Transcript
Speaker: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of life after tech bootcamp. I hope you enjoyed last week's episode with me how he pointed out something in my opinion, that was so crucial about how your first job probably won't be the exact role that you want. It's a
Speaker: bit of a catch -22 in the sense that your initial job sets the tone for your future, but a person's past job experience often dictates where you might start in a new career. That doesn't mean that's where you'll finish, but it's truly about the journey and how you navigate it and trusting that process. And that's a really hard thing to do, trusting that career progression process.
Speaker: I know a lot of people aren't even there yet because they're trying to get their foot in the door first, which is completely understandable. How can you tour the house without getting through the front door?
Speaker: One of the ways people do that is certainly by highlighting their transferable skills to prove to hiring managers that they could perform in the types of jobs that they're applying to. But it's tricky when your skills aren't 100%, those transferable skills that everyone talks about.
Speaker: For example, when I worked in fashion, I manufactured clothing. I was able to take a sketch into a garment that you would buy online or in a store. And it's truly a process to build something, which I think is why UX came a little easier to me.
Speaker: than I expected or maybe for some others. However, I couldn't just go to hiring managers and say, well, I can develop a garment. So let me design your user interface. It's not the same thing. So I really had to prove that I could design user interfaces and relay that I was able to do so and understood the process a little bit better than most because I had already been a part of a process previously.
Speaker: We've also discussed this with Abby and her micro experiences. Timothy shared how he accentuated his skill sets on his resume and somehow shared how he leveraged his previous experience to get to where he is now.
Speaker: Springboard also places certain students into internships, which are called the Industry Design Project. But sometimes job seekers need a little more skill padding to make their case. Everyone's incredibly unique in that way. And I'm really excited to share a story that is a bit different in how that career pivot was navigated.
Speaker: And we're definitely going to learn a lot about him, but we're certainly going to touch on that topic too. So I am very excited to introduce you to Alan. Alan currently works at LifeNet in Richmond, Virginia. Through springboard, he successfully managed to pivot careers from a math tutor to now a business intelligence analyst. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, hiking, and cooking. Alan, welcome. How are you today?
Speaker: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing so well and I'm very excited to be here. Likewise, I know you were just at Rise. Yes, it was a phenomenal experience and more than anything, it brought together at least personally two years of work in the making because for the last two years, especially due to the pandemic, most of the people I've known
Speaker: literally everyone I've met through Springboard has been via Zoom and via email. And so all of this hard work and finally the career change that came as a result and meeting people who had been with me with my journey since the beginning, meeting them in person for the first time after more than two years really was a beautiful moment and to meet people
Speaker: who were in the same shoes that I was in a year ago, two years ago, is really a comforting feeling knowing that such a career transition is possible. That's amazing. And I'm sure also not only meeting everybody who helped you in person, but to think two years ago, you were in such a different place and now you were a panelist for Springboard. That had to have been a lot of feelings
Speaker: I said to be completely honest with you, I cried from happiness when I got the invitation because to know that all of this hard work, not only because of the new career itself, but also being able to tell people my story and that it is possible, you can pivot careers and to finally share my story with other people who I imagine or have been in the same shoes as me.
Speaker: was just such a beautiful, unforgettable moment. I have no words. I don't even want to add to that because that just sounds so wonderful. And how flattering is that to be asked to speak like that? Before we get into what you spoke about at Rise, let's talk about where you were before you even got involved in Springboard. Tell me a little bit about what life was like for Alan.
