennifer Nettles Jon Bon Jovi Jon Bon Jovi and Friends Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation Keep The Faith Kings of Suburbia Letterman London Love's The Only Rule Madison Square Garden Master Class MDA Telethon Memphis Merchandise Merry Christmas Midnight Mission Miscellaneous Mohegan Sun Montreal Movies MTV Awards Music New Jersey New Meadowlands Stadium New Years Eve News No Apologies NY Giants O2 Orianthi Out and About People Magazine Philadelphia Soul Philanthropy Pictures President Obama Promo Q Quebec quickie Rants Real Estate Rehab Reviews Richie Sambora Rock and Roll HOF Rock Band 3 Rock in Rio Rock of Ages rock star baby Rockin' Rio Royal Beach RSO Slippery When Wet SoHo Penthouse Soraia Soul Kitchen St. Bart's Story Updates Streaming Stumping Superman Tonight Superstorm Sandy TaraLeigh Taryn Elliott TDB Television The Band The Circle The Circle Tour The Grammys The Grove The Today Show The Tony's This Ain't A Love Song This House is Not For Sale This is Our House Throwback Thursday Tickets Tico Torres Tour Dates Toxic Avenger Tribeca Film Festival Twilight Twilight Saga Valentine's Day VH1 Videos Washington DC wayback wednesday We Weren't Born to Follow Webcast What About Now What Do You Got When We Were Beautiful White House Council White Trash Beautiful Wine WTC Anniversary WTF You Can Go Home

  © Blogger template Brownium by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP