By the time we are 18, most of us are pressured to pick The One Career.
But leading up to that, we sit at desks for 12+ years, do homework assignments, fill our schedules, and we don’t get much time, space, or choice to figure out what we WANT to learn and do.
So that big career decision? It might not be well-informed.
No wonder as adults, 70% of us hate our jobs!
Something’s off here….
And as she was finishing her college degree in 2019, Taylor Curran started to smell it. She had picked a major of industrial distribution and focused on that for 4 years.
“Towards the end of my college career, I didn’t have a great GPA. My prospects weren’t super great….[and] the more I learned about my industry as I had gone through my degree, the more I realized it wasn’t the industry I wanted to end up in.”
Unfortunately, that K-12-college conveyor belt system hadn’t ideally served her career.
Fortunately, Taylor still found herself in what I call The-Era-of-the-Amusement Park. The amusement park of the world wide web, where learning and choices abound!
For Taylor, she chose to hop on the ride known as BloomTech, a career launch program to launch into tech jobs with a promise to get hired, at a 110% guarantee.
“I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of it.” But after going to tech conferences and talking to companies, she realized they wanted skills, not necessarily a traditional degree.
With BloomTech, you can break into tech with a world-class, proven support system. No tuition until you’re hired (terms apply) Start a risk-free 3-week trial now.
Moving Into Data Science
So Taylor took the leap and while finishing her degree, enrolled at BloomTech and the Data Science course, realizing it was an emerging and highly relevant field.
But wait, what IS data science?
Taylor says, “increasingly there is technology that is producing more data. So data science is basically thinking about how we build systems that allow organizations to extract value from that data. So that could be anything from an analyst that’s looking at spreadsheets, visualizations and dashboards, it could be someone who is building machine learning models and AI, or it could be someone building infrastructure. But it’s about extracting value from data.”
Now was it intimidating for Taylor to jump into this brand new world?
“It really was,” she said. “I remember thinking this is harder than learning a human language…..but I found that BloomTech gave me the space to go at my own pace. They treated me as an adult. They were like ‘we trust you to be invested here.'”
Her course could be confusing at times. But instructors would assure her, “the confusion is your job security.” Meaning, being willing to lean in and embrace the challenge of not knowing is a mindset employers really value!
The Misconception about Coding
Many people assume coding is for the introverted-lone-wolf who never wants to talk to people.
But it’s actually very social.
You need to constantly be “pair-programming,” meaning while on the job you’re hopping onto a call and trying to figure out a problem with the other person’s help.
“When I was doing my technical interview [for the company] where I got my first job, they said, ‘you didn’t know a lot of the stuff, but we could tell you had a lot of experience pair-programming.”
In other words, Taylor’s soft skills of growth mindset, collaboration, and adaptability were essential in landing her the role, even more so than her coding skills, or her ability to sit in a room by herself. ; )
Related: BloomTech CEO Austen Allred on Breaking Into Tech
• By Career HackersWhat It’s Like To Start at BloomTech
At BloomTech you can hop in with a risk-free 3 week trial, which means not only starting a course but interacting with instructors and the community.
“The instructors are great. They’re very practical minded….and able to get you very relevant information,” says Taylor.
“The camaraderie among students is a big factor. I honestly think that’s one of the main reasons in deciding to invest in a coding bootcamp rather than learning on my own.”
So take that action bias, yeah? Give it a try. As Michael Jordan said, it’s better to try and fail than to fail to try. ; )
And know that with BloomTech, you can break into tech with a world-class, proven support system.
- No tuition until you’re hired (terms apply)
- Personalized platform to track your progress and know exactly what to do next
- Gain the skills employers want—no fluff
- Build your portfolio with real projects for real clients
- Take a test drive with a 3-week free trial
Landing the Job and Connecting with Alumni
Taylor thrived in the Data Science course, yet she also excelled in landing the job, and connecting to a high-value BloomTech alumni base.
“There’s a lot of support,” she said.
Even if you think you haven’t learned enough skills yet to be ready for that first job, you’ll be assured that that self-doubt isn’t true, because you do have enough skills!
“When you hit the [job search] phase, you reluctantly say ‘I feel like I know enough [about coding] to job search!’ And then Rachel Cohen [Director of Career Coaching] tells you ‘yes, you know enough.'”
But the cheerleading didn’t stop there for Taylor.
“Rachel put me in contact with a few alumni and I became close with one of them in particular, who helped me land my current job.”
Watch this playlist to hear from more BloomTech grads.
With BloomTech, you can break into tech with a world-class, proven support system. No tuition until you’re hired (terms apply) Start a risk-free 3-week trial now.
