Formation Monthly Deploy: November 2025

Welcome to the Formation Monthly Deploy, our monthly blog highlighting achievements, insights, and innovations from across the Formation ecosystem. Whether you're a current Fellow navigating challenges, an Alumni building your career, or a Mentor guiding others, this space is designed to keep you connected to your community.

🌎 Engineering tip from Sophie

Questions with opinions get better answers 💬

When asking questions, whether at work or in interviews, don’t just ask for the “right” answer. Share your hypotheses about what you think is right. Having an opinion or conjecture shows initiative, ownership, and real engineering mindset.

Here’s how to stay intentional and collaborative:

✅ Frame your questions with your thinking: • “If the function is given X as input, then the output should be Y?” • “I’m wondering if we should use X or Y technique. I’m leaning toward Y because…” • “Do we need to handle the case when the input looks like this? I think yes because…”

❌ Don’t ask blank questions. You’re not outsourcing your thinking; you’re demonstrating it.

🧠 Why it works: Engineers are decision-makers, not just executors. Sharing your perspective shows confidence, curiosity, and initiative. 🚀

💬 Bonus: You’ll spark richer discussions. When someone disagrees, you learn why. That insight helps you understand what makes a great solution.

At Formation, we want you to practice driving conversations, not just participating. Bringing your perspective turns a question into a collaboration.

🌊 Last month’s Rising Tide winners

Each month, we recognize Fellows who go above and beyond to lift others up. These standout Fellows showed up with support, positivity, and generosity, making Formation better for everyone around them:

Roy Babbel was recognized for his collaboration and welcoming presence. His nominator shared: “Roy was my first 1:1 pair programming partner, and I was incredibly nervous! However, Roy was very welcoming, knowledgeable, and made me feel more comfortable asking questions and voicing my thoughts.”

William (Liam) Learned stood out for his patience and encouragement. His nominators shared: “Very helpful, gracious, understanding, patient.” and  “He is just really supportive and actively reaches out to Fellows.”

Murat Suyun was recognized for his balance of thoughtfulness and humor. His nominator shared: “He allowed room for others to contribute, asked thoughtful questions, and kept the session light by inserting jokes every now and then. Easy to work with!”

David Hahn was recognized for his motivation and collaboration. His nominator shared:“David is very motivated to learn and work through problems. His collaboration this week made my experience with Formation that much more enjoyable.”

🌟 Last month’s Lighthouse Award winners

The Lighthouse Award recognizes mentors who go above and beyond to guide, support, and light the way forward. Last month’s winners exemplified what it means to meet Fellows where they are and leave them better than they found them.

Marques Hill was recognized for his guidance and flexibility. His nominator shared:“Super helpful! Offered insight into compensation details related to an offer. Provided a guide to have a conversation and was very flexible with scheduling throughout the process.”

Sean Darryanto stood out for his clarity and teaching approach. His nominators shared:“Sean was a great teacher. He communicated very clearly and was effective in conveying best practices and key concepts. In particular, he gave me a new way of thinking about when to separate concerns in problems with a separate function, which I didn’t necessarily find intuitive with respect to data structures and algorithms. This session was key in helping me pass my benchmark this week and will influence the way I write code more generally.” “We had a mock interview and he gave me valuable feedback.”

🏆 Job placement celebrations

We’re celebrating Fellows who turned persistence into progress and landed new roles this month.

Trey Annis → Satine Technologies“My network was everything. I stayed in touch with a former colleague who later recruited me to his startup as employee #1. Build and nurture your professional relationships — you never know which one will open a door. Don’t underestimate your soft skills either; communication and collaboration are more important than ever in the age of AI. And remember: sustainable progress beats burnout every time.”

Luis Gomez → American Airlines“As cliché as it sounds, I have two things: 1) Consistency is key. 2) Have a great attitude and always be willing to learn. I put out over 900 applications between October 2024 and October 2025. Only about 20 turned into interviews, and four reached final rounds. Treat interviews like practice, not performance. Shift your mindset from ‘prove yourself’ to ‘see what you can learn.’ That small change turned my interviews into real conversations — and it showed.”

Chidi Imala → Amazon Robotics“The interview process can be rigorous — full of disappointments, small wins, and lessons along the way. Keep pushing forward. Do as many mock interviews as you can, and teach others what you’re learning; it’s one of the best ways to deepen your understanding. Build routines that help you thrive — mentally and physically. As St. Ignatius said: ‘Pray as though everything depended on God; act as though everything depended on you.’”

🚀 What’s new at Formation?

New Skip Nova Task feature

Formation has launched a new Skip button inside Nova, allowing Fellows to move past certain task components when ready. This feature was designed to make the learning experience more flexible and intuitive, letting engineers progress at their own pace while still maintaining access to skipped items through the Activity Log or Roadmap.

The update supports Formation’s broader mission to give engineers more autonomy over how they learn, striking a balance between structure and self-direction. By allowing Fellows to focus where they feel confident and revisit challenging topics later, the new feature keeps progress continuous and momentum strong.

See you next month!

We’re always proud of how this community shows up — with generosity, determination, and drive. Keep asking questions, lifting each other up, and pushing the limits of what you thought you could do.

Until next month,

The Formation Team

This blog is adapted from our monthly newsletter, The Monthly Deploy. If you're not yet part of the Formation community but would also like these updates directly in your inbox, subscribe to our blog.