Tackling Experience Barriers with Ambition

Coming out of college, Christian couldn’t wait to start his career in software development. With a degree in computer science and two years of software dev experience, he thought he had done everything to land a job right out of college.

However, he found it hard to break into the tech industry.

‍”It [the job market] was hard to get into. Simply put, there were a lot of companies that needed a lot of experience, more than just two years. People were asking for five years for entry-level experience. And coming out of college, you may only get a year or two years in an internship, so there’s a gap between what you have coming out of college and what many enterprises and big companies are asking for.”

Rather than get dejected, Christian knew he just needed an opportunity to showcase his talents and aptitude. That’s when he came across Revature. ”I feel like Revature can really bridge that gap,” Rondon said. ”They teach you very detailed lessons in different technologies, and you can hit the ground running after the training program.”

How Revature Helped Christian Rise Above

‍As one of the largest employers of entry-level technology professionals in the United States, Revature provides paid 10-12-week training and a two-year contract for people like Christian who have the aptitude for learning but need an opportunity to join the workforce.

In addition to Christian’s background in Java, Revature sought to expand his skill set and make him more marketable by teaching him Salesforce. ”I was apprehensive at first. However, after researching Salesforce and seeing that it’s becoming a leading customer resource management tool (CRM) in the industry, it made it easy to buy into it.”

The Path to New Beginnings

Although it typically takes an extended period to learn new technologies, Revature accelerates the learning curve through an interactive curriculum that emphasizes learning by doing while also focusing on communication and soft skills. With an average class size of approximately 20 people and continuous progress updates, Revature prepares its employees to produce on day one.”

The training is amazing,” Rondon said. ”They [Revature] teach you detailed lessons in different technologies, and you can hit the ground running after the training program. They emphasize being detail-oriented and teach soft skills, which is quite challenging coming out of college. You know how to do this stuff, but you don’t know how to explain it, and in interviews, that’s the tricky part – being able to elaborate and show that you know what you’re talking about.”

‍Shortly after this interview, Christian completed his training and worked on-site at a Fortune 500 global systems integrator. When asked to look back and what advice he might give himself before joining Revature, he said, ”Go at it with an open mind. Make sure that I’m ready to go every day because it’s an intense program requiring some brain power and thought. Make sure you come prepared. It’s serious business here, but it’s all for the better – for your career.”