5 Grads Who Landed Tech Jobs Without a Background in STEM

Some things in life have prerequisites. Before you go on to algebra II, you need to have studied algebra I, and before your first day as a lifeguard, you need to know CPR. But some things don’t. For example, you don’t need a background in STEM to land a career in tech.

We know this because we’ve seen countless people from diverse backgrounds come through our bootcamp and make the professional pivot they were hungry for. Here are just five of their stories.

Jenny Doctor

Initially Jenny’s path was clear. She spent five years getting her degree in education, and believed that would set her up for her entire career. “I thought that I would retire as a music teacher,” she said. 

She even secured the sort of job she’d been aiming for: teaching music at an elementary school. But then the pandemic struck, and she had to scramble to rebuild her lessons. It was rough: “During quarantine, we had to go to teaching online. As you can probably imagine, trying to wrangle four year olds in a Google Meet and teaching the music was really difficult.”

More than just difficult, it led to her burning out. But even through that burnout, she discovered something. “I would make lessons on Google Slides and do basic HTML coding in our lesson software. And I found that I really, really enjoyed that,” she said.

So she followed that budding interest in tech and joined TripleTen’s Software Engineering program, where experts taught her the need-to-know tech skills and guided her when she had questions.

Tutors did one-on-one sessions with me where we would just meet really quickly to talk through the issue. And I'd be able to get really great help and feedback from this professional coder just in that moment. Jenny Doctor, TripleTen grad

She then took the opportunity to hone her skills in an externship — a hands-on tech project with a real-life company — and with her practical know-how and the knowledge she gained at TripleTen, she was ready to make the pivot.

In fact, she was so well-prepared that she even landed a job before she graduated. Now, she’s a software engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Gerardo Antolino Torres II

Gerardo started his career as a baseball player in the minor leagues, but wanted to have an impact, so he decided to make his first switch — to law enforcement. “I had a passion to help people, to make a difference,” he said.

He spent six years in that role, but he soon realized he was approaching a professional ceiling. See, directly helping people was what fueled his aspirations, but growth within the sheriff’s office would take him away from that. “I wanted to be able to be more hands on, help people, and I started realizing there were no other avenues that I wanted to take within law enforcement,” he said.

So he started looking for some way to keep growing and helping people. He discovered quality assurance (QA), and knew it was the path for him. The only question was how to break into the field. TripleTen gave him the flexibility he needed, so he was sold and enrolled in the QA program.

Like Jenny, he appreciated the support. “The tutors were amazing, way better than any tutor that I ever had in college or even the academy,” he said. And with all his new knowledge, he was ready for the job search.

It wasn't instant, but after staying dedicated to sending in applications, he got a hit. During the interview, he easily handled technical questions thanks to the knowledge gained at TripleTen. In fact, he had the exact know-how the company was looking for: “One of the things that drew their attention was the fact that I knew automated testing, and they were trying to start implementing automated testing with some of the software.”

It impressed them so much that they offered him the job. Now, he’s a Software Test Engineer at KBR, Inc., a company that provides tech services to companies and governments worldwide. He’s now helping people — all without the dangers that come with working in law enforcement.

I'm a lot less stressed. I don't have to dodge bullets. I don't have to dodge knives. I don't have to dodge fists. I just have to dodge questions sometimes. Gerardo Antolino Torres II, TripleTen grad

Sheldon Kinsler

It was the inconsistent paycheck that first got Sheldon wondering if his sales career was really the right path for him. See, when you work, you want to be able to rely on a consistent level of income. But he didn’t have that. “Sales is 100% commission-based. So some months are really great. Some months, you really wonder if you have a job. You can't really predict the future for that,” he said.

He got curious about switching, and that’s when a TripleTen ad popped up: “It just seemed really cool. They said that I could learn all these things without having any prior experience.”

He wanted to make sure, so he did his own research and checked in with his cousin, who works as a software developer. With all the signs pointing to it being the right path for him, he enrolled in TripleTen’s Business Intelligence Analytics program.

Naturally, while at the bootcamp, he had to buckle down to learn. But he found himself looking forward to studying, and that helped him stay on track: “I pretty much would put in like a couple of hours every night getting it done because I started enjoying doing it.”