Speaker: I would love to. So as previously stated, I worked as a math tutor. I was a math major but I didn't really know what I wanted to do in terms of my career. So I took a couple of free coding classes here and there because I had met people who had successfully pivoted
Speaker: from undergraduate to the big data field using free resources. So I thought, oh, well, if they can do it, then I can do it myself. But I never really had anything to prove it in terms of projects, in terms of transferable skills. So then I began to look at the different boot camps and I did my research and after about a month and a half,
Speaker: of filtering and finally deciding on springboard, I began my studies with them. Fantastic. So it sounds like you, were you working or did you go into, were you looking at bootcamps right after undergrad? Ah, yes. Let me back up a bit. So, uh, after finishing undergraduate, I,
Speaker: actually taught abroad for two years in Spain and during that time trying to figure out the next steps in my life in terms of my career, what I wanted to do, how to do what I wanted to do. I just wasn't sure so I took a two -year gap you might say and during that time is when I started to investigate different data related careers like data science, data analytics and
Speaker: After those two years, I came back home and started to really kind of pick and choose which route was the best one for me. And once I decided on either data science or data analytics, that's when I began to choose the different boot camps. I see. Okay. So it sounds like you perhaps only considered boot camps. You didn't look into a master's or like you said, some of your peers taught themselves.
Speaker: Ah, yes. So funny that you mentioned that I actually took the GRE and scored very well on it because I originally planned the master's route. But after seeing the deadline for the admissions and everything like that, knowing that I had less than three weeks to submit everything after the GRE,
Speaker: that I would have to wait another year and a half before even beginning a master's program. I thought I didn't want to twiddle my thumbs for a year and a half. I didn't feel like waiting around that long, which is what prompted me to go the boot camp route.
Speaker: I see. Okay. And yeah, I do have to admit, a master's degree, it is when I looked into both as well. And I would have had to wait another year, spend twice, not even twice, maybe like eight times as much money. And yeah, I don't know what a master's in your profession would look like. But for mine, it was two years. Whereas springboard, I stretched out my springboard experience, but I did it in one.
Speaker: I feel like we probably got the same results. I weighed the pros and cons of both and the financial part in particular is what prompted me to go to the boot camp route. What really sold me more than anything, any boot camp
Speaker: will give you a slot as long as you're willing to pay money, which is another thing to keep in mind. But Springboard, after doing my homework, a lot of readiting, a lot of different websites comparing and ranking the different boot camps, and just seeing the different services that they provide, you know, mentoring, career counseling, everything like that, it became a no -brainer for me.
Speaker: Absolutely. I think the career coaching, that was better than my undergrad. So moving in to your time at springboard, you're there. What particularly about the course do you think really helped you today in your career?
Speaker: I think the variety of different data science topics because you know in a or in my case I was going to say a six -month boot camp which is correct but I needed to take my time due to some personal things so six months actually became nine so but anyway there's only so much material that you can teach within a nine -month time span and I think they did a wonderful job
Speaker: taking the best of both worlds, covering as much material as possible while going as deeply as possible per material or per topic. That's fantastic. And then did you have any particular challenges or aha moments throughout the course that I think were maybe a lesson learned later?
Speaker: Yes to both. So the first challenge was my capstone, because I had heard about it because people who go into data science always tell you, you know, you need some kind of capstone to prove your knowledge and your ability to do something in the workplace. But I had never done anything like that before. So my first capstone, I took, I think, four and a half, almost five months to complete that. But after finishing that,
Speaker: It really served as a handy blueprint for the rest of the course because once I began my second capstone, it only took me, I think, three weeks to finish. So it's always that stepping stone, you know, the first step is always the hardest and then everything else really falls into place.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm doing that math there. And yeah, you did spend a lot of time in your capstone. No judgments that sounded like I needed to take my time because I'd never done anything like that before.
Speaker: Absolutely. And I think that takes a lot of interpersonal intelligence to realize what you need to do to get to where you are. I don't know what your program was like, but for UX, they would say, this should take you X amount of time. And I would say, no, I can't always be in this exact amount of time. And
Speaker: Yeah, that was my one critique of Springboard. Like I'm not gonna get my portfolio done in I think 20 hours if they said, but. More than anything, even looking at online examples, you know, every single person is different with the kind of project that they choose, the kind of data sets that they choose. And so it's very difficult to, in terms of a time span, choose a one size fits all because everybody's different.
