I expected to learn a lot, but I got more than that - says programmer Jesse Smith who arrived from Silicon Valley to Green Fox’s embedded systems course.
Jesse Smith comes from the United States and has been living in Budapest, Hungary for the past couple of years. During this time, he started to develop his own IoT (Internet of Things) product designed for the European market. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) where he also completed a Master's course in Economics. Then he gained one of his most exciting work experiences in his home town, San Francisco working as an engineering manager at Twitter for 3 years. He was managing a team of 5 software engineers and his biggest challenges were hiring new engineers and building for the future while managing legacy code (editor’s note: a code type that is no longer supported, but needs to be carried into new environment to retain familiar user functionality). So why did he decide to get further education at a Hungarian bootcamp after working at one of the most notable tech companies in Silicon Valley?
Attracted to IoT
In the past few years, Jesse became an active member of the tech and startup community in Budapest. He visited several events where the name of Green Fox Academy kept coming up. He met former students, and once he even met one of the founders who gave a tech talk at a meetup. Jesse realised that this Hungarian bootcamp has a good reputation in the tech scene, but he only became truly interested after learning that they offer courses on embedded systems. "This area hardly ever gets the focus at bootcamps and not just in Hungary. I applied, because that is what I really wanted to learn" - says Jesse about making his decision. Embedded programming is also called hardware programming. It is a type of programming that usually supports the creation of digital appliances, so it is a part of what drives the IoT revolution.
4 months of hard work and fun
Even with a reasonable background in programming, Jesse was sure that the training would help him gain new knowledge to improve his IoT product. He just finished the course a few weeks ago and now feels that he got a lot more than expected. He liked the whole structure of the training and has learnt a lot. His educational background allowed him to skip the Foundation module and complete the Fast Track Course, but the 4 months period was still full of learning and practicing. However, it provided a lot of fun as well. "The community was also great. Half of the fun and also half of the value of going to this course was the people I met" - he added.
What excited him the most, was how hands-on the project phase really was, and how much the final exam at Green Fox resembled a real-world interview. "I honestly think that if you pass this exam, you can pass a real software developer job interview. Although, people should not expect that they will be definitely ready for a programming job right after completing the 4 months long course. It might take longer and they need to find additional ways to develop their programming skills" - as Jesse suggests.
Improving one’s skills is essential
In his opinion, improving one's skills is essential in today’s modern economy. Jesse's motto is that gaining new knowledge is always useful, and you never know when a skill will come in handy. He does not think that nowadays university is the only way to do that, as almost anything can be learnt on one's own or by other means. A coding bootcamp like Green Fox is special because people with different set of skills and experiences enroll the courses. Some of them already have some experience in programming or engineering, while others come with different backgrounds like communications or arts and with no coding experience at all.
"Thankfully, Green Fox sets the fundamentals very well so we can continue to learn and develop on our own after the course. That is exactly what I plan in the future. I would like to continue to work on my product, but it is also possible that one day I will pursue a career as a full-time embedded software developer. This is a very interesting field with a lot of changes going on, so I think it is a great area of growth" - says Jesse about his plans for the future.
Balázs eleinte autodidakta módon próbálta megtanulni a programozás alapjait, hogy saját vállalkozása hatékonyságát növelje vele, de egy ponton túl elakadt. Szerencsére rátalált Front-end képzésünkre, és azóta is folyamatosan bővíti tudását IT területen. Kinek ajánlja a Front-endet, és mik a további karrier tervei? Vele készült interjúnkból kiderül!
Jókuti Anna gyógypedagógusként diplomázott, majd a grafikusi pálya felé kacsingatva érdekelni kezdte a webfejlesztés. Mindig távol álltak tőle a reál tárgyak, ezért sokáig nem hitt abban, hogy neki való kódolás. Komoly komplexusokkal, de végül belevágott a Green Fox Junior programozó képzésébe, aminek az elvégzése után Front-end fejlesztőként helyezkedett el. Hogyan telik egy munkanapja, és milyen készségekre van szüksége? Ismerd meg a Front-end területet Anna történetén keresztül!
A rugalmasság mára megkerülhetetlen szerepet kapott a vállalati működésben. Akár növekedés előtt álló üzletágról, akár új technológiai igényről van szó, az időben meghozott döntés hosszú távú versenyelőnyt jelenthet. Ilyen esetre hatékony megoldás egy speciális, vállalati képzés elindítása.
A technológiai trendek által előidézett iparági változások a kihívások mellett lehetőséget kínálnak a vállalatok számára, hogy növeljék bevételi forrásaikat. Ahhoz azonban, hogy az élen maradjanak, a szervezeteknek lépést kell tartaniuk a fejlődő technológiával, alkalmazottaiknak pedig a szükséges készségekkel.
Az informatikai vállalatok esetében tapasztalt növekedési kényszer napjainkra a munkaerőpiacon érezteti hatását. A nők aktív bevonása az IT szektorba nem csupán a szakemberhiány enyhítésében játszhat kiemelkedő szerepet, de hozzájárulhat a sokszínűbb munkahelyi közösség kialakításához, serkentve a csapatmunkát és a produktivitást.
Starting from the beginning in a different profession is never easy. However, we believe that the presence and guidance of a credible and experienced professional can be a huge help, especially if they have been in the same shoes before. Get to know Dóri's story, who was once an office manager and is now a Business Analyst and a mentor in our CRM Specialist course.
Would you like to know our partners better, where you can even start your new IT career after the course? We have great news then! We sat down with Accenture, and asked them what kind of workplace Accenture is and why it is good to work there. Read our article and get to know Accenture!
In technology- similar to our lives recently - the only stability is change, which both organizations and people must learn to adapt to. This is especially important for those whose jobs are threatened by automation or recession. In this series of articles we aim to introduce those IT career paths that let us stay marketable in the job market long term. This time, we dive into Salesforce, for which experts predict a bright future.
How is it possible to give more impetus to IT development and HR processes at the same time, even though this field is understaffed? How can you fill the gap when you need specialists of a company-specific technology who are ready to join a project as quickly as possible? The corporate bootcamp, which provides specific skills in close cooperation with a company, responds to these challenges.
Besides challenges, the changes in the industry brought about by technological trends also present opportunities for companies to increase their revenue streams. However, if they want to stay ahead, organisations must keep pace with evolving technology, and their employees must have the necessary skills.
The rapid change in development needs and technologies, a shortage of quality workforce, and the difficulty of retaining colleagues with valuable professional skills are major challenges for companies worldwide. How to give a unique answer to a global problem? Who is responsible for the management of this problem, and where should you start? We discussed all these questions with Anita Fachs, who is the managing director in charge of corporate services at Green Fox.