In fact, when he got his code working, he’d even stand up and cheer and share his win with the wider community.

If I would get an assignment correct or one of my pieces of code would go through, I would actually take a screenshot of it and share it with the community or share it with my success manager. Like, ‘Guys! look at this! This is awesome!’ And pretty much everyone would be like ‘Yo, that's so sick!’ Sheldon Kinsler, TripleTen grad

And even before he graduated, his penchant for sharing his wins got him noticed on LinkedIn, where he’d also been posting about his work at TripleTen. The head of a business intelligence department reached out, and soon enough he had an interview. He aced it.

Since then, he’s been working as a Business Data Analyst at an insurance brokerage company, where his paycheck has doubled.

Rachelle Perez

Rachelle had been working in tourism for ten years when she was laid off. It was unmooring for her, but it also spurred her to reflect on her career. See, she’d been in sales, but that had never been the part of the business that had really intrigued her. 

“I was most excited about the operation side of the business: how to make bookings more efficient and how to reduce customer friction. I was interested in data, and I would unknowingly incorporate it,” she said. But that hadn’t been a passion she’d been able to pursue — that data-driven role was simply not something the company had.

Now, she had a chance to use that as the guiding interest for what came next in her career. This led to her discovering a data camp sponsored by the New York City government. Still, she could tell that she hadn’t learned a lot of industry-required skills, so she turned to TripleTen’s Data Science program. At first, she expected it to be easy.

“I was under the perception that I would do really well because I had just done another bootcamp. So, that was my first wake up call. I was like, ‘Oh, I definitely need this because this is not as easy as I thought it would be,’” she said.

But by dedicating herself and collaborating with the experts who were there to help her master all the new material, she got it down. In fact, she mastered it so well that she even caught the attention of an app you might use daily — Spotify. She passed each interview and got to the take-home task. It was intentionally ambiguous, but because of her education at TripleTen, she aced it.

Now, she’s a Data Engineer at Spotify, and she might be behind one of your latest discoveries.

Sometimes you go into the platform, and there are these banners that tell you information, like little boxes that say, ‘Check out a new single from Adele’, ‘Check out this new podcast’. So, that's what my team does. My goal is to make sure that if we have content that you will enjoy, that we help you discover it. Rachelle Perez, TripleTen grad

Dallin Sly

Dallin didn’t graduate from high school. Instead, because of family circumstances, he went for his GED equivalence. Following that, he worked in food service, as a mover, and as a truck driver. It was all driven by one thing: providing for his family. However, his moving job was demanding on his body, and he got injured, so he switched to trucking. It wasn’t any less demanding. 

“I was gone for like six weeks at a time for that first role. It was brutal,” he said. “I absolutely despised leaving for so long, and it was just one of those things where I needed to figure out how to be [home] more.”

Even when he switched to a regional job to try to spend more time with his family, he would find himself spending up to 70 hours driving. A more drastic change was required. He and a friend had always chatted about switching to tech, and Dallin decided it was time. He checked out TripleTen and enrolled, even though he himself admitted, “I had absolutely no experience doing anything with computers.”

He took a typing class to build a basic skill set, got started on the bootcamp, and even though it was challenging, he kept up. After all, the real difficulty for him wasn’t the material — it was imposter syndrome. “My biggest struggle was definitely just that self-doubt,” he said. But he stayed dedicated, and with the help of a career coach, he was ready for an interview he landed. 

He thought he bombed it, but that Friday, he got an email when he was at a stop: “I was like, ‘Oh, there's my rejection letter.’ I clicked on the email, and the top line said, ‘Congratulations.’ I was ecstatic. I was emotional.”

Since then, he’s been a Programmer Analyst for the Polk County BoCC. He has more time for his family, and he can tell just how thoroughly he was prepared for his role.

I was more ready than I thought I would be. I've been able to hit the ground running. I've been able to get tickets done. I've been able to contribute more than I thought I'd be able to right away. So it's been awesome. Dallin Sly, TripleTen grad

See if a bootcamp is right for you, too

None of these grads had a background in STEM, and you don’t need one either. But, to make sure a bootcamp is the right choice for you, take our quick quiz here.