The Digital Corps Defined
The Digital Corps provides on campus jobs to students of Ball State University in innovate, technological, and creative fields like Video, Design, Development, Communication, and User Experience. We work on real world projects for Ball State University as well as outside clients. It allows its students to learn and grow in their field and have creative and technical input while building their portfolio and professional skills. I was applied and was hired onto the Development team my second semester of college.
From Apprentice To Master
At the Digital Corps, the ranks work like a guild system; you’re hired as an Apprentice. can be promoted to Specialist, and can be promoted once more to Master. Apprentices spend a semester training before they have the chance to apply for promotion to Specialist. Each team’s training looks different, but the Development’s training meant I learned and did tutorials about everything from terminal to front end to frameworks to backend to mobile.
To apply to become a Specialist, you must have completed your training, chosen a speciality, and shown proficiency therein. I chose full stack development with a focus in backend. I presented to my bosses why I felt I had what it took to be a Specialist and received the promotion after having spent a three semesters with the Corps.
To then apply to become a Master, you must have spent at least a semester as a Specialist. Being a Master is less about technical skill, and more about professional and leadership skills. After a summer semester spent as a Specialist, I applied to become a Master, presented to my bosses again about why I felt I would do well as one, and again received the promotion.
I’m sure this was strange to many of my co-workers who did not work over the summer that year with me; when they had left school in May, I was an Apprentice, and when they came back in August, I was a Master.
My Experience As A Master
I see Masters as pillars to the Corps experience, and I hope my coworkers see me as fulfilling that role. I’ve grown from keeping to myself, seldom reaching out to others, to actively engaging in conversation with people from every team. On my own team, I frequently ask everyone if they need help of any kind and make sure that they know I’m available whenever they need me. My fellow developers have responded in kind by frequently approaching me with all sorts of questions from work related, technical questions to personal, career, and opinion questions.