Andrew Rodriguez Betancourt has felt the rising pains of beginning over—a number of instances over.
Initially from Venezuela, Andrew was pursuing a level in Engineering there when civil unrest within the nation compelled him to affix his mother in Florida. He quickly found his credit wouldn’t switch within the U.S., so he needed to restart his school training from scratch, taking fundamental requirement courses at an Orlando neighborhood school whereas working as a server and bartender. His eventual purpose was to switch to the College of Central Florida (UCF) and rekindle his unique main. However then COVID hit, he was let go from his job, and Andrew discovered himself set again as soon as once more.
“I used to be positively annoyed, as a result of it was going to take me that for much longer to be financially prepared for a bachelor’s at UCF,” he says. “At that time, I needed a sooner strategy to get began on that STEM profession I had been chasing for years.”
In exploring his subsequent steps, Andrew found the UCF Coding Boot Camp. This system’s intensive full-time, four-month cohort possibility appealed to him, as did the notion of attending a boot camp from a college he trusted and deliberate to enroll in for his undergraduate diploma. Again in Venezuela, he had taught himself fundamental web site design for numerous freelance initiatives. However he knew the boot camp may give him deeper publicity to each front-end and back-end programming abilities, protecting his profession prospects as versatile as potential.
“The boot camp felt like my finest subsequent transfer, as a result of it promised to show me a ton of various applied sciences,” he says. “Plus, it was nice cost-wise, it could assist me construct up my abilities faster, and it was on-line so I may hopefully preserve working someplace.”
Although the pandemic stored Andrew from discovering new employment immediately, the additional time at dwelling enabled him to focus all of his energies on the boot camp and in the end obtain the outcomes he hoped for.
Instructing Himself The best way to Be taught One thing New
“Almost each single factor I discovered within the boot camp has transferred to the roles I acquired after finishing it,” says Andrew, reflecting on his cohort expertise. “The curriculum helps you see how one programming language connects to others in an effort to decide them up sooner every time. With different courses I’ve taken, the applied sciences they educate are barely getting used anymore. However the boot camp offers you the day-to-day fundamentals you’ll use in an actual job at this time. And it opens your thoughts to have the ability to educate your self learn how to study one thing new.”
Past praising the curriculum that focuses on related, real-world abilities, Andrew additionally compliments his teacher. “He had numerous power and his character was nice,” Andrew says. “He knew we had been studying some fairly heavy ideas, so he all the time made positive we had been having enjoyable alongside the way in which. For one group project, he allow us to create no matter form of app we needed. My staff developed a meals and wine pairing instrument. The initiatives acquired us excited to work collectively and apply what we discovered.”
For Andrew, one of many boot camp’s most impactful points was its expansive Profession Engagement Community. He appreciated how a lot time his profession advisor spent serving to him grow to be “not simply employer prepared however employer aggressive.”
“He gave me steering on my resume and canopy letter, directed me to a bunch of free profession webinars, and gave me numerous ideas for making use of to jobs,” Andrew remembers. “After interviews, we’d discuss via what I did proper and what I may’ve achieved higher. He additionally inspired me to start out a brand new mission proper after the boot camp, so I may preserve my abilities recent. That was invaluable recommendation.”
Upon graduating, Andrew advisable the boot camp to one among his associates, who wound up as obsessed with this system as he was. He was additionally invited to a webinar of his personal to supply inspiration to different boot camp learners.
“I flat-out informed different college students that in case you’re not using the profession companies, you’re not doing the complete boot camp,” he says.
Regular Employment and a Bachelor’s Program at Final
Quickly after the boot camp, Andrew landed a distant part-time contract as an internet site coordinator for a nonprofit in St. Louis. “They had been constructing farmers’ markets to assist small companies within the space,” he says. “They appreciated my boot camp portfolio, so that they employed me to design a brand new web site for his or her mission. Then they utterly rebranded, so I constructed one other 4 websites. It was nice expertise and I used to be serving to folks, which actually fueled my ardour. I nonetheless do work for them occasionally.”
With the soundness of a brand new job, Andrew was lastly capable of switch to UCF and start taking courses towards a Pc Science diploma. He discovered that the boot camp supplied advantages for his new studying journey, too.
“Having that prior information has helped me tremendously with my bachelor’s,” he explains. “Like, I’m taking an object-oriented class proper now, which is mainly Java with Bootstrap. I see different college students struggling, however I can deal with it. The boot camp offers you confidence in your skills, which spills into different areas of your life. Final 12 months, my spouse and I purchased a faculty bus and turned it into an RV (see images under). Neither of us had prior expertise in constructing something however I used to be like, ‘We are able to completely do that!’”
And the success stored coming. A 12 months into his work with the nonprofit, Andrew landed one other distant job—this time as a full-time software program engineer for a payroll companies firm in Winter Park, Florida.
“They employed me for my full-stack abilities but in addition needed to coach me on particular software program they’ve, which is a database program that makes use of SQL closely and likewise some Java,” he explains. “The work I do now entails taxes and deductions and strikes sooner each day—however I’m maintaining, making good cash, and persevering with to make use of the talents I discovered within the boot camp.”
The Confidence—and Expertise—to Dream Even Greater
Down the highway short-term, Andrew likes the concept of working for a advertising company, the place he may focus extra on interactive web site design and join with quite a lot of shoppers. “I’d like to design for, like, a soccer staff in the future and a cool clothes model the subsequent,” he muses. “However severely, I believe difficult myself with completely different initiatives makes me an much more succesful and marketable particular person.”
Extra long-term, Andrew envisions a profession in tech mission administration or consulting. “I need to be a key a part of these strategic discussions,” he says. “The academic {and professional} expertise I’ve gained from the boot camp has opened up lots of alternatives that may flip into management positions sometime. Within the meantime, I simply preserve telling folks that if you wish to make a optimistic change in your life, a boot camp is likely one of the finest methods to do it.”
