Ask American businesses their greatest challenge and many will cite unmet workforce needs, often deepest in the realm of technology. More than 600,000 tech jobs are currently unfilled and the U.S. Department of Labor predicts the number will grow to a staggering one million by 2020. With the baseball season now us, I submit that…
From Helping Others to Helping Myself
I realized I was so focused on helping others, that I never really thought about my own future. So, while it was uncomfortable and a big risk, I gave myself a sabbatical and applied to LaunchCode.
Writer to Coder: Jeff in Kansas City
After getting a BA in English Lit, Jeff supplemented his writing career with various middle-man business jobs, but he grew tired of a job in which he wasn’t a creator. The draw of a career in which he was able to build and create brought Jeff to LaunchCode. Now, Jeff is a writer again, but this time he writes code.
Placement Profile: Hakim in Kansas City
After moving from Ethiopia, Hakim held several positions that didn’t accurately reflect his experience of credentials. Approaching LaunchCode with a sense of purpose – and realizing that coding is a genuinely good time – helped Hakim land a tech job at VML.
Finding the Ability to Transform: Shawn from St. Louis
After having several different careers, ranging from serving in the United States Army to working in the film industry, Shawn was looking for a chance to reinvent his career.
Following a Passion: Jiho in Kansas City
How did you hear about LaunchCode? A year before hearing about LaunchCode, I took some online courses on data science. I managed to get through some of it, but I was struggling to keep up with the programming portion. I never really had a solid grasp of Python or JavaScript, so when I found out…
Cashier to Coder: Gail in St. Louis
Moving Out of a Job and Into a Career A year ago, I was a supermarket cashier with a bachelor’s degree in English. Today I’m a programmer for Express Scripts — a Fortune 22 company. An educational nonprofit called LaunchCode changed my life. LaunchCode provides learning resources and job opportunities in technology, all at…
Learning Something New: Carly in St. Louis
A Simple Challenge Turned into a Career You often hear that programmers are drawn to coding because it comes naturally to them. LaunchCoder Carly smashes that mold: she began coding to push herself intellectually because the logic didn’t come naturally to her. Now, Carly’s a software developer at Boundless. How did you first hear about…
Candidate Profile: Bill in PDX
LC101 exceeded my expectations…being able to take an in-person course was tremendously beneficial for me.
Rethinking Problem Solving: Katy in St. Louis
Finding the Right Time for Takeoff Katy first heard about LaunchCode from an announcement for the first CS50x course at the Central Library in St. Louis. The timing wasn’t right for her to become a LaunchCoder then, but she signed up to stay updated about future classes. When she received an email about the Winter…
Launched & Landed: Shaun in Miami
From Vet & Journalist to Student to Apprentice to HIRED! Tell us a little bit about your background. I’m an Air Force veteran with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and prior to finding LaunchCode, I was working as a business journalist for a local newspaper. I heard about LaunchCode while reading and writing for the…
Coding As … Art?
