Gender Diversity in Tech Internship

Are you interested in technology? Do you like science or solving puzzles? Are you curious about the way apps work, and interested in learning how to build them? Or perhaps you’re already a competent programmer wanting to take your skills to the next level?

Have you considered taking a gap year in 2025? What if you used it to learn to code professionally and got paid to do it?

Learning to code is massively empowering. Code is behind almost every piece of modern technology, from your phone to wind turbines. Code flies aeroplanes on autopilot and makes sure your fridge stays cold. Learning how to code is learning how to design the future. And here is the secret: It is something anyone can learn to do.

Women represent 50% of the university-qualified science population in Australia, but only 29% of the workforce. The statistics are even worse in engineering with fewer women undertaking engineering at a tertiary level and making up only 14% of the workforce.

Systemic barriers stop many women from entering, progressing, and being recognised for their achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These barriers begin during childhood and impact women throughout their careers.

We believe that young women don’t have enough opportunities to shape our shared future - a future powered and defined by the technologies that, today, are crafted mainly by men. 

That doesn’t sound right to us, and we want to do something about it.

Stile is continuing our Software Engineering Internship in 2025.

This internship is to improve the gender imbalance in our workforce and is open to female-identifying, non-binary and transgender graduates.

You should be interested in learning to code and be passionate about science. You don’t need to be an expert coder already, we’ll work with you to get you up to a professional standard

This is a genuinely awesome opportunity to learn something new and experience what building apps is all about. You’ll get paid, you’ll work with a bunch of great people (including former interns) and you’ll have some fun too.

What’s in it for you?

You’ll come to work every day with Stile’s enthusiastic, energetic design and engineering teams at our Melbourne CBD office. You’ll experience what it’s like to work with a highly creative team in a progressive workplace. You’ll learn how to code and work directly on apps that help kids learn about climate change, genetically modified foods, and a whole raft of other important global issues.

This could be your gap year before university, a gap year while you’re at university, or a gap year before skipping university and going straight into work. This is a fast-track program that will teach you everything you need to be a professional software engineer. At the end of the year you’ll be industry-ready, and know everything you need to build websites and apps.

About Stile

You might have used Stile (stileapp.com) in your science classes before, but you might not know that we run a world-class software engineering team in Melbourne. All the technologies we use to create the science lessons in Stile are the same ones that power all the apps and websites you use daily. Of course, software engineers don’t work alone - you’ll be working with artists, designers, videographers and wordsmiths too.

If you want to know more about Stile, you should check out the “Our why” and “Our team” pages on our website. Don’t forget to check out our ‘Meet the Stile team’ video and 'Gender Diversity in STEM' too

Why focus on gender diversity?

We recognise the importance of gender equality in strengthening our business operations and aim to specifically improve the gender balance of our workforce, particularly in professional roles, technical roles and leadership positions. We don’t think young gender diverse people are given enough opportunities to shape our shared future - a future powered and defined by the technologies that today are mostly crafted by men.

That doesn’t sound right to us, and we want to do something about it.

These internships are open to young women, non-binary and transgender people. This opportunity qualifies as a ‘special measure’ under section 12 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic).

Internship Details

• This is a full-time paid position, so you’ll be working five days a week. Most of those days will be physically at Stile HQ on Exhibition Street in the city.
• We will provide you with a laptop and all the other bits and pieces you need to be set up and ready to code effectively during your internship.
• Internships will start early March 2025, and you’ll graduate at our end-of-year party sometime in mid December 2025.
• Throughout the year, you will be provided with ongoing training, professional development and mentoring.

Training

You’ll be doing two types of initial training in the first few weeks of your internship:

• You’ll complete an in-house coding course and work closely with mentors from Stile’s engineering team.
• You’ll complete an in-house course on the basics of working life. We cover topics like personal finance, running meetings, note-taking, priority management and more to ensure you are comfortable and confident in an office environment.
• After your initial training, you’ll join one of our project teams and be doing real work alongside our mentor engineers. You’ll get the opportunity to attend ongoing training and professional development throughout the year.

Just to be clear, the cost of training is covered by Stile.

