Regardless of the time served, a single tour, or an entire career of twenty years. Each service member must leave the military, and in most cases, this involves re-entering the civilian workplace, regardless of circumstances changing jobs can be challenging for anyone.
I served as Infantryman at Fort Campbell, KY, for four years with a lifelong fascination with computers, technology, and motorsports. I had a strong desire to enter the technology career field, however, with no specific plan of how. For several months after leaving college, I attempted to teach myself how to program using various open-source materials such found online with little success. Luckily, I discovered Vets Who Code through and its founder, Jerome Hardaway, while listening to a podcast hosted by Scott Hanselman. Shortly after that, I applied to the Vets Who Code program, and I quickly found a community of individuals who all had experienced the uncertainty of leaving the military as I had.
These individuals were eager to mentor me and guide my learning towards the goal of becoming a software developer. With a large number of languages, platforms, frameworks present in the modern software field, a newbie can become quickly lost in a mess. With Vet Who Code’s supportive and knowledgeable network of developers, I was able to obtain the necessary skills, be held accountable to industry standards, and received guidance on how to build a portfolio to start building a new career.
With the skills I obtained through Vets Who Code, I recently successfully interviewed with a software company in Nashville, TN and was offered a position as a front end developer under the Department of Defense career skills program. I plan on taking this opportunity to launch my career into software development full-time, also with aspirations to study computer science at the graduate level. I owe so much of my preparation for this opportunity on the numerous mentors I’ve met through Vets Who Code.
My best advice for new developers, if getting into tech, is your goal for 2020 is to get involved with the developer community and find a mentor. Whether in person or online, at your local code meet up, the comments section of Dev To, or even a subreddit. There are plenty of amazing people willing to help you along with your journey, regardless of where you are starting.
Moving into the future, I’m looking forward to giving back to the community that has helped me so much by being an instructor in the upcoming Vet Who Code cohort starting in March 2020. If you are a veteran or within six months of transitioning active duty service and are interested in getting into tech, we would love to help you! Find out more information in the link below. Thanks for reading and happy coding in 2020!
Top comments (1)
You're the second veteran in the area that has worked with us but the first one to stay in the area. good job