Speaker 1: 0:00

learning to code has really impacted me now coming back to it full circle and realizing that this is something that I can do and that my voice does matter and that my presence and my representation does matter in the tech world, and so I feel like it's transformed me in so many ways, just like with that confidence in myself and I see how it transforms even the community around me. Just like how I met somebody who was part of an apprenticeship and it made me think, wow, I can do that apprenticeship and it made me think, wow, I can do that.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Hey everyone, this is Mike Roberts, creator of the Apprenticeship Playbook, and you're tuned in to the Skills First podcast. In today's world, skills First hiring is revolutionizing the job market and on this show I sit down with trailblazers who are rethinking hiring practices and embracing experiential learning, as well as the people impacted. Follow along as we dive into tips, innovative ideas and proven strategies to help you navigate and thrive in the evolving landscape of modern apprenticeships. Can you tell me your name and what it is that? What's your job title? What do you do?

Speaker 1: 1:01

Yeah, my name is Bernadette Bolaños, people call me Bernie. Your job title. What do you do? Yeah, my name is Bernadette Bolaños, people call me Bernie. I'm currently a software apprentice at ServiceNow, so I'm part of the very first cohort of apprentices in the platform engineering department, and the team that I work for is the UXRTB dev team. We're a customer facing team, we help. We're a catch all team where we help the other teams kind of work on defects that maybe have been put off while they're focusing on feature development, and then we also take on case tasks that are usually directed to a team of it's about nine teams that we cover, wow.

Speaker 2: 1:33

Okay, all right, nice, where do you live?

Speaker 1: 1:37

I'm based in LA, Los Angeles. I was born here and I'm in like the East LA area.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Nice, okay, so I know that ServiceNow has a big presence in both San Diego, santa Clarita. But yeah, it's cool that you're able to work remote, then pretty much right.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Yeah, so, totally yeah. So the office like one time.

Speaker 2: 1:58

And I hear that was a pretty amazing journey for the folks that were not used to that. Give me a little sense of that. What did it feel like to visit the campus of a software engineering company for the first time? Were not used to that. Give me a little sense of that. What did it feel like to visit the campus of a software engineering company for the first time?

Speaker 1: 2:08

Yeah, I definitely felt like a kid in a candy store because I feel like I've always heard about that, At least on TV. I feel like it's the closest representation I had of what corporate life looks like the cool offices especially the really nice tech offices meditation rooms, gyms, the big cafeteria, everything. So it was exciting. I would love to be able to go back more often, but it was nice to just know. That's something like if I did want to go to San Diego which luckily isn't too far, it's only two hours away Like I could spend the whole day there if I wanted to, and I definitely would. So it was a lot of fun Nice.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Nice. So what were you doing before this?

Speaker 1: 2:39

In general because I've had a lot. I've had a lot of different career routes, but I've mainly focused on working with survivors of sexual and domestic violence. It started off as like a volunteer position for me. I was a volunteer crisis counselor and advocate on the hotline at a couple different rape crisis centers and then, directly before I led to the apprenticeship, I was working as a shelter advocate at a local domestic violence shelter, so working with women and children primarily, and helping them get placement to new places they were seeking shelter outside of the abusive homes that they came from and then just helping connect them to as many resources as they could for long-term.

Speaker 2: 3:16

Wow, super impactful work. That's very different, but I'm sure you're finding there's a lot of transferable skills in terms of how you interact with human beings and solving problems, and so that's pretty cool. What was one of the biggest challenges for you making that transition in your journey so far? What's been the biggest hurdle?

Speaker 1: 3:34

Honestly, I feel like it's something I remember and that I've heard you say a lot, especially in my very first interview. It's like what you're looking for is the grit right being willing to try something over and over again, even when you're failing at it, even when you're bad at it. And I'm definitely, as an apprentice, like there's a lot of things that I'm still bad at, and I think just the biggest hurdle for me is still digging deep within myself to find that confidence every day and just showing up for myself even when it's difficult, even when and I think that is a transferable skill that I got from working as a shelter advocate is a lot of times there is not a best case scenario. You're dealing with people who are unfortunately in some of the really hardest part of their lives and there is not an easy way to make that better, and so I think like, just yeah, that that's where that grit comes from.

