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Student Stories: Bennett Marcelo

Currently studying Full-stack Web Development

Q: How did you end up joining Altcademy?

Well, I originally pursued Nursing as my first career choice. When I finished the prerequisites for the program, I was put on a wait-list. But, I didn’t want to wait for that any longer. My brother-in-law, who is a software engineer, suggested that I should look into coding because software engineers are well paid and highly sought after. At the time, I had no idea what software engineers were until I did some research.I was drawn to the fact that you don’t need a degree to get a great paying job, so I started looking into some bootcamps.

I originally wanted to do an in-person coding bootcamp but realized they were too expensive and not practical while working. I also live in Bakersfield, California where there are no coding schools which meant I would have to move to a big city like Los Angeles or San Francisco, which would have been even more costly.

I decided on an online coding bootcamp which I paid $6,000 for. But, after two days into it, I had to leave the country due to personal reasons and had no idea when I would be able to come back. I didn’t want to waste my time any longer, so my sister helped me find other online bootcamps to attend and found Altcademy.

I looked through website, and I really liked the layout of the curriculum and how it was structured. The price was also unbeatable, I paid less than $2,000 for a personalized 6 to 10 month course where I can learn at my own pace. I am also able to contact my teacher through Slack and usually get a response within the hour.

Q: What’s important for online learning?

The feedback and answers to my questions are the most important. I have heard of people learning on their own but I decided to learn from a bootcamp. I knew that, with bootcamps, I would always be able to have my questions answered right away.

At Altcademy, 60% of the questions are replied within 60 minutes, and 100% of the questions are answered within 24 hours.

It was to my liking that we started with HTML & CSS to ramp up my skills and getting my mind introduced to coding. I also knew learning to code was going to be daunting task, so it was comforting to know that I would be getting support throughout the course.

Ultimately, I want to get a job in software development. I plan to master the skills first and apply for software jobs somewhere in San Jose area or maybe even San Francisco. I also plan on working on my bachelor’s degree in computer science in the future, even though a bachelor’s degree is not a necessity in landing a job in software development.

Q: Any advice for aspiring learners?

When first I started learning, I didn’t know much. Learning new things is always going to be a challenge. Like many others, I sometimes doubt whether I am good enough going into this field. But, I soon realized that I am not alone. Everybody goes through these same struggles and challenges. It’s normal to feel discouraged sometimes. There are times when I don’t exactly know what’s going on.

The advice I have for myself is that: don’t give up; don’t feel stupid; push through all the difficulties!

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Meet our Alumni

Going from beginners to professional coders, 85%+ of Altcademy alumni are hired within 6 months after graduation

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Daniela R.

Salesforce Developer at Stretch

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Kade C.

Junior Developer at St. Louis County

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Tereza Y.

Front-End developer at Golden Bubble Ltd

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Thorsten B.

Team Lead at Locaria

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Henry H.

Frontend Developer at Deriv

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Kevin K.

Wechat App Developer at KX Studio

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Daniel J.

IT Technician at Mythos Technology

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Clark A.

Frontend Developer at Invisible Design

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Susan W.

Software Engineer at Paychex

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Iti A.

Junior Software Developer at Nudge Labs

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Sam M.

Cobol Developer at Auto-Owners Insurance

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Alycia H.

Product Lead at YouTube

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