Client Testimonial Series Featuring Ken Heckmann, Senior Manager of Engineering at Symantec

What do you value most about your partnership with Maverick?

I'd say it's a tie between the continuous progress we are making towards our automation goals, and the benefit of hiring graduating engineers who have multiple years of experience working directly with our product, processes, and tools.

What problem does the Maverick program help you solve?

We needed a cost-effective investment in our product level test automation. We had little budget and a lot of work. Maverick Software Consulting helped us scale out at a reasonable price!

What type of work do you have some of your Maverick interns work on?

It varies from analysis of daily test automation failures, creating new product level automation code and even designing and implementing changes to our mission-critical automation execution and reporting system eco-system.

Why did you choose Maverick over other methods of recruitment available to use?

Throughout my career, I've always had a strong internship program. Maverick offers entry-level staffing by setting up either on or near a college campus. That expands the pool of candidates as it drops the requirements for a large work hours timeslot and ability to drive to an office. This gets us a better opportunity to work with the best of tomorrow’s engineers. And more importantly, our site manager covers daily management, training, recruiting and more, leaving us worry-free when it comes to those aspects. When someone graduates out, someone else steps in behind them. Simple. Easy. Perfect.

How did you resolve any management concerns about bringing Maverick into your company?

With Symantec being a security company, there was a lot of corporate red tape. Maverick worked with me to systematically resolve every one of the concerns, requirements, and restrictions. In the end, this relationship made it easier for Symantec to do business with other companies as the augmentation staffing process was left better than we found it.

What are the keys to success for a new company looking to partner with Maverick?

Understand that a good training program and support system are essential.

New Mavericks are brought up to speed faster and faster each time we train. The training program is in a state of constant improvement. We train only what is needed. For example, Mavericks don't need to know how to install our product; they use automation to do that. We focus on things like writing sustainable automation code and the mindset around that.

And since it is a learning environment, we keep multiple layers of support such as:

• We keep a minimum of two deep on any project, so they have a peer to help them at any time.
• We choose one Maverick as technical lead. They spend time helping others first but also delivering their own work secondary.
• Our Maverick site manager is the best in the business. She gets the students what they need, eliminates roadblocks and mentors the team daily. She also works with the managers at Symantec to continuously improve what the combined team does and how we do it.
• A full time Symantec engineer does project management and acts as a technical resource for the Mavericks. We also do daily standups in our agile world. Every business day, the Maverick team is in communication with Symantec.

Ken Heckmann
Senior Manager, Engineering, Symantec