The economy isn’t in the greatest place right now. Growth is poor, unemployment is rising even from its 11-year high of 29.1%, and the manufacturing index is down by 6.4 points – a drop that has only worsened from its lows since June last year. All this uncertainty is what led Franco Groenewald, a 41-year-old from Pretoria who worked as a manager at a manufacturing company, to ensure that his future and career had flexibility through learning Software Developer skills.
For Franco, the path to a more certain future lay in computer programming, and a HyperionDev Software Engineer bootcamp.
“I used to be a manufacturing manager, but I knew I wanted to change careers from manufacturing to coding. Now, I am a web app developer. The bootcamp gave me the basic skills I needed to be able to land a junior position as a software developer.”
Work. Play. Code.
Franco signed up for an online bootcamp, which he completed part-time so that he could balance his upskilling with his need to earn a living. This flexible program fit into his lifestyle very well, allowing him to garner a wide range of crucial skills in Java and other frameworks at a pace that suited his needs.
“I had more than enough time to be able to do my bootcamp and work. The bootcamp was really good, and the code reviewing process was great because it showed me alternative ways of solving programming challenges, and helped me to know I was on the right track to the correct solution.”
This combination of hard work, and the right kind of skills helped Franco to land his first job as a Junior Software Developer at Software Worx, a software development firm that creates all kinds of programs for clients across the world. His current responsibilities include web application development, a role that relies on the Java skill set he practiced at his HyperionDev bootcamp.
There simply isn’t a better time than right now to start learning the fundamentals that could land you a job with more mobility, pay, and freedom of choice. What’s more, the tech industry isn’t plagued by doom and gloom, with lots of opportunity for growth: a report by IT market research firm Intrado found that over 13,000 IT companies and over 3,000 electronics companies operate in South Africa. This, in an industry that is among the fastest growing in the world, and an even larger contributor to South Africa’s GDP than agriculture.
And that’s just at home: in the US, seven of the Top Ten best careers are tech-related. Long story short, getting skills in technology and computer programming is a surefire way to secure your work possibilities no matter where you are.
So what’s Franco’s advice for those who are thinking about making the switch to a new career like he did becoming a software developer?
“See if you enjoy it. Do as much of the course as possible and work hard.”
You can try the bootcamps for yourself with our free trials, which give you a solid foundation to understanding the key tenets and beginner need-to-knows of Full Stack Web Development, Data Science, or Software Engineering. This free trial has everything you need to get started in coding – or even start making your own basic programs and games.
