Empowering Cloud Careers at Level Up in Tech: How Brokee Elevated a Top DevOps Bootcamp
Level Up in Tech wanted to enhance their cloud training program by providing students with more practical, hands-on experience.
About the Client
Level Up in Tech is a Cloud Career Bootcamp dedicated to helping individuals transition and advance their careers in the cloud. They specialize in providing hands-on experience, coaching, and career development for those looking to break into the cloud industry.
Level Up in Tech’s founder, Broadus Palmer, has extensive experience in cloud technologies and education, having taught on platforms like A Cloud Guru. Recently, we named Level Up in Tech one of the top bootcamps for DevOps, highlighting their excellence in the field.
Our relationship with Level Up in Tech began in March, when one of their former students shared Brokee's platform with Broadus. Intrigued by the platform, Broadus engaged in discussions with us about its applications for training his students.
The Challenge
Level Up in Tech aimed to improve their cloud training program by offering students more practical experience. While they already had some hands-on solutions, they were looking for an innovative way to provide cloud experience without the complexities and costs of actual cloud service providers.
They also wanted labs that could simulate real-world IT infrastructure challenges, better preparing their students - many from non-technical backgrounds - for job interviews and the demands of cloud engineering roles.
The Solution
Brokee’s comprehensive and interactive skill-testing platform mirrors real-world IT infrastructure challenges, enabling students to practice and demonstrate their cloud skills in a risk-free environment.
Broadus Palmer, impressed by the platform, decided to integrate it into Level Up in Tech's curriculum. We provided them with credits to test the platform, leading to the development of tailored tests focusing on AWS, Terraform, and other cloud-related topics. The tests range in difficulty, catering to both beginners and more advanced students.
Level Up in Tech used Brokee’s platform to facilitate collaborative group sessions, enabling students to work together on solving problems. They also use Brokee’s assessments at the end of courses to showcase students’ progress and achievements in DevOps.
The Benefits
Integrating Brokee into Level Up in Tech’s curriculum has yielded numerous benefits for both instructors and students. Some of the key advantages include:
Real-World Experience: Students gained hands-on experience in real cloud environments without the risk of incurring costs from cloud service providers.
Enhanced Learning: The platform's randomized test scenarios ensured that each test attempt presented new challenges, promoting deeper learning and problem-solving skills.
Ease of Use for Instructors: Instructors could easily assign tests, monitor student progress, and provide targeted feedback based on detailed performance reports.
Adaptability: Brokee developed easier tests and specific focus areas based on feedback, ensuring that the platform met the varying skill levels of the students.
Collaborative Learning: Group testing sessions facilitated peer learning and collaboration, mimicking real-world team environments.
Automated Feedback: The platform provided automatic feedback and learning materials for students, helping them understand and improve on their mistakes.
Client Feedback
Broadus Palmer has been enthusiastic about Brokee, stating that it's "fantastic for what they do" and that he loves using the platform. He emphasized that Brokee significantly enhances the curriculum.
Students from Level Up in Tech have also shared positive feedback, describing Brokee’s tests as a "great experience," a "rewarding challenge," and noting that they "give you hands-on experience of what fixing a real-world deployment is like."
One student even continued a subscription with Brokee after completing the course to keep practicing with our live labs, highlighting the platform's value in preparing students for entry-level careers.
What's Next?
The partnership between Level Up in Tech and Brokee has proven to be highly beneficial. By integrating Brokee's platform into their curriculum, Level Up in Tech has enhanced the hands-on learning experience for their students, better preparing them for careers in cloud engineering.
Our ongoing collaboration with Level Up in Tech promises continued innovation, with plans to develop more specialized and advanced tests to further enhance DevOps learning for their students.
We Transformed Flatworld’s DevOps Vetting Process
Our technical assessments improved Flatworld’s process of vetting candidates and enabled them to expand their DevOps recruiting services.
Our technical assessments improved Flatworld’s process of vetting candidates and enabled them to expand their DevOps recruiting services.
About the Client:
Flatworld is a Global Recruitment Platform that harnesses the power of predictive hiring algorithms to deliver fully vetted, high-fit remote candidates. For over two years, Flatworld has utilized Brokee’s live, interactive technical assessments to improve their vetting process for DevOps roles.