Speaker: Absolutely. And people learn at different rates, different speeds. So, yes, there's nothing wrong with taking your time. And now in school is the time to make your mistakes. Like I definitely did some dumb stuff in my UX course that I probably wouldn't get fired for anything now, but it's learning hurts, I think. But it's really good once you get over that hump. Let's talk about the job hunt. What was that like for you?
Speaker: I have got to be honest, it was unquestionably the hardest part of my springboard experience. And it's what I tell every springboarder that I meet is that throughout the course, you've got something to keep you busy, you've got something to turn in, you've got some kind of homework, you've got calls to attend, and you've got something somehow that keeps you occupied. The job hunt on the other hand is
Speaker: Once again, there is no one size fits all because it depends on the seasonality, the kind of job that you want, where you live. And it requires, or for me at least, it brought a level of patience and endurance that I didn't even know existed within myself.
Speaker: Oof, that is a great way to put it, the endurance and the will to keep going. But as we discussed, you know, there were some things that you did to really help your job search and really amp up your skillset. Would you like to share any additional things you did outside of the springboard course to help get you to where you are now?
Speaker: Yes. So one of the most frustrating things is that after finishing the springboard course, I didn't have any current experience pertaining to the job that I wanted to apply to because three, four months after the completion of my course and applying for these different data analyst roles, their responses were generally okay. Well, you know, it's great that you completed the course, but
Speaker: What are you doing now? And there was nothing to really fill that void in terms of experience post course. So I joined ripen, which was responsible for pairing recent bootcamp graduates with people looking to hire data analysts to get in terms of volunteer work, to get some hands on experience to buff up their resume and in exchange,
Speaker: have people analyze data sets for their company. And I was a part of this project known as Project Human City, based out of Toronto, Canada, whose goal was to create a walkability app to determine the walkability score. So the higher the score, the better the walkability throughout Toronto, Canada as the final goal of their project.
Speaker: By being a part of this project via ripen, it gave me not only relevant experience to include in my resume, but also something to talk about in the resume. Because that way, instead of just simply saying, I graduated from springboard, I can also say, in addition to my springboard certification, I'm also currently doing XYZ. Because more than anything, they want to know what you're doing at this moment.
Speaker: I completely agree that showing what you're doing at that moment means something. And I love that this extra resource existed for you. I'm curious to know, before we even get into how you parlay this experience to where you are now, I'm curious, can anybody, let's say I finished a bootcamp in software engineering, could I go to ripen .com and apply to
Speaker: get an internship like this? You could absolutely find something like that. Oh, fantastic. I love that you brought this up. I've never heard of it and getting that experience is
Speaker: It's very hard in the sense of, especially, you know, I knew that getting into UX would be difficult with no UX experience really, because in fashion, that was the same thing. Oh, you don't have three years of experience in fashion. Well, we can hire you. So I kind of knew the game that people wanted me to play, not to call the game, but you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's, it was very convenient because you really, because of this ripen experience, I was able to check off
Speaker: all the boxes, current experience, relevant experience, collaborating in groups, data analysis, Python, and they look for all of these key words that not only that you know, but that you're currently using and implementing.
Speaker: Yes, and that teamwork and probably you did this project that and it didn't follow perfect practice like you were taught in springboard. Yes. So those are two things that education can't really teach you. I, you know, I have not gone to every institution and springboard does a great job, but there are just some things school can't teach you. So excellent point of bringing up why an internship is so important there. And
Speaker: going into your interviews. So it sounded like you had a good three months of interviewing and not getting jobs. You had this internship. What was that pivot like? Uh, it was the difference between night and day because it, I will say this, I finished my course in July of last year. So for the first month, month and a half,
Speaker: I was still relatively fresh from this course, so they were understanding as a recent graduate become month three, month four was when that awkward gap began, wondering, okay, well, what are you doing now? And they didn't really care that I had finished my springboard boot camp. They wanted to know what I was doing at that present time. And so.
