Remi Zandieh was a professional graphic designer and photographer in his native Iran. Once he moved to the U.S., he found it difficult to land the type of full-time job he wanted because he lacked an established professional network to draw on.

Zandieh was able to make ends meet through freelance work and low-paying retail jobs. However, those roles did not give him an outlet for his creative skills or stability.

“I was not feeling like myself anymore. I was not doing what I was built to do,” Zandieh said. “My talents were not being used, so for me, it was not a happy life.”

Then Zandieh came across TechSF, an initiative from the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Among other functions, TechSF promotes apprenticeship in the Bay Area, helping tech companies recruit apprentices and ensuring their apprenticeship programs meet U.S. Department of Labor standards.

CTA member Postmates, a logistics platform that connects customers with local couriers, was one of the companies that signed on with TechSF. Zandieh applied to the TechSF apprenticeship program and was placed at Postmates as the company’s first apprentice.

Zandieh’s success proved that an apprenticeship initiated and facilitated by TechSF is a valuable way to seek talent in a nontraditional way. At the same time, the Postmates team recognized they had to ensure the apprentice’s overall success through mentorship effective on the job training, and support from all employees across the organization.

Postmates’ leadership evangelized the apprenticeship program, coached existing employees on how to work effectively with apprentices and made sure they understood the difference between apprentices and interns.

For Zandieh, his apprenticeship created a new future at a company that valued his prior experience and gave him the opportunity to learn new skills so that he could fill an in-demand role at Postmates. Seven months after he started his apprenticeship, Zandieh was offered a full-time position as a production artist.

To learn more about apprenticeships, download the CTA Apprenticeship white paper, “Why Tech Companies Should Offer Apprenticeships,” and check out the CTA Apprenticeship Coalition.