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 hitch 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 group school whereas working as a server and bartender. His eventual objective was to switch to the College of Central Florida (UCF) and rekindle his authentic 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 undoubtedly pissed off, 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 wished 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 choice 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 tasks. However he knew the boot camp might give him deeper publicity to each front-end and back-end programming expertise, preserving his profession prospects as versatile as attainable.
“The boot camp felt like my greatest 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 will assist me construct up my expertise faster, and it was on-line so I might hopefully maintain working someplace.”
Although the pandemic stored Andrew from discovering new employment instantly, the additional time at house enabled him to focus all of his energies on the boot camp and finally obtain the outcomes he hoped for.
Educating Himself The right way to Study One thing New
“Practically each single factor I realized within the boot camp has transferred to the roles I received after finishing it,” says Andrew, reflecting on his cohort expertise. “The curriculum helps you see how one programming language connects to others with the intention 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 in the present day. And it opens your thoughts to have the ability to educate your self how one can study one thing new.”
Past praising the curriculum that focuses on related, real-world expertise, Andrew additionally compliments his teacher. “He had a number of power and his character was nice,” Andrew says. “He knew we had been studying some fairly heavy ideas, so he at all times 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 wished. My workforce developed a meals and wine pairing device. The tasks received us excited to work collectively and apply what we realized.”
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 develop into “not simply employer prepared however employer aggressive.”
“He gave me steerage on my resume and canopy letter, directed me to a bunch of free profession webinars, and gave me a number of ideas for making use of to jobs,” Andrew recollects. “After interviews, we’d speak by way of what I did proper and what I might’ve accomplished higher. He additionally inspired me to start out a brand new challenge proper after the boot camp, so I might maintain my expertise contemporary. That was invaluable recommendation.”
Upon graduating, Andrew beneficial the boot camp to certainly one of his mates, who wound up as passionate about 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 a web site coordinator for a nonprofit in St. Louis. “They had been constructing farmers’ markets to assist small companies within the space,” he says. “They preferred my boot camp portfolio, so that they employed me to design a brand new web site for his or her challenge. Then they fully rebranded, so I constructed one other 4 websites. It was nice expertise and I used to be serving to individuals, which actually fueled my ardour. I nonetheless do work for them once in a while.”
With the steadiness of a brand new job, Andrew was lastly in a position to switch to UCF and start taking courses towards a Laptop Science diploma. He discovered that the boot camp provided 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 principally Java with Bootstrap. I see different college students struggling, however I can deal with it. The boot camp offers you confidence in your talents, 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 beneath). Neither of us had prior expertise in constructing something however I used to be like, ‘We will 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 expertise but in addition wished to coach me on particular software program they’ve, which is a database program that makes use of SQL closely and in addition some Java,” he explains. “The work I do now entails taxes and deductions and strikes sooner day by day—however I’m maintaining, making good cash, and persevering with to make use of the talents I realized within the boot camp.”
The Confidence—and Abilities—to Dream Even Larger
Down the street short-term, Andrew likes the thought of working for a advertising company, the place he might focus extra on interactive web site design and join with a wide range of purchasers. “I’d like to design for, like, a soccer workforce someday and a cool clothes model the following,” he muses. “However significantly, I believe difficult myself with totally different tasks makes me an much more succesful and marketable individual.”
Extra long-term, Andrew envisions a profession in tech challenge administration or consulting. “I need to be a key a part of these strategic discussions,” he says. “The tutorial {and professional} expertise I’ve gained from the boot camp has opened up a whole lot of alternatives that may flip into management positions sometime. Within the meantime, I simply maintain telling folks that if you wish to make a constructive change in your life, a boot camp is likely one of the greatest methods to do it.”
