Alumni Spotlights

After a decade working in travel & tourism, the COVID pandemic sparked Amy to rethink her future. Between her longtime interest in tech and a friend who recommended a bootcamp, Amy considered her options to learn coding and enrolled in The Jump’s Part-Time, Full Stack Bootcamp. Equip...

Daniel Aguirre was working construction in 2021 and decided it was time to focus on making a career out of coding. Daniel enrolled at TrueCoders because of its solid coding foundation, dedicated instructors, flexible scheduling, and committed career coach. Daniel graduated from the online bootcamp and landed a...

As an English professor, Michael Robinson wasn’t sure if he could ever pivot into a STEM career. The COVID lockdown offered Michael the opportunity to explore his career options and expand on latent tech interests he had his whole life. He found a new calling in software development after attending...

Chloe Condon worked as an office manager to support her career as an actress before choosing Hackbright Academy in 2016. Five years later, we’re visiting with Chloe to talk about the impressive career she’s built as a developer evangelist and an advocate for bootcamp graduates. Learn about the pr...

Dominica’s love for tech, plus some major life changes like a divorce and a pandemic, ushered her out of a career as a tour guide and into a data analytics career. Needing to refresh her tech skills, she chose Berkeley Boot Camps, offered in collaboration with edX, to catalyze her pivot back into tech. S...

Shantal wasn’t satisfied with her career trajectory in finance and wanted a creative job that offered career growth. She enrolled at Tech Elevator to get the technical-skills foundation and support she needed to make a career change. Having attended the bootcamp both in person at...

In 2020, J. Michael Cahal was burnt out from his career as a high school music teacher and needed a change. Knowing he could make more money as a developer in Atlanta, he took his longtime interest in tech to a new level by enrolling at Springboard. Michael described what it was like to take a self-paced intensive program online while still working full-time, and how crucial...

Tired of working laborious, blue-collar jobs, Berlys was ready to make a change into a stable yet exciting tech career. Berlys chose Penn LPS Boot Camps, offered in collaboration with edX, to give her the real world experience she needed to launch a career and a prestigious name on her resume. Berlys built her portfolio throughou...

Michael Gates had always wanted to work in cybersecurity, but he found that companies were looking for specific cybersecurity certifications on his resumé. Thanks to his veteran’s benefits, Michael was able to enroll at Eleven Fifty Academy without any out-of-pocket tuition! And after training for three months...

Editor’s note: General Assembly stopped accepting new consumer enrollments on April 28, 2026. This article describes programs and experiences from before that change. Read General Assembly’s official notice. Jack had a proven track record and passion for finding customer solutions, but he lacked formal product management training....

When software engineer Minchan immigrated to the United States, he enlisted in the US Army and spent four years working in logistics and software management. After leaving the service, he realized he needed an immersive bootcamp like Codesmith to ratchet up his software engineering career. Here’s how the supp...

Austin was interested in computer science but working as a security officer. At Thinkful’s Software Engineering Bootcamp, Austin says he “found his people,” and expanding his network helped him land his first job at Xima! Learn how Thinkful’s Income Share Agreement and Living Stipend made the immersive bootca...

Lavender Zhang was a student at Flatiron School’s part-time Data Science bootcamp and ready to build her Capstone Project. Empty shelves at her local grocery store at the start of the pandemic inspired Lavender to build a dashboard that could predict food crisis levels and infrastructure needs. Lavender walks us through her final project, explaining where...

Jonah Gerstel worked in chemical and process engineering for four years before a data project on the job blossomed into a passion for data science. Wanting to expand his knowledge, Jonah’s research on the best data science bootcamps pointed him to NYC Data Science Academy. Jonah explains how the comprehensive curriculum, instructor support, and career service...

When Judy Thao hit a ceiling as a dental hygienist, she began looking for a new career path with more opportunity. By enrolling at the Software Guild, Judy got the foundations and real-world project experience she needed to launch a career in full stack development. Now four years into a successful tech career, Judy walks us throu...

For years, Debora dreamed of being a digital nomad working in web development. The shutdown caused by the pandemic gave her the time and space to commit to making her career change from IT to web development. Debora was able to learn from her home in London by attending...

Mike was working on a fishing boat in Alaska when he realized he needed to dive deeper into his passion for data analytics. As a UT Austin alum, Mike was excited to enroll in The Data Analysis and Visualization Boot Camp at Texas McCombs, offered in collaboration with edX, to make a career change into data. With the boot camp’s real world projects and dedicated career support, Mike landed his fi...

Recent college graduate Nathan Nunez found himself underpaid and overworked in sports broadcasting. Nathan enrolled at Coding Temple because he was impressed by their 99% job placement rate and commitment to their alumni. Nathan shares how...

Gavin Acquroff had a degree in electrical engineering, but a work assignment in low level C programming inspired him to pursue web development. Although he had taken a few computer science courses and was doing his own self-teaching, Gavin knew he needed mentorship and community support to level up his career to full stack web development. Gavin shares how Lighthouse Labs’ modern, full stack cur...

Frank was burned out from working in architectural design, and was looking for a more stable career. He was a total cybersecurity beginner before Level Effect’s Cyber Defense Analyst Bootcamp, but was able to quickly reskill and land his first cybersecurity role at Tevora. Learn what stood out to Frank about <...