Training and Development at Melon

From our 15-year experience, we’ve singled out some of the best ways to boost and develop the performance of our team members. Definitely, challenging software development projects and co-subsidized trainings and courses are at the top of our list. 

Melon's internal training policy

One thing is sure, constant improvement of team members’ competences is vital for the success of both the employees and the company. Melon’s long-standing involvement with developers’ training has led to the evolution of our internal comprehensive training policy. 

In-house training coordinator

Because of the abundance of training and development options for IT professionals, it is incredibly hard and time-consuming for busy and engaged team members to seek out the quality events they may find useful. Here steps in our fulltime Training Coordinator Ralitsa Petkova. She keeps everyone updated with the most exciting and helpful events, and most importantly – events that would be beneficial for the skillset of Melon team members. She also sends out reminders, whenever sign-up deadlines are closing in. 

Ralitsa says:

Very often organizers host an event or session in the middle of the working week. Melon allows employees to take up to three additional days off to participate in training events and courses which are not during the weekends. Given the value and insight that these sessions can offer, it’s a price tag that Melon gladly covers. Considering that those training events will have a positive influence on the company’s general output, it is reasonable to sponsor and encourage our developers’ participation in such activities. To incentivize our team members to sign up for events like that, Melon covers the cost of training events related to their respective areas of expertise, including soft skills, leadership and presentation skills. According to our internal policy – any training, conference, seminar or an event with an educational purpose qualifies for sponsorship. And our developers can apply for sponsorship to up to three events per year. 

External trainings, events, courses, and conferences are one thing, but learning with and from our own colleagues can have a positive effect on team dynamics too. Melon’s in-house trainings allow employees to learn from one another when it comes to more practical topics such as soft skills, programming platforms, agile methodology, and presentation skills. It also allows fellow developers to practice their leadership and knowledge-sharing abilities by carrying out and taking responsibilities for mini-courses and lectures. 

In a dynamic and competitive industry such as software development services, constant growth is crucial. Both staff members and companies should embrace and encourage learning and development to move past their competition.