The Problem:
Flatworld, driven by its ambitious goal to deliver the top 1% of developers to clients, continuously seeks ways to enhance its hiring processes.
Flatworld depended on two testing platforms that utilized rudimentary multiple-choice questions and basic programming tests. These methods proved insufficient in effectively assessing the day-to-day proficiency of DevOps engineers.
Consequently, Flatworld had to invest additional time in live interviews following these assessments. However, even with this extra step, determining the suitability of candidates remained challenging.
Recognizing the limitations of their existing tests, Brokee's Founder engaged with Flatworld, presenting a tailored solution to elevate the quality of their candidates.
Given Flatworld's commitment to delivering high-caliber candidates to its clients, they swiftly embraced the idea of incorporating a more robust evaluation of DevOps engineers' day-to-day proficiency.
Solution:
Initially, Brokee's comprehensive and high-quality DevOps assessments were offered to Flatworld on a trial basis.
Impressed by the relevance and accuracy of the tests, Flatworld asked Brokee to implement measures limiting access for potential candidates. This strategic move aimed to eliminate the prospect of candidates accessing the tests prematurely, mitigating the risk of cheating.
This milestone marked the beginning of a fruitful partnership, as Flatworld seamlessly transitioned to Brokee's advanced platform, ensuring a more precise evaluation of candidates' capabilities.
Brokee’s quick and effective assessments enabled Flatworld to to take on more clients that were hiring for DevOps roles.
The Benefits
Over the last two years, Flatworld leveraged Brokee’s technical assessments to enhance its vetting process.
Some of the greatest advantages they’ve experienced with Brokee include:
Improved Quality of Candidates: Brokee's assessments enabled Flatworld to identify and present high-caliber candidates to clients, reinforcing their claim of providing unmatched vetting.
Time Savings: Brokee's efficient testing process saved Flatworld over two months of time in technical interviews, contributing to a streamlined recruitment pipeline.
Risk Reduction: The enhanced testing process boosted Flatworld's reputation among clients, as the risk of sending an unqualified candidate was reduced by nearly 90%.
Customization and Support: Flatworld's close collaboration with Brokee provided access to tailored features, quick problem resolution, and a responsive support system, fostering a positive working relationship.
Integration and API Development: Responding to Flatworld's request, Brokee developed an API, which will help facilitate seamless integration with their systems and further optimize the testing process.
Opportunities to Work with New Clients: Brokee’s assessments gave Flatworld the confidence to pursue collaborations with clients that have DevOps roles to fill.
Conclusion
Our collaboration substantially improved the efficiency and effectiveness of Flatworld's DevOps vetting process. With Brokee's DevOps assessments, Flatworld experienced significant time savings, reduced hiring risks, and improved candidate quality.
If you're in search of highly-vetted developers and DevOps engineers, we confidently recommend Flatworld. Our ongoing partnership reflects a commitment to innovation, customization, and continued success in the ever-evolving landscape of technical recruitment.
Read more: DevOps Assessments Streamlined EclecticIQ's Hiring Process
Case Study: DevOps Assessments Streamlined EclecticIQ's Hiring Process
Brokee’s platform played a key role in the way EclecticIQ hires cloud engineers and technical support engineers, optimizing their hiring process. Here's how we saved them time, money, and hiring risk.
About the Client
EclecticIQ is a global provider of threat intelligence, hunting, and response technology and services, headquartered in Amsterdam. Founded in 2014, EclecticIQ is a top European cybersecurity vendor operating worldwide with offices and teams across Europe, North America, India, and via value-add partners.
Client History
Brokee’s CEO, Maksym Lushpenko, had worked previously at EclecticIQ as a Senior Cloud Engineer. During his tenure at EclecticIQ, the cloud operations team faced a major challenge: evaluating the skills of DevOps and Cloud system engineers without wasting the time of their Engineering Team.
In 2021, EclecticIQ was the first company to adopt Brokee’s innovative DevOps assessments to evaluate their system engineer candidates. Since then, Brokee’s platform played a key role in the way EclecticIQ hires cloud engineers and technical support engineers, optimizing their hiring process.
