My path into tech isn’t what most would call “straightforward.” Growing up as a first-generation Moroccan immigrant, I never envisioned a career in this field. Although both of my parents had college degrees and strongly valued education, the tech field was never on my radar. I wasn’t offered programming classes at school, and although I…
Expanding The Toolkit: Jacob from STL
A Precarious Assemblage For years I pursued a career as an artist and an educator. Art has always been a mirror of the time in which it was made. As a sculptor, my work often mirrored a rapidly evolving world that was driven by technological innovation. I found myself making objects that strayed from representations…
Company Partnerships: A Spotlight on Maritz
Companies Partner to Achieve a Common Goal At first glance, Maritz and LaunchCode may seem to have little in common other than being based in St. Louis. Maritz works with other companies to improve customer experience and loyalty, increase employee engagement and recognition, and offer rewarding meetings and events, while LaunchCode is a nonprofit organization…
Success Story: Ryan from STL
I have been fascinated with computers for about as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember reading some of my mother’s old assembly code textbooks and thinking to myself “I don’t know how any of this works but it’s extremely cool”. Although I didn’t understand it, I always wanted to tinker with…
8 Tips to Rock Your First Hackathon
Prepping for A Hackathon, From an Organizer’s Perspective. A few months ago I not only helped plan my first hackathon, but also attended my first hackathon. Yep, that’s right. The first hackathon I helped plan was my first experience with a hackathon. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. Sure, I’ve planned…
CoderGirl Story: Amy
From Living Paycheck-To-Paycheck to Landing a Rewarding Career in Tech When scrolling Facebook, I don’t generally expect to come across something that is going to alter the course of my life. Memes, cat videos, and Instant Pot recipes, sure. But life changing? Not so much. And yet, one otherwise ordinary evening in 2016, life-changing is…
Success Story: Josh in KC
A Q&A with Josh on His Transition into Tech Josh learned to code so he could build a website to self-publish his creative writing. With a website underneath his belt and CSS, HTML and JavaScript in his toolbox, Josh began exploring careers in web development. He then turned his coding skills and interests into a full-time…
Build Successful Teams With Metrics
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…
Becoming A Microsoft Programmer
How a Curious Coder Made the Transition to Programming at a Major Technology Company The Beginning: Building My Coding Skills My journey with LaunchCode began with their online skills test and ended with a job as a web developer at Microsoft. I had spent the better part of my twenties teaching English abroad in China,…
Teaming Up in Innovative Ways: 1904labs x LaunchCode
1904labs, a human-centered software design and development company in St. Louis, supports the LaunchCode mission for myriad other reasons in myriad ways.
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.
Forget What You Heard About Tech Career Paths
The effect on workers of the transition from a manufacturing economy to an information and service economy are well explored. This discussion has become so common, in fact, that a handful of notions about modern avenues into tech careers have become widely held despite being half-true at best, spurious at worst.
Crafting the Perfect IT Resume
There’s a ton to keep in mind when you’re making the perfect IT resume. We narrowed it down to 5 key tips to help you on the road to resume perfection!
How to Crush Your Live Coding Interview
Does the idea of coding on a whiteboard, away from your IDE, in front of a seasoned programmer leave you shaking in your boots? We’ve got you covered with these tips and tricks on getting through the coding section of a technical interview.
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.
Top 5 Tips for Hosting an Apprentice
Whether you’re just starting to consider bringing an apprentice onto your team, or you’re a couple months into having an apprentice, we’ll walk you through some best practices to make sure the program is a great experience for both your organization and your apprentice.
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…
Decoding Tech: A Jargon Cheat Sheet
Breaking into the tech industry is no small task. Even the language that everyone throws around to describe their positions can seem completely foreign to a newbie, and that’s ok! We’ve helped you out with this little tech cheat sheet: a helpful list of definitions about our position categories and competencies.
Mentorship Always Mattered
Mentorship has always been a cornerstone of technical teams. LaunchCode’s apprenticeships are one way to create those opportunities. Let these five experienced engineers tell you about how mentorship played out in their early careers and how they seek to foster it on their teams today.
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…
An Affordable Answer to the Tech Talent Gap
Most options we rely on to train tomorrow’s tech workers have a crucial flaw. They cost money. Today’s workforce has a massive tech talent deficit that impedes growth and leaves regional economies unprepared to compete. Near-term solutions have focused on higher education strategies and new training models like for-profit coding bootcamps. Those are important components…
Sunmi Finds Programming
This course teaches necessary logic technique and patterns, also opening doors for students to find opportunities for a better tomorrow.
Candidate Profile: Learn About Bill
LC101 exceeded my expectations…being able to take an in-person course was tremendously beneficial for me.
Express Scripts & LaunchCode Tech Talent Partnership
Express Scripts needed to hire about two dozen Pega developers in St. Louis, but programmers who are proficient in that platform are in short supply. Fortunately, St. Louis is also the headquarters of LaunchCode.
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