Skills_First
Welcome to the Skills First podcast, brought to you by The Apprenticeship Playbook. This podcast is your go-to resource for exploring the transformative world of skills-first hiring and modern tech apprenticeships. Whether you’re part of a community-based organization, a funder, an educator, or a company eager to implement innovative hiring practices, this show is for you. Join host Mike Roberts as he engages with industry leaders and pioneers who are redefining the pathways to tech careers. Discover actionable insights, best practices, and strategies to foster inclusive, skills-based opportunities that empower individuals and drive organizational success. Tune in and be part of the movement that’s shaping the future of work.
Skills_First
A Teacher's Leap into Tech: Rosalyn's Success Story
Can a global pandemic be the catalyst for discovering your true passion? Join us on this eye-opening episode of the Skills First podcast as we journey through Rosalyn from Pong's incredible transformation from a fourth-grade teacher to a software engineering apprentice at Pathways Consulting. Rosalyn talks about how her tech interests, which began with MySpace, resurfaced during the pandemic and led her to tackle the financial hurdles of tech boot camps. She candidly shares the steep learning curve, imposter syndrome, and the unique challenges she faced as a Black woman in a predominantly white and male industry, demonstrating the vital role of community support and representation.
As Rosalyn dives deeper into her tech transition, she recounts her pivotal experience with the Creative Coder Careers program and the crucial support from G-Code. The episode unravels how a salaried apprenticeship became a game-changer for her, leading to intensive learning in JavaScript and React, and ultimately landing her a role at ServiceNow. She reflects on her personal and professional growth, highlights her latest tech accomplishments, and gives a heartfelt shoutout to her supportive colleague, Carrie. To wrap things up on a lighter note, Rosalyn shares her love for seaweed snacks. Don't miss this inspirational story of resilience, growth, and the power of chasing your dreams.
While I was teaching they told me hey, like we have this potential opportunity for you, you should apply. And beforehand I was like, oh my goodness, I don't know if I have the skill set to actually go right into an apprenticeship. I'm not sure. And I took the risk and did an interview with you. And what's the price? I landed it and then quit my teaching job a week afterwards and then just move straight into the apprenticeship.
Speaker 2: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. So can you tell me your name and what is it that you're doing right now?
Speaker 1:Hi, my name is Rosalyn from Pong. What is it that you're doing right now? Hi, my name is Rosalyn from Pong. I'm from Harlem, New York, and currently I am an apprentice at Pathways.
Speaker 2:Nice Pathways Consulting. Amazing, shout out to them. So let's just jump right in. What were you doing before what you're doing now? Before I was a fourth grade teacher. Wow, fourth grade, that's tough. I have a youngster, that's a challenge. So kudos, all right, that's a big shift. So what made you decide that you wanted to get into tech?
Speaker 1:During the pandemic gave me a lot of time to think, just reimagining what I wanted my life to be. And, granted, I did a little bit of tech during, like the MySpace days, creating your own website. Didn't really know that was coding and I was like, oh, this is something that I'm potentially interested in. But during that time it was super hard. Like every boot camp was about $20,000. And I definitely wasn't making that as a fourth grade teacher. So trying to pivot to where I was now into a software engineer career or a career within tech, into a software engineer career or a career within tech. So I went through Googling, found a bunch of programs, eventually was able to land an apprenticeship at CCC and it just went forward from there, nice.
Speaker 2:So what is one of the biggest challenges in the journey to become a software?
Speaker 1:engineer for you. Oh, the learning curve. So beforehand, before I was able to actually be in a community where I was given resources to learn how to code, just getting the resources and knowing where to start right, there was a bunch of languages, there was a bunch of information that was out there. So it's hard to really plant your foundation. So finding a community that was able to give me the right amount of research, tell me exactly how to start and just being a community with other people to learn from, was like really huge than rather just learning by myself and just being on this never ending campster wheel.
