The Tech Graduate Program at Delivery Hero focuses on a 6-month learning model that includes various upskilling sessions, social/connection events, a formal mentorship program, and a 12-week capstone project.
Our goal is to set up every grad for success and ensure their first few months are enriched with growth through our central program, teams, and deliverables. Learn more about our different learning and development levers below:
1. Capstone projects
The capstone project is the defining element of our tech graduate program and was implemented for the first time in 2024. It aims to give grads an early opportunity to dive into their team’s mission, ways of working, tools and technologies. It provides our grads with hands-on experience and allows them to create meaningful output early in their journey. This model also requires teams to think critically about their grads’ inputs in the first 90-120 days and build structured milestones for impact.
This project starts in week 4 of onboarding, lasts for 12 weeks and culminates in a presentation to teams/peers.
Why this model?
- We believe that 3 months is enough time for a grad to ramp up effectively to their team/stack and make some significant progress toward delivering impact
- 12 weeks is the right amount of time to break a project down into its fundamental parts – planning, design/architecture, development/implementation, documentation/knowledge transfer, presentation
- Starting this project in week 4 allows grads to spend their first few weeks learning about their team’s tools/technologies so they are better prepared for the project phase
- By working on a tangible, structured project, grads can point clearly to their early accomplishments and also understand expectations for next steps in the final 2 months before the end of probation
2. Workshops, talks and AMAs
We have curated our live sessions component of the tech grad program so that (1) grads devote focus and time to the capstone project/team-based learning and (2) we’re sharing only the most relevant content. We now host approximately 20 key workshops, talks and Q&A sessions over the first 4 months of onboarding.
These sessions have been developed to be universal in scope and address all grads’ learning needs (across engineering, data science/eng, and ML profiles). In 2024, a number of new sessions were added to ensure we have a well-rounded plan to help grads ramp up. Some sessions also changed format to be more directly relevant to our grads’ experiences and their new projects.
Some of our key session topics:
- Cross-cultural Communication
- Agile Methodology
- Project Management
- Culture Mapping
- Presentation Skills
- Q&As with senior tech leadership
3. Mentorship
Our formal 6-month mentorship program continues to be a key element of our L&D program. Grads are assigned mentors within their teams and their relationship kicks off in week 2 of onboarding. Mentors receive training ahead of each cohort start date to ensure alignment on expectations. They are responsible for hosting weekly or bi-weekly meetings with grads for the first 6 months, while also being available for async needs/guidance. Our mentors have been instrumental in getting our grads up to speed on the team and ways of working – many of our grads continue an informal mentoring partnership with them beyond the first 6 months!
4. Connection moments
We believe that providing our grads ample time to get to know each other on both a personal and professional level will ultimately boost their motivation/productivity, keep them feeling connected to the company and help them succeed in their careers. Consequently, we ensure that we provide fun, relaxed opportunities for our grads to get together and share with each other. This includes group lunches/dinners, activity/game nights, round table discussions with senior leaders/each other, and more.
By combining the above program elements, we hope to ensure a successful onboarding journey for our grads and guide them through probation and beyond.
If you like what you’ve read and you’re someone who wants to work on open, interesting projects in a caring environment, click here to see our other blog posts and learn more about the program.
