Choose a useful problem
Connect your interests and existing skills to a specific role, team, or operational problem people already need solved.
42 Fellowship · Free career accelerator · Eight places
Build work people can hire you for.
A free eight-week fellowship for developers and technical career changers. Choose a direction with real demand, turn your ability into credible public proof, and learn how to build a network around work worth discussing.
The career-change equation
Ability becomes valuable when the right people can see where it fits.
Make ability inspectable
Turn code and decisions into a project, case study, or portfolio asset that another person can evaluate without guesswork.
Put proof into conversation
Learn how to ask for informed feedback, follow up with context, and build relationships through useful work rather than cold requests.
Why this exists
Getting better is only part of becoming hireable.
Career change stalls when learning stays disconnected from a target market. The fellowship helps you decide what kind of work to be known for, build evidence around it, and earn professional attention through the quality of that evidence.
Work tied to demand
Define the role, customer problem, or team constraint your work addresses. You leave with a direction narrow enough to act on and broad enough to test.
Proof people can trust
Improve the project and the explanation around it: what changed, why you chose the approach, what failed, and what the result demonstrates.
A network built on work
Practise useful questions, specific feedback requests, thoughtful follow-up, and reciprocal value—the behaviours that make professional relationships compound.
This is for you if
You can build. Now you need the work to lead somewhere.
- You are moving toward a first technical role, a stronger role, or a deliberate career change.
- You have code, a project, work experience, or a technical interest that can become credible evidence.
- You want to understand where your skills are useful—not collect another generic certificate.
- You can show up weekly, accept direct feedback, and do the work between sessions.
What it will not do
No shortcuts, access for sale, or employment promises.
- It does not guarantee a job, referral, introduction, admission, investment, or interview.
- It is not a beginner coding course or a substitute for sustained technical practice.
- It will not provide private assessments, leaked exercises, or work you cannot defend yourself.
- It cannot help if you cannot reserve consistent time across the eight-week pilot.
Eight weeks of applied work
From uncertain direction to a credible opportunity plan.
The cohort stays small enough to review each fellow’s work closely. Live sessions set the decisions and feedback; the evidence is built between them.
- Weeks 01–02
Choose the demand
Translate your interests, experience, and constraints into a target role or problem. Audit the evidence you already have and choose one gap worth closing.
Output: opportunity thesis - Weeks 03–04
Build the proof
Strengthen a project or case study until another technical person can inspect the decisions, trade-offs, and level of ownership.
Output: portfolio evidence - Weeks 05–06
Test the signal
Explain the work to peers and practitioners. Use their questions to improve the project, career narrative, and the claims you can responsibly make.
Output: working narrative - Weeks 07–08
Build the opportunity system
Identify relevant teams, communities, and people. Prepare specific outreach, feedback requests, follow-up, and a realistic 90-day cadence.
Output: relationship and action plan
Career assets you keep
Leave easier to understand, trust, and refer.
The value is not access to a private club. It is a set of working assets and relationship habits you can keep improving after the cohort.
Opportunity thesis
The role or problem you are pursuing, why your background can fit it, and what evidence is still missing.
Inspectable proof
A stronger project, case study, portfolio narrative, or technical artifact that makes your contribution visible.
Career narrative
A direct explanation of what you can do now, what you are learning, and the work you want to take on next.
Relationship system
A practical list of people and communities, plus better ways to ask, contribute, follow up, and stay useful.
A small working network
Career change improves when several kinds of experience meet.
Change direction with evidence.
Bring a real project and career question. Leave with stronger proof, sharper positioning, and a plan for the conversations that should happen next.
Apply as a fellowMake experience transferable.
Contribute one focused review, conversation, or workshop. Help a fellow understand what teams value, where their proof is weak, and what good work looks like in practice.
Join as a mentorUnderwrite access, not influence.
Help keep future cohorts free while preserving independent selection, fellow privacy, and a firm boundary against paid access to talent.
Discuss sponsorship
Programme lead
Career guidance grounded in real technical work.
I trained at 42 Paris, worked with the 42 Network development team, and joined the founding 42 Lisboa team across internal tools, onboarding, technical-pedagogical support, and the first Piscines. I have since built products across Ethereum, Bitcoin, AI systems, and technical publishing.
I know what it is like to move between technical contexts and make unfamiliar experience legible. The fellowship turns that practice into close review, direct feedback, and a working plan for each fellow. Guest mentors contribute where their experience is genuinely relevant.
- 0142 Paris training
- 0242 Network development
- 03Founding 42 Lisboa team
- 04Products across crypto, AI, and publishing
42 Fellowship is created and operated independently by David Dacruz. It is not operated, endorsed, or selected by 42 Lisboa, 42 Porto, or the 42 Network. It provides no influence over admissions, evaluations, employment, or access to private school material.
Practical questions
Before you apply.
Does the fellowship cost anything?
No. The pilot is free for the eight selected fellows. There is no application fee, tuition charge, or paid continuation requirement.
Who should apply?
The pilot is for 42 students, self-taught developers, early-career engineers, and technical career changers who can already build something but need to connect that ability to a credible role, stronger public evidence, and better professional conversations.
Is this only for 42 students?
No. David’s experience inside 42 informs the programme, but the fellowship is independent and open to people learning or building through other routes.
Does acceptance guarantee a job or introduction?
No. The fellowship does not guarantee employment, admissions, investment, or introductions. It helps you improve the work, evidence, positioning, and relationship habits that make an opportunity easier to discuss. Relevant introductions may happen only when there is a real fit and both people agree.
How much time should a fellow reserve?
Plan for one live session and at least two focused hours of independent work each week for eight weeks. You will use that time on a real project, portfolio asset, opportunity search, or career decision—not simulated busywork.
Can I join as a mentor or sponsor?
Yes. Mentors can contribute a focused session, feedback, or relevant experience. Sponsors can help keep future cohorts free without buying access to fellows or influencing selection.
Eight places · No tuition
Make the next role easier to believe.
Apply with a real project, a career direction you want to test, and enough time to work consistently for eight weeks. The story does not need to be polished; the commitment needs to be real.
Apply for the free pilot