“I think using video alone would’ve meant taking individuals who are already subject to unconscious bias based on race and gender and further exacerbated those issues,” he explained.īut Soapbox is, in its own way, an entirely different medium. In fact, he says it actually would’ve made things much worse. When David was first introduced to Soapbox by Wistia’s Chris Lavigne and Jeff Vincent, he said he was practically doing cartwheels, energized by the thought of students creating video cover letters that had the potential to stand out in recruiters’ inboxes.įor David, using “normal” video wouldn’t have been enough to convince him to introduce video cover letters to his students.

“No longer do our coders have to say, ‘I know what I’m doing, just take my word for it.’ Now, you can see the code in action to prove it.” What made Soapbox such a game-changer for Resilient Coders was its unique split-screen recorder, according to David. “It takes the story from being just about our students to being about their work.” It’s a distinction that, however unfortunate, still matters in today’s biased recruiting environment.

“What differentiates Soapbox is that our students are able to show their work products,” David said. That’s why Soapbox has become an integral, even mandatory part of the Resilient Coders curriculum.

“All of our students face immediate bias, and video is an epic rebuttal to that bias.”

Resilient coders