Caesars Entertainment Invests in Veteran Tech Apprenticeships with Code Platoon

Apprenticeships are a hallmark of the Code Platoon program. As part of our Full-stack Software Engineering Immersive program, Corporate Partners employ the top graduates for three to six-month paid apprenticeships in a developer-orientated role. Caesars Entertainment has been an apprenticeship partner for several cohorts.

Seth Riegelhaupt, Chief of Staff, Product & Technology at Caesars, leads their tech teams and has overseen the hiring of seven Code Platoon software engineering apprentices. He recently shared why Caesars Entertainment invests in Code Platoon’s Veteran tech apprentices and the benefits the partnership has provided.

“Caesars has a long-standing commitment to supporting the Veteran community through our CSR efforts. It’s what attracted us to Code Platoon initially.” Seth said. “And what furthered it for us was that this is a low-risk proposition for the company. We get the value of supporting the community as well as access to fresh software engineering talent.” 

“Looking at it from a business perspective, an apprenticeship gives us time to evaluate and mold the new team member. We get to see if they will be a good fit. By the time we bring them on as full-time software engineers, they are already acclimated and delivering results.”

Of the seven Code Platoon apprentices that Caesars has taken on, they have hired five. The remaining two are still early in their apprenticeships. 

“We have had a 100% success rate with our Code Platoon graduates,” Seth said. “We typically don’t hire junior-level talent, but these graduates have strong professional traits and expertise that have been honed through their service time.”

“We typically don’t hire junior-level talent, but these graduates have strong professional traits and expertise.”

He added that employees with military backgrounds have less difficulty picking up work and getting things done from day one. In today’s virtual work environment, Code Platoon graduates are team players and quick learners who work well with others, and their work ethic is fantastic. They contribute to the product even in the first three months, which is impressive.

Code Platoon graduate Shun Ganas started as a software engineer apprentice at Caesars

Code Platoon graduates find similar fulfillment working on Caesars Entertainment’s tech teams.

“The projects I work on have been the highlight of my time at Caesars,” said Daniel Manfield, frontend engineer and November Platoon graduate. “I don’t just develop the features but the entire process. It’s so satisfying seeing an idea in a Slack channel make its way to stakeholders, then actually be designed, then become a feature in production.”

When asked what he would say to another company considering partnering with Code Platoon, Seth had this to say:

“There is little investment to hiring Code Platoon graduates as apprentices other than time. We have seen a significant payout from the investment we put into the apprentices. People internally feel we are getting a lot out of it. It’s a no-brainer.”

The apprentice partnership is only one of the ways companies can partner with Code Platoon to access its military coding bootcamp graduates. Companies can learn more about investing in Veteran tech talent on the corporate partners page.

Brenna Koss is Code Platoon’s Development Coordinator. She graduated from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in Political Science and French. In her free time, Brenna loves to travel and spend time with friends and family. Follow Brenna on LinkedIn.