Speaker 1: 4:19

For me, it's just finding, as long as I make baby steps, like eventually that progress will get somewhere, and I have faith in that, I have faith in myself. So, even when it's hard, even when I'm feeling that like strong imposter syndrome, I still show up, I still try my best, I ask my questions and then I just wait for myself to feel better, because it goes back and forth Some days I feel really great about it, other days I don't feel so great about it, but regardless, I show up and that's been the biggest hurdle that I have to overcome every day.

Speaker 2: 4:43

Nice, yeah, man, it's a roller coaster, it's a wild one.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Yeah, you're telling me.

Speaker 2: 4:52

So how did you hear about?

Speaker 1: 4:52

our program. So originally I had met someone who was part of a different apprenticeship and they had a very similar educational background as me and I just never, I don't know. They inspired me to think maybe that's something I could do, because I never really thought I could get into tech. I've always really liked STEM but I just at some point in my educational journey I stopped thinking that I was that capable. But and then, hearing about this person that found an apprenticeship, I was like why not me? Hearing about this person that found an apprenticeship, I was like why not me? So I just really went on a Google search.

Speaker 1: 5:19

I found your program and at that point the pre-apprenticeship was still pretty new. I think I was the very first cohort of the pre-apprenticeship and I was just. I was I don't know. I feel like talking to you really made me feel confident in the route that this was going to be able to take me towards. I interviewed, and it was very fast soon as I gave you my application, we interviewed the next day and then I was signed up the day after that and then I started two weeks later and it's just been.

Speaker 2: 5:41

That's a whirlwind. That's really cool and walk a listener through a rough timeline of. So the admission process was pretty fast, but then how much time did you spend in the pre-apprenticeship approximately? And then how long did it take before you were like on the job inside of ServiceDAO doing your apprenticeship?

Speaker 1: 6:00

So that was a really quick turnaround too. The pre-apprenticeship was supposed to be estimated for around three months, and that's how long it took me to get through the curriculum. After three months as a pre-apprentice I was transitioned to full-time apprentice and I did about, I think, six months as an apprentice, just meeting within Creating Coding Careers every day, and then at some point I did get an interview around that sixth month with ServiceNow and I was told I was hired on the month after that and then it was just like a waiting game, like they just needed to be ready for us. I think I waited maybe like another month, so probably by like month seven I was officially like transitioned to ServiceNow and so I've been there about three months now and my program at ServiceNow is a six month program before we get transitioned to full-time staff.

Speaker 2: 6:44

You're close, you're there, you're like right there, I know yeah. So how do you think learning to code has made an impact on you both personally and professionally?

Speaker 1: 6:55

Personally and professionally, like I mentioned, I always really liked science. I took classes for computer science in high school. I started off my undergrad journey as a physics major and was taking, like Python, classes for physics and at some point I just I'm a first generation college student. I come from ancestors and family line of a lot of people who were illiterate, who didn't get past the third grade education or high school education. So I think at a certain point, like I just stopped believing that I was capable and there's a lot of misogyny in certain departments and I feel like I just some of the experiences that I had made me feel like, yeah, maybe this isn't for me, and so I focused on a route that was really like working with survivors. Sexual and domestic violence is really dominated by women of color for the majority of the people who do that work in my experience, like at least out here in SoCal and so I feel like I just transitioned to someplace that made me feel safe and made me feel heard, and I think that's how learning to code has really impacted me now, coming back to it full circle and realizing that this is something that I can do and that my voice does matter and that my presence and my representation does matter in the tech world, and so I feel like it's transformed me in so many ways, just like with that confidence in myself and I see how it transforms even the community around me. Just like how I met somebody who was part of an apprenticeship and it made me think, wow, I can do that. I feel like a lot of the conversations I've been having with people in my own community, with my own friendships, like I feel like people are now more open to it. Maybe I don't need to have the most traditional route. I can find my own alternative route to get within the tech world and to do things that I want to do, because I've always had fun learning science and at some point I just I didn't believe anymore. Yeah, I'm just like being able to bring that all back together full circle has really transformed me personally, professionally.

Speaker 1: 8:35

I think it's totally transformed me professionally, considering that, like I had no, for a long time I didn't really touch anything in tech. I would just work on databases, trying to find people, resources, and sometimes the databases would act up, things would be slow, things would be broken, and that would frustrate me and I would be so upset that, like, who is working on this? That was always my question. Who does this and why can't I be the one to fix it? Because it's getting in?