Make All. The. Things. At first glance, it may be hard to find the relationship between coding and art — the dominant tech culture and perceived mathiness don’t necessarily scream “creatives apply here”. But talking with LaunchCoders who are also artists in Kansas City, known for its booming arts community, we found the connections are…
Your Guide to a Stand-Out Resume
Great Resumes Lead To Great Interviews Part 1: Resumes & Rhetoric Part 2: Showing Off Your Skills & Project Experience Part 3: Sharing your Accomplishments and Education! Part 4: Getting to Work and Building that Resume! Part 1: Resumes and Rhetoric Resumes are key to landing the perfect job, but it’s no…
Student-Teacher-Apprentice, Ryan
All-Around Perspective Ryan began his journey with LaunchCode in early 2016 as a student. After graduation he joined our team of Teaching Fellows for the next cohort of students in LC101 St. Louis, and has since begun an apprenticeship placement. Having spent time in all the main facets of LaunchCode, Ryan gives us his perspective on how everything went. Tell…
CoderGirl Story: Lilly
What a Difference a Year Makes Here at LaunchCode, we get inspired by all the amazing stories of our students, apprentices, mentors and teaching fellows every day. They’re the reason each of us comes to work every morning. This is Lilly’s story, with a little foreword from one of her biggest fans: “Lilly has been with…
Interview With Shane
Student-Turned-Teaching Fellow Shane Tells Us All About His LaunchCode Experience Tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to LaunchCode. I received a B.S. in Electronics Engineering Technology from DeVry University in 2012 but was unable to find anything that really used my degree. I worked as an Electronics Bench Technician…
LC101: Q & A With Jesse
The LaunchCode Ed Team on LC101 Where did LC101 come from? LC101 is the product of about a year’s worth of work to create the best coding class we can — one that provides a solid foundation in programming, and is also accessible and enjoyable to a broad audience. This year, we’ve run 9 classes…
Student Q & A: Channon
Meet a Student Can you tell us a bit about your background? I recently graduated from high school. I’ve had four years of classical music training with piano, but 11 years of practice. Music led me to be good at math, and I believe math led me to be good at art. I have also…
Mentor Interview: CoderGirl Helena
Meet a Mentor We couldn’t carry out our mission to educate and employ eager, driven tech talent without the help of our amazing mentors. Helena has been a CoderGirl mentor for two years, where she imparts her wisdom and pro tips from years of experience as a professional developer. How did you come to LaunchCode? While studying Pre-Med, I…
LaunchCoder Q & A with Louis
How did you hear about LaunchCode? I saw a large poster in a window inside a St. Louis mall. After looking into LaunchCode.org, I found out more and went to the intro lecture given by Chris and a recent graduate who was interviewing for a job. Then I filled out the application process and was…
Functional Programming Languages
In your coding journey, you may have heard rumblings about Functional Languages. St. Louis hosts the annual Strange Loop conference, a prestigious tech conference focused specifically on functional languages. While functional programming is not particularly marketable, and shouldn’t be your first language, it’s still pretty interesting. Understanding the concepts behind functional programming languages can help…
LaunchCoder Q & A with Kevin
How did you hear about LaunchCode? I heard about LaunchCode from June Mercer, a Computer Science professor at the St. Louis Community College — Meramec Campus. Tell us about your background. I have 7 years of experience providing customer service in a variety of settings and graduated with an Associate of Applied Science, Database Management,…
LaunchCoder Q&A With Jeff & Jane
Jane, from Kansas City, and Jeff, from St. Louis, met in the middle of their two hometowns during college at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A few years and many adventures later, Jeff saw an online posting for LaunchCode Kansas City’s free CS50x course in the Spring of 2016. The course was free and only six…
LaunchCoder Q & A: Sean
Meet A Student Tell us a little bit about your background. Despite having worked in the web for almost 20 years, as a designer, interactive art director and UX designer, I remained largely ignorant of what was happening “under the hood”. This class has really helped me understand the bigger, or more accurately, the smaller,…
LaunchCoder Student Q & A With Luke
Making A Better Life — No Terrifying Debt Required What motivated you to sign up for class with LaunchCode? I have been searching for a way to start making a better life for myself, preferably without driving myself into terrifying debt. I was looking into Centriq, but could not acquire the money to attend. I have…
LaunchCoder Q & A With Kyle
Meet a Student What motivated you to sign up? Working in IT networking and troubleshooting has taught me how things work. I signed up for CS50x to find out why things work. I’m always looking to be the very best at what I do, and I’m always looking to improve my skill set for future…
Oliver’s Story
LaunchCoder Interview What motivated you to sign up? I was looking for a better way to learn coding. I had done a several online tutorials and courses on my own but wanted something a bit more structured. I went to a meetup and Matt Mawhinney took a few minutes to introduce us to LaunchCode. When…
No Comments