Mentoring

We have about two dozen software engineers at Stile all from different walks of life. Some of them have been engineering for quite a long time, others are fresh in the business and some have graduated our intern program and were offered permanent roles at Stile.

You’ll be paired up with one mentor at a time, someone who will help you with your day-to-day and be your go to person. Your mentor will have daily check-ins with you and assist you with all the nitty-gritty at Stile.

On top of that, you’ll have a direct manager who sits on the Senior Engineering Team. Your direct manager will be someone who’s worked as a software engineer for many years. They’ll coach and guide you towards creating a solid career foundation. You’ll get one-on-one (O3) meetings with them once a week and they’ll help you knock your goals out of the park.

Is this internship only for people in Melbourne?

No, but you will need to relocate at your own expense.

We'd like our interns to work with us in person at Stile HQ in the Melbourne CBD. This will be easiest for Melbourne locals. That said, we're keen to talk to any promising candidates from any location in Australia who would be interested in relocating to Melbourne for the internship.

If this sounds like an interesting way to spend 2025, we would love to hear from you.

So, who are we looking for? Eligibility and selection criteria

• You’re a young female-identifying or non-binary person that is finishing school in 2024 or has graduated from school in the last 4 years.
• You will have completed at least one Year 12 Maths subject.
• You can demonstrate an interest in science, maths, education, or something equivalent. Do you have a side project you’re working on? Do you tutor your friends? Do you have any other STEM interests? Great, we want to hear from you.
• You’ll be 18 by 31st March 2025.
• Some experience with coding, and a keen willingness to learn more
• You live in Melbourne and will be able to commute into the Stile offices. Alternatively, you are in regional Victoria or interstate and would be willing to relocate.
• We will have a strong bias towards applicants from socially disadvantaged or minority groups.

**Applications close 11:59pm, Sunday 24th November 2024**

How to apply

In your application, be sure to include the following:

1. A letter or video telling us a bit about you

Write us a letter or shoot us a video explaining why you should be selected for this internship and how you’re going to make the most of it. Tell us about your interests and passions. Check out stileeducation.com - what parts of Stile’s mission and values resonate the most with you? Tell us about any future career aspirations, though we don’t mind if you have no clue what you want to do, if that is the case, just say so

Will your background bring something unique to Stile? We'd love to know more

If you've persevered through economic, social or other challenges that most other kids likely haven't, or if you’re from a disadvantaged background, tell us about it.

2. Your Resume

A resume that covers at the minimum:

• What Year 11 + 12 subjects you’ve taken or are completing now (don’t worry about giving us your scores in these subjects though)
• Your contact details, including your name, email address and phone number

And if you have any of the below (totally fine if not), we’d love for you to include this too:

• Any extra curricular activities you might be involved in.
• An initiative, project or experience you are proud of that you would like to share with us.
• Any work experience or jobs you’ve had.
• Any contributions you’ve made to your community and ways you’ve helped those around you.
• Any awards you’ve received.
• Any coding you’ve done before, especially any websites or apps you’ve made.

Remember, we’ll not only evaluate what you say, but how you say it. We’re looking for clear written and verbal communicators.

3. A reference from your school

Provide us with a brief letter from a teacher or your school principal letting us know why they think you’d be a good fit for this internship. Make sure it includes their contact details and that they’re happy for us to get in touch with them to chat about your application.

If you haven’t been in high school in over a year, you can also get a reference letter from your current boss, mentor, coach, or someone who can tell us more about you

Key Dates

• Applications close 11:59pm, Sunday 24th November 2024.
• Applicants will be notified if they will move to the interview stage by Friday 29th November 2024.
• Interviews will occur during the week of the 9th of December 2024.
• We will notify applicants of the outcome by the 16th of December 2024, with the successful intern ready to start early March.

If we love your application, we’ll get in touch with you to organise an interview. These will run for a couple of hours (with breaks, don’t worry). We’ll ask you a range of questions to get to know you a little better and you’ll have a chance to ask us any questions you have too. Good luck and please reach out if you have any questions to jointheteam@stileeducation.com.

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