Speaker 1: 8:59

So I think, professionally, it's really brought me to a place where, like now, especially at ServiceNow, where I'm working on IT service management tools like I see what it's like to be on the other side of that and, especially because I'm working on a customer facing team like I going to be able to get the health resources that they need, or that people are going to be left out in the cold because they didn't. They queued up too many people for a vaccination, like I just hear all the real world examples of how the work that we do impacts people. So it's really transformed my perspective in terms of what it means to be someone, have that responsibility to yeah, to create those resources and to create that those changes.

Speaker 2: 9:42

That's phenomenal. And this, my friends, is the reason why we need more diversity in tech, because I think your unique lived experience lends to building better products and services, because you just understand your customer base better. Right, you shared that if the industry is dominated mostly by women, black, women of color then we got to make sure people inside building the tools have some of that same lived experience to be able to have empathy and design things that are going to really solve the most important and critical challenges. So, kudos, I feel like we've done so so much good in helping you make that transition. We've done so so much good in helping you make that transition, and I think it's hard to measure and quantify the ripple effect of creating opportunity and then allowing someone to step into that role.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Who knows how many people are going to hear this and be inspired and think maybe I can also be like Bernie and just get after it. Yeah, I hear that stat a lot. I hear a stat about a lot of women, especially women that may go to school thinking that they want to pursue a STEM degree at some point, fall off and they don't graduate with STEM degrees and instead they go into other fields being able to have some more support and persevere will result in more people that not just start CS degrees but complete CS degrees or go alternative routes. So what's the last new thing you learned? Because I hear a lot from people that like this is a lifelong learning exercise. So what's the last thing that you had to adjust and pick up?

Speaker 1: 11:19

I'm learning something new every day. Something that I learned about today is hot fixes. I'm learning something new every day. Something that I learned about today is hotfixes, like what it takes to have a hotfix, just the routes to be able to request it. I don't know, I'm not even sure how much more to dive into that, but every day, especially as an apprentice, I'm asking questions and just trying to put the pieces together as best as I can.

Speaker 2: 11:38

Yeah, and that's where the rubber meets the road. So for folks that are listening, that are not software engineers, a hotfix is basically okay, we're doing it live, right, we test everything, make sure. But it's an off-cycle release of some software to do a fix or a patch, and it's usually because there's some critical or urgent need, and so that's what we call firefighting in the business, right there hotfixes. Exactly.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Thank you for explaining it.

Speaker 2: 12:04

Yeah, who's someone you'd like?

Speaker 1: 12:05

to give a shout out to, I think, so many people. I want to give a shout out to my cohort mates, elena and Marjorie, who are really holding it down as friends. In tech, we're the very first cohort and in a very male dominated field, and I think we're all doing a phenomenal job. It can be isolating at times, especially because we're not all on the same team, but we make sure to check in with each other. We're constantly just yeah, just checking in, making sure that we're doing okay and then, whenever one of us has resources that we found out about, we share it with each other, and I think we really have each other's back and that has helped immensely throughout this journey so far. So shout out to them.

Speaker 2: 12:41

Nice, all right. Last and most difficult question what's your favorite snack?

Speaker 1: 12:47

That was the hardest one. Oh my gosh, Favorite snack. I really enjoy eating Nicaraguan food. That's where my mom is from. I eat a lot of gallo pinto, which is basically just rice and beans, but like the Nicaraguan version, platanos, plantains with Nicaraguan crema and cheese from Nicaragua. I don't know, that's like when I'm trying to treat myself. That's what I go get. There's a spa in LA Sabor Nicaraguan. That's the best one in LA. So if you ever have an opportunity, check that out.

Speaker 2: 13:13

Yeah, I'm up there. I'm up there frequently, so I'm going to have to hunt that place down for sure. Also, thanks, so Awesome. Thanks so much, brittany, for coming on the program. Thank you, thanks for having me. You've been listening to Skills First, the Apprenticeship Playbook podcast. By the way, if this is valuable to you, don't be lame. Share the game. This is how we know you love it. If you're a company thinking about changing how you hire, please share it so we know this type of stuff is what you want.