Speaker: Once I joined RYTHM and joined the Project Human City and consequently having something to talk about that I was doing presently, it made all the difference in terms of my interviews because they wanted to know more about me and more of my skill set as I was currently using them rather than having learned them a couple of months ago.
Speaker: Interesting. Yeah. So it sounds like you were getting interviews, but it was just that not pivot, but it was getting past that initial, like you said, what are we doing now? So it sounds like you're doing something a little right. And then it turned into something a lot. Right. Which is exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I feel like really for you. Yes. Yes. It made all the difference because you know, they're,
Speaker: interested in my skill set, but unless I have something to prove what I'm currently doing with that skill set, then they want to move on to someone who's doing something at that moment. So once again, ripe and really filled that awkward gap between the two.
Speaker: Sure, and I'd love to learn, we talked a little bit about perfect practice in school versus real life, you have to deal with other variables. Were there any other variables that you dealt with in this internship that were really eye opening that challenged what you learned at Springboard?
Speaker: Yes. So once again, when it came to collaboration, I was in a group with two other people and the three of us were in three different time zones. One person was an hour behind me and then the other guy was three hours behind me. So that coordination and arrangement of calls and project submissions became tricky, but you know, like anything in life, just clear,
Speaker: communication really diminishes any kind of confusion on anyone's part. Absolutely. No one ever said anything bad about good communication.
Speaker: So you're in this ripen program, you are now interviewing its day, no longer night. What was the interview process like a little bit? Could you explain kind of some of the pitfalls, some of the wins that you got before getting your job offer? Yes.
Speaker: So even with the ripened experience and relevant experience sent that, fortunately, nobody is immune to the constant ghosting that takes place. And that's another thing to keep in mind that's essential is that if you do everything right, do everything that you're supposed to do, yet you get ghosted, it's not you.
Speaker: And I feel like at least with myself was especially hard with that because I constantly think what could have I said differently? What could have I done differently? And it's just one of those things that unfortunately there's nothing that you can really do about.
Speaker: And so whenever that happens, just prepare and get ready for the next interview that you've got. I agree. And also one interview that didn't work out was practiced for the next one. Literally took the exact, what I was literally just about to say is that the interviews, at least for me, uh, started to happen kind of one after the other, that whatever interviews fell through,
Speaker: they became practice for upcoming interviews to the point where I never, I no longer got those first interview jitters. I felt prepared with the kinds of things that I wanted to say and the kinds of questions to ask the interviewers themselves. Yes. Were there any questions that you thought were relevant and asking when you were interviewing? Yes. Why do you like working here?
Speaker: Great one. Great one. Why would I want to work here? Because it's important to put the ball in their court for once because there's so much pressure on you that, you know, it's important to flip the script every now and then because it's as important to want to work in that place as it is for them to hire you. I completely agree in the sense that
Speaker: Yeah. If someone were to scoff and be like, well, you probably don't, that's probably not the most mature or fun situation. And I remember we were talking about green flags and red flags like in dating, but also in job hunting. And one point that was brought up was that they were asking questions about Uber when this company wasn't Uber. So I thought that was a really interesting.
Speaker: red flag to see that this company wasn't willing to share what their problems were, what you would be working on in the interview. Yes. Another, now that you mentioned it, another red flag that I encountered a couple of times was I remember the first interview was with five different people at once.
Speaker: And it was essentially, yes, a revolving, like as soon as you answered one question, then it moved on to the other one. And about among the five of them, probably like 15 in total. And that's just for the first interview, which lasted over an hour and a half.
Speaker: That is so draining. That is so draining. I wonder what the point of, also, I do have to give them a little credit for getting five people all together. That is impressive for a meeting, but not okay and not fair to you. I can't even imagine why, what would they get out of that? That had to have been very, very draining. So I take it you did not take that job. I happily know.
Speaker: Well, let's talk about the job you did take. What was that interview process like? It was, I've got to give it credit to them. And I'm not just saying this because I currently work for them. But in all honesty, I like how clear cut without any confusion as to what to anticipate prior to the interview. Um, that the entire process was like, it was four in total. There was no five in total.