Speaker 1:Also, people in especially like the software engineering world there's not a lot of people that look like me. So it's hard to go and find someone who's also Black and a woman and say, hey, how were you able to start and how can I start, knowing that I don't have a degree in computer science and, just like the learning curve, it's like a lot of information at once. So I just dealt with a lot of imposter syndrome while going through the journey. So just making sure I had like people around me to remind me like oh, this is where I belong and help me along the way was super like instrumental.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, a lot of that. I feel like it resonates Right, and after having a career so long in tech and seeing so few people that look like me, I can definitely understand how that could be a big challenge for people that are coming in that just don't have the context of feeling like, okay, I know a lot of people that do this, so I can do it right and we want to change that though. We definitely want to change that. How did you hear about the program?
Speaker 1:I heard about Creative Coder Careers, actually through another program that I was in called G-Code, where they taught me like the, I guess, like some of the fundamental things. And while I was teaching they told me, hey, like we have this potential opportunity for you, you should apply. And beforehand I was like, oh my goodness, I don't know about the skill set to actually go right into an apprenticeship, I'm not sure. And I took the risk and did an interview with you and was surprised. I landed it and then quit my teaching job a week afterwards and then just moved straight into the apprenticeship.
Speaker 2:Wow. So you took the leap. Now I'm guessing it helped that there was a salary right. It wasn't as much of a leap, but still that's a big shift, okay. So how long did it take for you to complete the training portion of the program? So, as I understand it, you're right now you're on the job going through. You're on the job part of the apprenticeship, but how long did it take you to get ready for that?
Speaker 1:get ready before I move into Pathways, right? So first I had to learn everything through creative coding careers. So I learned all like the fundamentals JavaScript, react. Once I was able to do that, I would say it was about like a six to eight month eight month kind of turnaround. So I learned everything I need to learn in order to be like a software engineer. And then I moved into learning everything I need to know regarding service now to be like a software engineer. And then I moved into learning everything I need to know regarding ServiceNow to be like acquainted with the I guess the infrastructure of it. And then I was placed within Pathways in which I had a three month like apprenticeship, learning a bunch and then building a bunch. So I would say like an eight month.
Speaker 2:What do you look forward to most now professionally?
Speaker 1:I would say, just seeing what else I can accomplish from here on. So I'm like pretty proud of myself that I'm in this position right now and I can completely say that I completely transitioned into, like my tech career. So now seeing if I can just move up the ranks right, what more I can learn, what more I can create and build, and just see where I go from here.
Speaker 2:Nice Moving up the ranks. I like that. That's good. That's good From the very beginning. It's a good way of thinking about it. There's levels and just one at a time, chipping away, getting a little bit better every day, that kind of stuff. So I like it. What kind of impact has coding made on you, Do you think, like in your both your professional life and your personal life?
Speaker 1:Personally, it gave me a lot more confidence that I was able to learn something and then make a career out of it. So now I feel like I'm in this position where, if someone were to give me something or put me assigned to a new task, I have the confidence to complete it, because I've done it beforehand and professionally, it just puts me in a position to make a lot more than what I was making before, so that's always a great thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. What's the last new thing that you learned?
Speaker 1:I learned how to create an update set for my instance after I already created it, so that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Nice, Tell us a little bit like what's an update set for someone that's not in the ServiceNow ecosystem.
Speaker 1:Basically how you can think of it as like a folder, right? So I'm creating this instance where everyone is able to interact with it, but you need to save it in order for other people to play around with it. Moving forward, so I was able to create like a website save it within an update set so that it doesn't expire, so that anyone can have access to it.
Speaker 2:Perfect, I like it. That makes sense Basically. You're hitting that save button in the middle of the game. Who's someone that you either look up to or you want to give a shout out to.
Speaker 1:I want to give a shout out to everyone who helped me along the way. Right, so it wasn't like a one-man team. So one person I want to shout out was carrie, because even through my apprenticeship, just having someone I can bounce ideas back off or who can look over certain things to make sure I'm not making mistakes or keep an eye on me so just having a friend going through the same process as you are, who's also new in the industry, it was really great.
Speaker 2:Nice Shout out to Carrie. Last, most important question what's your favorite snack?
Speaker 1:My favorite snack is seaweed snacks.
Speaker 2:Ooh, those are good. Those are tasty. My wife's starting to pick those up. I'm with you. Those are pretty good.
Speaker 1:It's super addictive yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome, all right. Thanks so much for joining us today, rosalyn.
Speaker 1:All right, Thank you. Bye everyone.
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