HyperionDev graduate Lerato Mokgwabona was in her fourth year of studying architecture when she decided she wanted to follow a different career path – one that involved programming. She didn’t waste another minute and instead enrolled to do our Full Stack Web Developer bootcamp online, full-time.
Her motivation sprung from wanting to be part of the digital nomad workforce and her inherent love of solving problems, coding, design, and art. This made migrating to the world of front-end web development an easy and natural step.
Today she’s thriving as a front-end engineer at a leading IT services company. Here’s her journey to doing what she loves most.
From designing houses to designing websites
Once Lerato discovered the world of technology and saw just how broad it is, she began seeing new opportunities that intrigued her hugely. She was especially drawn to UX and UI design roles, but the more she learned, the more she realised that she would have to master the technical fundamentals before getting to the creative part.
Our bootcamp courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, MongoDB, Express, and React enabled her to do that. In just three months, she went from being a novice to understanding both front-end and back-end web development and being able to build dynamic data-driven web applications. But there’s more to it. Lerato says:
“Learning how to programme improved my problem-solving skills. I’m now less afraid of tackling challenges that might seem too big for me.”
More than just code
During our bootcamps, students are set on a sharp learning curve to master the fine art of coding in pursuit of their respective careers. During her studies, Lerato found the enthusiastic student support on HyperionDev’s Discord channels extremely helpful when confronted with what seemed like insurmountable coding problems.
She is especially grateful to her mentor, who coached her and encouraged her to stay positive while job hunting. Our career services team also prepared her for interviews and helped her create an impressive LinkedIn profile. Lerato says:
“I was advised on how to use Linkedin effectively to attract recruiters, and I was able to land my first tech role through the social media platform.”
Life after the bootcamp
Lerato landed a job in tech as a Microsoft EEIP AppFactory Intern for a debt collection company. Here she worked with the ASP.NET tech stacks for mobile and web applications while also being involved with website design. At the end of her internship, she was offered a hybrid full stack designer role where she could use some of the tech stacks she learned in her bootcamp.
Lerato currently works for Verify Dynamics, a company involved in the information technology and services industry. She has a hybrid role, responsible for UI design and building the front end for web applications. When it comes to design, she prefers Figma, a collaborative web application used in interface design.
Keep on coding
Lerato hopes to one day run her own start-up where she can build virtual platforms that are accessible to everyone; platforms built with the user in mind and that meet their needs. She urges those interested in tech not to base the decision on what they could earn but on how they can use code as a catalyst to reach their career goals and do work that they enjoy.
She warns about stagnation, urging other young coders to continuously network and get involved in side projects, such as building demo web applications.
When asked how code can change the world, she said:
“I hope code doesn’t cause us to neglect the real world but improve the way we live in the real world. I believe tech could achieve that if money isn’t the driving factor but solving people’s needs is.”
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Follow Lerato’s exciting career in tech on her Github portfolio. If you’re inspired by her story and feel ready to embark on your own journey toward a fulfilling career in the tech industry, consider registering with HyperionDev here.
Who knows, your success story may be next.
