I came out of retail with no IT background. The start was rough — I had to pause videos and rewatch them just to keep up. The instructors never made me feel dumb, which mattered more than I realized. I passed my certs, landed IT support in the education sector, and now my manager is training me on security tickets. I wouldn’t have been trusted with that without this program.

I was working front desk at a clinic before this and barely touched anything technical. The first few weeks of class felt impossible, but the labs forced me to actually practice. I failed plenty, but each time I got a little further. That’s the same persistence I use now in my analyst role — tracking down issues in hospital systems. If I hadn’t learned to keep going in those labs, I wouldn’t be in this job.

I’d never worked in tech before and honestly doubted if I could make it. The program tied every lecture back to what real jobs expect, and that helped me connect the dots. I pulled late nights to finish assignments, but it paid off. In my first IT role at a cloud services company, I was able to jump right in because I’d already practiced the same troubleshooting and ticketing skills during class.