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About Us

ajPrice edited this page Jul 12, 2023 · 5 revisions

About the Engineering Community of Practice

The Engineering Community of Practice is a group of software engineers and technologists who are trying to make a positive impact on local communities and hone their professional skills. As a subset of Hack for LA (HfLA), we exchange information on Slack and meet once a week to network, discuss career goals, exchange knowledge, and have industry professionals share their experience with us.

To join this community, you need to join Hack for LA.


About our members

Before the pandemic, this organization was based in Los Angeles. We stayed connected on-line through the pandemic and our contributors grew from LA locals to spanning across the globe. We continue to meet virtually but once in a while someone will put a time and location out on Slack to meet up for happy hour.

On average, most members volunteer on projects for about six months. Though we encourage our members to volunteer, it is not a requirement that you be actively contributing to a HfLA project to participate in this community. The majority volunteer because they want to develop their professional skills.



Mission Statement

As a community, it is our mission to increase the number of adults who have relevant technical and vocational skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.



Sustainable Development Goals

Our Mission statement comes from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically, Goal 4.4. The SDGs were created by the United Nations in 2015 to outline what people, governments, and organizations can do to address global environmental, social, and economic equity.

At Hack for LA, we align all of our communities and projects with SDGs to do our part in these efforts. HfLA does not have a direct partnership with the United Nations, but we share in their ideals and efforts.

No matter where you are in your career, when you join this community you will have the opportunity to develop professional skills, whether it is the hard skills you develop while working on a project, or the soft skills you learn doing Lightning Talks with us.



How to Join

If you have not attended Hack for LA onboarding, please read the Guide for New Volunteers, and register for an upcoming onboarding session.

Step 1. Join Software Engineering Community of Practice

  1. Join the #engineering Slack channel and introduce yourself.
  2. Slack our Engineering Community of Practice lead with your Gmail address.
  3. Accept your Google Drive invite to access the shared folder.
  4. Add yourself to the Team Roster.

Step 2. Familiarize with Our Processes

  1. All Hack for LA teams use Kanban boards to encourage continuous improvements at all the level of the organization. Learn more about Kanban with our Guide to How-To Use Our Github Kanban Board (working draft).
  2. Kanban is one of the popular frameworks used to implement agile development. Learn more about Agile.
  3. Check out the currently open Engineering roles.

Step 3. Join the CoP Meeting - Come Meet Engineers from All Teams

  • The Engineering Community of Practice meetings are Thursdays at 6 PM PST
  • To get onto the calendar invites, send your email with your request to one of the Engineering CoP leads on Slack.