Speaker: There was the initial, you know, fill out via Indeed. The second was a face -to -face or via Zoom with my now current bosses. The third was a behavioral interview. Fourth was a technical assessment that they sent me. They sent me a data set to analyze. And then the fifth one, which was intertwined with the fourth one,
Speaker: was to present my findings to them in person. Oh, wow. So is a behavioral interview something that is done in your career? What is that? I've never heard of that. So the behavioral interview was largely personality based. And how would you work or how would you respond if this person did this kind of thing?
Speaker: What would you do in this kind of event? So those behavioral questions because they want to know, you know, what's as important as your skill set is whether or not you're pleasant to work with in person. Absolutely. Who wants to work with an evil person? I mean, exactly.
Speaker: understatement, of course. But that's interesting. I would question if that's very accurate. Like, Alan, I'm sure you're lovely to work with. I have no doubt about that. However, how people think they might act, I would question if that's really how they do act all the time. So I would be very curious to analyze how accurate these tests are.
Speaker: Yes, it's because you know, like one thing that I read is that you know you can train a person's skill, but you can't train a person's behavior.
Speaker: I fully agree with that. Most people don't want to change as someone who just is interested in why people are the way they are. Great book if you or anyone else listening are interested, but feeling good together. It's about relationships, but it really puts the focus on you to change.
Speaker: my favorite quote comes from him, if you want to change your life, you got to change yourself. But it really hones in on how your actions affect others. But then in the very beginning of the book, he says he gave a very interesting example of how someone's derailing his marriage. And this guy didn't want to change, even though he was unhappy. And the psychiatrist, I believe he's a psychiatrist said, this is
Speaker: This is a common scenario. It sounds shocking, but most people don't want to change. So that's my rant on people. But yes, I completely agree. Really, it's very, very hard to manage someone work -wise, but then also teach them interpersonal skills. Yes. And that's what a lot of people, especially going into entry -level jobs, have to keep in mind is that
Speaker: Obviously, you're not inept, you know, you completed the springboard course, you have your certification, and however, you're lacking in terms of work experience. So you really have to sell yourself into a person because that way they're willing to hire you to get your first ever job.
Speaker: Yes. Were there any ways that you particularly sold yourself on that other than, I know you talked about your internship and getting that experience, but how were you able to share that you were a great person to work with? Yes. So there were two things in particular is that having worked as a tutor prior to my current role,
Speaker: And this goes for anyone in education in general, is that you have the ability to not only explain a difficult concept, but also explain it from different perspectives because that way it makes sense for everybody. And also, my current company of LifeNet is an organ transplant company in the state of Virginia.
Speaker: And coming from a family of doctors from both sides of my family, I elaborated to them that I want to help people in the medical field. I just want to do it with my own skill set. And you know, by saying my grandfather was a dentist, my other grandfather was a urologist, and by showing them that, you know, it runs in the family medically, prove to them that I wanted to get my foot in the door, but using my own skill set.
Speaker: That's a really beautiful way of putting it and probably quite touching too. Like saying, this is a family thing and this is just who I am. Yes. So parlaying into what you do now for the company you work for. When you first told me in our pre -interview, I was just so humbled. Like you are actively doing something that helps save lives now. So would you like to share what your company is doing?
Speaker: I would love to. So LifeNet is one of the world's most trusted provider of transplant solutions from organ recovery and technology advanced clinical biologics and cellular therapies to life sciences solutions that support drug discovery and medical innovation. And on my side of things, I as a data analyst am responsible for finding trends in both
Speaker: donor and recipient data such as demographics, namely region in the state, race, age, gender, to really be able to reach out to the community to see how we can increase registration rates and to see how we can increase donors and donations throughout the state of Virginia.
