How Zachary left an uninspiring career in sales and became a software developer
Zachary found himself in a career cul-du-sac – unfulfilled and unmotivated to continue on in sales and project management where he had been bouncing around since getting out of the military. It was a simple TikTok video that finally tipped him in the right direction: a trucker was talking about how he left the road to become a software developer. That was all Zachary needed to take that initial step. Then began his search for the perfect coding bootcamp.
Scrolling through VET TEC’s preferred providers list, he soon came upon Sabio. “ [I] liked what I saw, liked the reviews that I could see online and then committed. I'm pretty happy with the results.”
The way Sabio structures the course work and curriculum is what really prepped Zachary for the job he has now. “Something that Sabio instilled in you is the ability to be resourceful, the ability for you to figure things out on your own as a developer because when you get a job, it's something that you need to be able to do.”
Getting through the interview stage required some improvisation though. As Zachary will admit, he was far-off from having the “book definition” of every term and technique memorized. When asked what a singleton is, Zachary was up-front about not knowing exactly what it was but decided to plow forth with how he had used it in his cohort. “I'm like, Well, I know when I need to add it to the singleton. I need to, you know, put these services…in this file or else it doesn't work. I don't know exactly the specifics. But you know, this is what I use it for.”This answer satisfied the interviewer and Zachary ultimately made it through all the rounds.
When beginning the job, his employer was explicit with him from the get-go as far as what he wanted from him. “[My manager] said, I don't care if you know TypeScript or Python. He's like, I can teach you the syntax. I need people who can think a certain way.” According to Zachary, he feels like he’s at Sabio all over again. He’s constantly learning, he’s “watching YouTube videos, reading documentation…”
The full-transparency, admit-your-greenness approach worked for Zachary but he doesn’t forget that it was Sabio that prepped him for this way of doing things. It’s part of the bootcamp’s “design” to facilitate a self-teaching environment. The workplace is an ever-changing animal and the ability to adapt is crucial for any software developer at any stage in their career. “Sabio has given me the skills to be able to take on additional languages that I didn't know and still, you know, be performing at a satisfactory level without having any sort of computer science degree or anything else.”
As Zachary explains, there’s tons of opportunities out there and the key is to position yourself correctly to take advantage of them. His bottom line when applying for jobs – don’t sell yourself as a student, because “students always make less money…You're not a student. You are a junior developer if anything. But you know, you're still a developer.”
Zachary was hired by: 