Career Choices

Jacob White is a middle schooler at M.S. 51 and received an honorable mention.

Joseph White was sitting in his office in Manhattan, New York, thinking about his working situation. He worked for a publishing company and had done so for years, but now he was starting to think about his future. He was not satisfied with his job. If he could change it, he would, but this was the only job he could see himself doing, having been an English major in college. He had always been interested in computer programming, but of course, he had almost no training in it. Most people being hired for jobs like that were people in their early 20’s that had just come out of college with a degree in computer programming. Did he even stand a chance of getting a job like that?

Joseph sat at his small cubicle with paperwork stacked like skyscrapers in the bustling city he was working in. He did not want to do this for the rest of his life, he thought. There had to be a better job for him somewhere. He had to make up his mind at some point, though. He had been interested in computer programming for quite some time now and decided that even though it would be a hard job to get, it would probably be his best choice. He had experimented with computer programming and coding before this and had enjoyed it. Even though he knew that many challenges would arise even if he managed to get the job, he thought of all the important people in his life that would support him.

He found this place called “Developer BootCamp”, or “Dev BootCamp” for short. BootCamp is what you take before you are qualified to serve in the army, so this was the course he took before he became a full-time software developer. Dev BootCamp was like a classroom and an office combined. Joseph spent time studying and being taught by teachers but also spent time with his classmates working to create code or debug things independently. He enjoyed his time at Dev BootCamp, but it was very hard work. At first, it was quite challenging to stay focused and committed, and sometimes he felt that it would never work out or it would take too long to be worth it. But, he was being supported by his family and friends, his colleagues, and his teachers at Dev BootCamp. He was learning new things and the end was in sight.

Two years ago, he had been a publisher who thought it impossible to become a computer programmer without a degree in computer programming from college. Now, he works full time as a computer programmer and really enjoys programming. He got a better job than he was much happier in, but it was a very difficult change to make. He had to spend 2 years learning something he was not sure would even work out. Responding to his experience at Dev BootCamp, Joseph said, “Making the transition was not easy, but it has been well worth it and I am glad I made the change.” This story shows that anyone can make a change for the better if they put their mind to it.