Speaker: Amazing. That is just like such a warm feeling to hear that you're doing such good. I can't find any fault in helping people with getting a new organ or any other kind of transplant like that. So I'm assuming that
Speaker: not only because this ran your family, but you were kind of drawn to this because as you were saying, you wanted to use your skill set in the same way. But also that familial love of helping others and helping people's lives. It honestly seems like a magical fit in a way. Yes. And to really add to that magic. Another selling point during the interview process was my brother
Speaker: is an orthopedic surgeon at Virginia Commonwealth University. So knowing that I live in the same city as him, working in the same field as him, has really just been a match in heaven.
Speaker: Oh, I love that. I wish my sister was close by. She's in another continent. So I'm a little jealous here. But anyways, this isn't about me. So I'd love to hear about what your day in and day is at this company. What does a typical week look like for you? So a typical work week is someone asks me for a data request, or they asked me for an analysis
Speaker: of different fields such as a specific kind of organ or a specific demographic of people or a certain region of the state. I go on a database and depending on the necessary categories that they need, I create a spreadsheet from these categories, download it via Excel,
Speaker: and then create different visuals to return to the people who asked me for them in the first place, because that way they can present their findings in different business meetings. That's fantastic. And what's maybe your favorite thing about going to work every day? I love that I get to make a difference. You know, as previously stated, I want to help people, but using my own skill set,
Speaker: love that I get to help people on a daily basis. And I love that there's always something new to learn. And another thing that's important to keep in mind, especially for those in the data science career track, as well as the data analytics, is that there is always going to be something new to learn. And as long as you genuinely enjoy learning, then you are going to thrive in this field.
Speaker: I love that. That's fantastic. Well, I would love to know how you plan to thrive in this field, what you are actively helping people save their lives and doing something very meaningful with your skillset, which I think is honestly kind of the dream for most. But what's next for you? Where do you see yourself going? So next for me, I have thankfully
Speaker: achieved the short -term goal of becoming an analyst. And in terms of my long -term goal, I would love to stay in this field, but would love to eventually make the transition from data analysts to data scientists, because currently we're taking data and interpreting and viewing trends from the past up to present.
Speaker: But eventually you want to make that transition from things taking place presently to predict what takes place in the future. And so with that transition, I would love for that to correlate with my transition to the data science field from specifically just a data analyst at present. That makes complete sense. And without a doubt, I'm sure you will get there.
Speaker: Mostly my second to last question, is there any other bit of advice or thoughts you want to share with the audience?
Speaker: I would love to. My biggest go -to is both during the course and during the job search, be so kind to yourself. It's very easy to beat yourself up because you don't understand this assignment or you don't know what to include in your capstone. You don't know which specialization course to choose and throughout the job search, even easier to beat yourself up because you didn't get the job or you got ghosted.
Speaker: Self -care is essential throughout both parts of the course because unless you're up and running then your career will be up and running as well.
Speaker: I completely agree with that. I had, so you stayed for the GRE. I studied for the GMAT back in the day and all I did was work and study. And my tutor actually told me to stop and have a little bit of fun. So I completely agree. Yes, you can't, you got to put your own oxygen mask on before you put on another or a mask for somebody else. Precisely.
Speaker: Well, Alan, thank you so much for sharing all of this. I think it would be incredibly beneficial, especially for people who don't quite have the transferable skills that some others do. You made an incredible pivot and journey. And just from getting to know you a little bit, like I'm in awe of what you were able to accomplish. So with that being said, are you open to people reaching out to you on social media?
Speaker: I would love that. Please feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, however you want. I would be more than happy to get in touch with fellow springboarders because as someone who's been there and done that, I would love to help out anyone, however possible. Fantastic. And would you be able to spell your name for everyone so they can find you? Of course. So Alan Edge, and that's A -L -L -E -N.
Speaker: Thank you, Alan. I again want to say your story is incredible and
Speaker: just meeting you. I am just so inspired and proud and I only hope the best for you going forward. So again, thank you so much for your time and sharing your story and for anyone listening. If you have any questions for Alan or myself that you would like to be answered on this podcast, please send me an email at alumnipodcast at springboard .com.
