(Interviewed and written by Akiko Iwai)
—— Introduce yourself to the Zuitt Community.
I’m Albert, a graduate of Zuitt’s Batch 421, and right now I’m currently working as a front-end developer. I never planned to end up in web development. At first, I neither hated or liked coding. I studied computer engineer for the sake of its flexibility. After I applied to a job that wasn’t related to web development which was hardware electrical, I stayed there for 1 and a half years. After some time, I got curious because a lot of people were saying that the salary was much higher in coding. The industry was okay too in terms of web development since during covid, tech was really booming. That’s when I became curious on how websites were actually made.
—— Did you have any doubts before enrolling?
I actually did self-studying. HTML, CSS, the basics.
Our company at the time needed to layoff some employees. I ended up taking that out since during that time, I wanted to try to shift into tech. Around January, that’s when I started studying full-time. It took me a while around February, when I found Zuitt. Initially, I had doubts. I’ve already attended a lot of short course bootcamps. I checked out Zuitt’s website and considered it for a while. The package was really great and when I compared Zuitt to other programs, the service to price ratio was something I found great. The other bootcamps can guide you all the way towards the end until you can graduate but after you graduate, the program has less communication. Unlike Zuitt’s commitment with their post-graduates.
From there, I really thought hard to myself if I should take the opportunity or not, and luckily, I took that chance since I never regret it.
—— What were your expectations prior to joining the program?
During that time, I had some savings from my previous work, so money wasn’t the problem. What I had in my mind is if what I paid for would have been worth it. The money that I had wasn’t infinite, it was savings. When it comes to savings, I really need to think hard on where to spend it. That’s why I really made an effort to compare curriculums. I chose the upfront payment for me since I’m more inclined to keep worrying about future installments which is beneficial for me in the end since I got to save up a lot because of the discounts.
I didn’t join the program with zero knowledge. I had some ideas since I did self-studying when it comes to HTML & CSS but I couldn’t say that I really had everything figured out especially when I was heading into Zuitt’s program. When it comes to self-studying, there can be an issue with slow pacing. There’s a lot of learning materials online. You could easily search up what path you want to take to learn certain topics you’d want. But it really is easier if there was a person that was able to bring you to the right learning path. Someone who can tell you what you should do, give advice, etc. and that was what Zuitt was able to give me.
—— What’s the best thing about Zuitt’s program?
In a learning program, the pacing is much faster. I like it a lot even if the schedule can be a bit compact, but the lessons are provided to you step-by-step, so you get to learn. Especially if you give the time and effort to learn the lessons. I’m the type of person who takes extra hours just to learn more so at the end of the day, it’ll all makes sense to me. You’ll get to learn more and more each passing day. During the lessons all the questions that I have gets simplified if I compare it to the time when I was learning by self-studying. I had many questions on “Why is it like this?” or “What should I do in this kind of situation?“. In Zuitt, those types of questions get to be clarified for me. The parts that are slightly difficult or too technical get to be simplified.
Beginner friendly is what I would explain it. I’d call myself a beginner before. I didn’t know about any frameworks or stuff like front-end and back-end before. When I got into the program, that’s only when those terms got explained to me.
—— How was your career search experience?
Honestly, it’s not that easy. I already tried applying before I joined the program. If I didn’t have the program, I wouldn’t have been able to be where I am now. I’m not in the same playing field as fresh graduates and it was Zuitt who got me to be there. During the time I was applying before, it was difficult. I rarely got any callbacks or interviews. After the program, that’s when I realized that the techstacks that I had knowledge of was severely lacking. I got a clearer idea of myself and lost that feeling of imposter syndrome. I got given confidence.
I never stopped looking for a job after I graduated. My process while looking for a job, I would submit in the mornings and then I’d submit at night. I would apply everything I learned from Zuitt and kept advancing my knowledge. At the same time, if there were any short courses available in their curriculum, I would apply for those too. That was one of the things in that helped me a ton.
After I graduated from Zuitt, I already have the fundamentals in my skillset. Learning different technologies became easier for me after that unlike the time when I was self-studying where my pacing was really slow. I’d say before, it takes me two weeks to learn a simple library of something. That’s just an estimation of my learning time during my self-studying phase. Now, it takes me 3 to 5 days. I almost got it figured out by then and most importantly; I get to use what I learned.
—— What was your motivation throughout the challenges?
I wanted to explore my degree. The main reason why I pursued this career path is because of its flexibility. I had a hard time figuring out what I really wanted in life. At first, I was in hardware. I didn’t end up liking it since I started thinking about how I wanted to shift somewhere down the line. At that point, I thought to myself that this career wasn’t cut out for me. That’s when I went to software. That’s what built my passion today which is coding. I’m really glad that I get to code, to learn, to study, all the while my schedule has flexibility and my salary being better than before.
At first, I thought I wasn’t someone who was meant to learn but once I got into the rhythm of it, I ended up enjoying it. I didn’t even realize that I ended up taking extra hours just to learn. Even now that I have work, I still do.
—— Any advice for career shifters like you?
If this really is your passion, don’t be scared to career shift. Especially if you’re in a program like Zuitt. It’s really worth it. If you pay attention, have passion for coding, taking extra hours just to learn, then everything will pay off.
If you have a similar experience to share with our boot campers, drop us a message at marketing@zuitt.co.
