Oct. 16, 2019

Sioux Falls web design and development firm Blend Interactive is taking a new approach to help develop area talent: Blend’s Education Exchange Program.

The mentorship program will pair up-and-coming professionals with Blend team members from January through May 2020.

The idea is to pair mentees with a dedicated resource to help with projects, give advice on career paths and lend an inside look at the industry.

“It’s no secret there is a shortage of talent in our area and specifically in our area of expertise. We’re willing to invest our time in promising individuals that will be seeking a career in website development or digital project management,” CEO Karla Santi said.

“We want to prepare mentees to enter the workforce with a glimpse of how real-life projects work, flow, and how companies work with clients. Often, we see talented individuals graduate with a solid set of skills but may not understand what it’s like to work collaboratively with colleagues and clients.”

The 22-person company is based in the Boyce-Greeley Building in downtown Sioux Falls at 11th and Phillips. Because mentoring goes both ways, the team also will benefit from the new program, Santi said.

“We all have something to gain from each other,” she said. “As a mentor, there are things to learn by returning to the basics. It’s good to be reminded of how much we really do know and how far we have come.”

Mentors and mentees will set their own schedule and frequency for connecting.

Blend is looking for mentees open to learning networking skills and what it’s like to work in an agency setting. The firm’s expertise is in accessible website design, back-end .NET and other C# framework development, complex API and data integration, front-end HTML/CSS/JavaScript development, strategy-first design and digital project management.

Those interested in becoming a mentee should send a short essay about why they’d be a good fit for the program by Nov. 29 to [email protected].

“We understand not all of our mentees will end up with a full-time career at Blend, but we feel it’s important for our community to educate and invest in the potential talent we have locally,” Santi said.

“In the end, it’s about keeping talent in our state.”