The Problem
Just like many other IT companies, EclecticIQ's DevOps teams were overloaded with work. They faced a conundrum: The team needed to hire more engineers to share the workload, but qualifying and hiring new engineers took a huge chunk of time from the team members' already limited time.
Read More: How Much Does Hiring DevOps Cost?
For EclecticIQ, hiring one DevOps engineer takes more than 45 hours of a senior DevOps engineer's valuable time. This includes the time spent on individual DevOps testing for every candidate and subsequent group discussions with those who pass the initial technical screening call. This could cost a Dutch company – like EclecticIQ – up to $2500¹ in employee hours to fill one role.
Plus, due to the critical role DevOps engineers play, scheduling interviews around their schedules can be a formidable task for companies, given the demanding nature of their work.
The Solution: DevOps Assessment Software
Brokee provided EclecticIQ with an efficient way to screen DevOps candidates, making their hiring process fast and simple.
DevOps Assessments for Better and Faster Hiring
Brokee provides a platform for evaluating candidates on needed DevOps engineer skills. Compared to other DevOps Engineer Assessments, each of Brokee's test truly reflects the day-to-day tasks that engineers regularly work on, by using broken environments that they have to fix. Passing one of Brokee's evaluations proves that the candidate has the needed DevOps skills for the job.
Brokee's DevOps testing platform was an ideal solution because it freed up the DevOps team's time, allowing them to work on critical projects, while helping to hire engineers who could jump right in to help ease the team's workload.
EclecticIQ DevOps Team employed Brokee's Kubernetes with Nginx ingress Assessment to evaluate potential DevOps candidates, expediting the process of hiring essential team members.
The Word is Spreading: Skill Tests Result in Better Hires
EclecticIQ's Technical Support Team heard great things about Brokee from their DevOps team, so they also expressed interest in adopting this efficient approach for their hiring process.
We developed a Linux Assessment based on the DevOps assessment questions that the Technical Support Team normally asks during technical interviews. The Linux Assessment has already yielded success by helping the Technical Support Team qualify and hire several talented support engineers.
The Benefits
Through Brokee, EclecticIQ has already hired several high-performing Cloud and Technical Support Engineers.
These engineers managed to complete Brokee’s tests and immediately showed themselves to be proactive and skilled workers on their teams, which reduced the amount of time the new hires and the teams spent on technical onboarding.
New hires were able to take on projects independently and help their colleagues with difficult tasks from day one, thanks to Brokee's highly applicable live environment.
When a candidate completes Brokee's test – which takes about one hour – the results are sent to HR and the relevant hiring team, saving all parties the whole first week of interactions.
EclecticIQ gained multiple benefits from using Brokee
By using Brokee’s DevOps Test, EclecticIQ benefitted from:
Standardized, consistent, and bias-free approach to technical assessments
Comprehensive candidate reports are automatically sent to Slack and Email
Hiring risk reduced by 47%
2x reduction in tech interviews
Saved HR and Tech Hiring Teams the first week of interactions with candidates
$2500 worth of Senior DevOps hours saved per role (45 hours)
Candidates who pass the test should be able to adequately perform DevOps work from day one
Shorter technical onboarding time
A simple, clean, and easy-to-use evaluation platform
Less frustrated DevOps teams
Tests for Kubernetes, Amazon DevOps, Linux, GPC, Inginx, and more
Conclusion: DevOps Assessments Boost EclecticIQ's Hiring Process
We have greatly enjoyed growing side-by-side with EclecticIQ, and are excited to continue working with them in the future.
Brenda Szongoth, the Talent Management Partner at EclecticIQ, said she was very satisfied using Brokee due to its "usability, great customer support, and relevant selection tool".
Brokee's platform has good usability, great customer support, and relevant selection tool.
We've been told by the teams at EclecticIQ that the performance and quality of the candidates EclecticIQ hired through Brokee have been “excellent”.
If you are interested in a faster and better way to hire DevOps, Cloud, or System engineers, Brokee will help you improve your process. Please contact us to get started saving time, money, and peace of mind when hiring.