When senior leaders first hear that some of our consultants come straight from the Northcoders coding bootcamp, a common question follows:
“Will they actually deliver? Or am I signing up for months of handholding before I see any return?”
At this point it’s worth saying clearly: in this blog, we’re talking about our Associate Consultants – engineers who join us straight from Northcoders. We’re not speaking about the mid-level and senior consultants we can also bring in from our wider networks.
And it’s a reasonable concern to have. Delivery pressure is continual, teams are leaner than they’ve been in sometime, and no one has time for a slow ramp-up. But here’s the reality we see, time and again: due to our model and ways of working, our Associate Consultants are adding tangible business value inside client teams within a few weeks – and sometimes even faster than more experienced contractors.
Why the worry makes sense
In most organisations, “junior developer” is shorthand for someone who:
- Could take months to be productive.
- Requires senior engineers spending valuable time explaining basics.
- Struggles to navigate a real delivery environment beyond the classroom.
If that’s the picture in your head, you’d be right to hesitate. But it isn’t what happens with our consultants, because the context is different: how they’re trained, how they land, and how our model supports them.
Fresh talent, no baggage
One of our Tech Leads put it well: “When I worked in restaurants, I liked it when someone’s first ever job was with us. They didn’t arrive with bad habits. We could teach them to do things the right way, straight away.”
In tech, the same principle applies. Some consultants come in without the ingrained shortcuts, siloed thinking, or “we’ve always done it this way” mindset that can slow down more experienced hires. They’re motivated, adaptable, and hungry to prove themselves. That energy is valuable capital in a delivery team.
A structured start: learning without slowing the team
The first six weeks are not a sink-or-swim test. Associate Consultants arrive as part of a team, led by a Counter Tech Lead. This structure means:
- Safe space for questions → The Tech Lead introduces a layer of safety for all and any questions. There’s no fear of “silly questions” in front of clients, which accelerates learning. That psychological safety speeds up learning and contribution.
- Accelerated onboarding → Because the Tech Lead embeds ahead of the consultant team, the ground is already prepared. Consultants don’t wait around for client engineers to explain everything – consultants have coaching and unblocking on hand from day one.
- Collective acceleration → Landing as a team means consultants support, challenge, and learn from each other. That shared momentum helps them adapt and contribute far faster than if they were parachuted in one by one.
Our structure isn’t about shielding them from reality – they’re fully embedded in client ceremonies, codebases, and delivery cycles from week one. But the Counter structure and scaffolding ensures that learning happens in parallel with contribution, not instead of it.
Early value: case in point
This model produces visible wins inside the first six weeks. Examples we’ve seen:
- Automation that saves hours: one consultant reconsidered a three-hour manual morning process. Within weeks, they scripted and automated it, removing repetitive work for the wider team.
- Leadership in delivery rituals: another consultant led daily stand-ups in their second week, running them smoothly enough to surprise colleagues who had expected a “junior” to stay quiet.
- Incremental delivery: instead of being parked on “learning projects,” consultants make small but valuable contributions from the start – bug fixes, test coverage improvements, quality-of-life changes in the developer workflow. These add up, and they build trust fast.
Why bootcamp training helps, not hinders
Bootcamps like Northcoders are designed to simulate the real rhythms of a full time engineer role. They work 9am-5pm individually and as part of a team. By the time consultants arrive on client site, they’re already used to:
- Pair programming and mobbing → collaboration and knowledge-sharing are default.
- Code reviews → feedback given and received without ego.
- Agile ceremonies → stand-ups, retros, and sprint planning all feel familiar.
- Problem-solving under time pressure → shipping something that works is muscle memory.
This means they don’t just “know syntax”, they understand what it feels like to be in a production-like team environment, and they adapt to the real thing much faster than most people expect.
Subverting the “early-career” expectation
The first impression of a “bootcamp graduate” is often: they’ll be hesitant, fragile, or in need of constant direction. The six-week reality is different: they’re proactive, engaged, and contributing.
Our consultants don’t barge in trying to redesign the architecture. They come in with humility and start by listening, learning, and integrating – which builds trust. Once that trust is in place, they’re confident enough to challenge constructively and suggest improvements.
For a tech leader, that means you don’t just get extra pairs of hands. You get motivated engineers who strengthen the culture of delivery, backed by a model that ensures they’re supported and effective from the start.
The Counter difference
Yes, our consultants are new to the industry. That’s deliberate. With the right support, they move from bootcamp to business value in weeks – not months.
And because they arrive as part of a team, with a Tech Lead who is accountable for delivery, clients never carry the risk of “handholding.” What they see instead is accelerated onboarding, fresh energy in the team, and value delivered sooner than expected.
