Why the school-to-work pipeline is broken
The transition from classroom to cubicle has never been smooth. Job postings that demand location-specific experience, interviews that test skills you never touched in school, and a general lack of exposure to real-world tools have all plagued new graduates for years. Even before the pandemic, 90% of hiring managers said finding the right tech talent was difficult. COVID-19 has only amplified the problem.
Technology moves faster than curricula, making it nearly impossible for educators to keep pace. Mike Swift, CEO and Co-Founder of Major League Hacking (MLH), addressed this challenge during the Univers(ity) track of GitHub Universe 2020. His advice: focus on fundamentals and theory, which change slowly, but recognize that those alone won't convince employers you can solve practical problems with code.
Gaining experience outside the classroom
For students looking to bridge that gap, virtual hackathons have grown in popularity during the pandemic. These marathon-style events offer hands-on opportunities to apply classroom knowledge to real problems, build personal projects, and showcase work to potential employers. In 2019, MLH facilitated more than 200 hackathons worldwide with nearly 70,000 participants — and almost 90% of attendees said they learned skills there that they couldn't get in a classroom.
Hackathons also benefit employers by offering a window into how developers approach problems in real time. That visibility makes it easier for hiring managers to filter candidates who fit their needs. But Swift noted that hackathons are sprints, not marathons. Participants often take shortcuts, meaning the final product may not reflect the quality of work they'd deliver in a professional setting.
Open source contributions offer an alternative for building a portfolio with production-quality code samples. The catch: Swift pointed out that 73% of hackers want to contribute to open source but don't know where to start.
A new model for industry experience
MLH is a community-first organization that positions itself wherever developers can gain career-relevant skills. It has partnered with companies including Facebook, Royal Bank of Canada, DEV, Amazon Web Services, Indeed, Twilio, NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, and Techtonica to offer the MLH Fellowship, powered by GitHub — a program designed to be "remote first, low lift, affordable, easy to drop-in, and built for scale."
The program's first cohort drew more than 30,000 applicants for 300 spots. Of those accepted, nearly 70% made their first major open source contributions during the fellowship. Fellows spend 12 weeks collaborating with other aspiring software engineers on problems companies actually want solved, with access to mentors, events, and an integrated skill-based curriculum. The cohort spans 23 regions and 15 timezones, working in JavaScript, Python, and C/C++.
For Swift, the goal is to combine the best elements of hackathons, open source, and internships into one program — giving developers a portfolio piece, a community of builders, and a clearer path to their first job while giving employers a reliable channel to talented candidates. This model doesn't just close the skills gap; it rethinks how the next generation of technologists gets trained.
