Do you want to know more about how SSF works? Well, there is no better way than getting to know about our former students! Our new Alumni Spotlight interview series will talk to a few of our SoftStack Factory graduates so you can better understand what our Bootcamp life is all about!
Oscar Cornejo had a growing interest for coding and decided to learn on his own, but after a few weeks of taking online classes he realized that he was ready for the next step. When his brother-in-law pointed him to SSF after hearing about SSF on the radio, Oscar knew this was the perfect opportunity to expand his knowledge and create the opportunity to work in a whole different area.
Q&A
What were you doing before starting the SSF Camp?
In the months before applying I was working as an Uber/Lyft driver for almost a year. Before then, I was mainly in sales.
What was your cohort like? Did you make friends there?
It was great. I definitely clicked with everyone there, it felt kind of cool talking and studying with a bunch of nerds like myself.
What were you most excited to learn about?
Probably learning the process of creating a fully functioning web app.
There are so many different things that go into it, from creating the visuals, to creating the functions, the controllers, web servers, using libraries to facilitate features.
What was your favorite part of the SSF camp?
My favorite part was the realization of just how much one could learn in a couple months time.
It was definitely stressful cramming so much knowledge into my head, studying after hours, etc. But after about the 8th week, everything started clicking,
I definitely started thinking more like a coder.
What are you working with now?
Currently, I am using JavaScript & a JS library called Node.js to create testing scripts using another library called Selenium.
They created a Selenium webdriver which is able to navigate through browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, which we use to perform regression testing.
Although I hope in the future, to be able to work with C# or Java.
How did SSF prepare you for your current job?
It gave me the skills I needed in order to be good at my job. Not only did they teach me the technical skills, but they also stressed the importance of wanting to learn.
Although I will say, if you give it your bare minimum, that is what you will receive. If you expect handouts, things will not work for you.
But if you are willing to put in the time to really understand, and try and go above and beyond, this is the kind of industry where you will be able to see the results of that work extremely quick.