I recently graduated from Georgia State and for the past year I’ve been doing a little of everything. When I look back at the path I’ve been on this year, I’m surprised how I ended up at this point. Honestly, it’s amazing! For the past four weeks I’ve been learning so much more than I would ever be able to teach myself. Not only that, I’ve been able to visit great places to work. It’s reassuring that while I’m taking these courses, I’m also able to see where I can go and use what I’ve learned so far. I’ve met awesome people, and heard from successful startups on how to get going in this career. So how did I get here?

Well at the start of the year, the hunt began. Recent grad = resumes + long days + Indeed + emails + no answers. I remember before all this happened, I kept telling myself that, “I need to learn some coding.” I need to learn some coding. I need to learn some coding — but I kept pushing it off. I found that coming at it completely new is a bit overwhelming because there is just too much. Regardless, when it came to the hunt I began to see how it affected me. Every “dream” job I found required some type of coding. I could do half of what they required, but who wants to hire a guy that can only do half of the work? I kept pushing and trying and hoping that I would get a chance to prove what I’ve got. Eventually the amount of emails got smaller. The hours hunting on Indeed got shorter. Soon enough not much was happening. I eventually took a job with a family friend in construction. The pay was good and the crew was awesome, but I kept thinking to myself, “I want more out of life than this.”

So the days passed on, and the thought of learning to code kept coming back. Meanwhile, I took some small design jobs here and there so that I wouldn’t get rusty with my mad skills. Still, I wanted a better opportunity and a better path. Then one day while hanging out with my bros, one of them began to mention coding boot camps and the opportunities within the tech industry. If you made it this far, then you probably guessed that I was instantly hooked on the idea and began researching different courses in Atlanta and other cities. This is where Tech Talent South comes in.

After a couple of months of research I decided that TTS was a good choice. I signed up (last minute to be honest), and now after four weeks I’m very glad I did. The people here are down to earth and great to hang out with. Although at times I feel like I’m in way over my head, having a group of people that come from different backgrounds and share a similar goal of finding a better opportunity helps. We’ve gone through HTML, CSS, Ruby, and currently we’re on Ruby on Rails.

So yeah, I’m at a high point. Learning to code, meeting great people, and visiting awesome places — what more can I ask for? I’m excited about what the next four weeks will bring and what may come after TTS.