Getting Out of a Dead-End Job: Matt Lansing’s TripleTen Story

Typically, when we explain why a career is lacking, we lean on reasons that are the most easily understood. The low pay barely covers rent. The long hours leech away valuable recharge time. The mind-numbing work leaves you drained by the end of the day.

But there are subtler, more sinister ways in which a deficient career can interrupt a vibrant life. It can foreclose your ability to plan, to dream, or to imagine a better situation in the future. After all, with no growth on the horizon, nothing’s going to change. Same old paycheck. Same old long hours. Same old dreary work. Why even try to build towards a different life?

Of course, that assumes that you’re irrevocably stuck in a dead-end job. And, as Matt Lansing proves, you’re not. Here’s how he made the professional pivot that’s allowing him to dream again.

Taking stock of a diverse but dead-end career

After studying sports and exercise science, Matt bounced from job to job. He was trying to find a career that would help him achieve his financial goals, and so tested numerous different paths. He worked in the drywall and construction industry. He spent seven months teaching seventh-grade science. Finally, he ended up in healthcare compliance. It was dead-end job after dead-end job. Nothing was quite putting him on the path toward the future he was aspiring to.

Growing up in a family where both my parents worked and provided really great opportunities for myself and my siblings, it was always a dream of mine to provide a life for my wife, our future kids, our dogs, where we would be able to do everything that I was able to do growing up. Matt Lansing, TripleTen grad

So he started doing his research, and tech seemed right for him. Not only would it set him up financially, but it offered flexible work setups, something he was especially interested in. See, in his healthcare compliance role, he had to drive up to four hours to get to the facility he was inspecting. Not only did this mean he felt financially incapable of realizing his dreams — if something miraculously changed with his salary, he might not even have the time to be with the family he was putting in all that effort to provide for.

He wanted to get into tech — fast. That eliminated the degree route, and when he considered guiding his own learning, he realized that also wasn’t for him: “I work best when I have benchmarks, when I have goals, when I have structure.”

Scrolling through Instagram one day, an ad for TripleTen popped up. He wanted to make sure it was as good as it seemed, so he checked the reviews, read up on the bootcamp on Reddit, and liked what he saw. The money-back guarantee_{What You Need to Know about the TripleTen Money-Back Guarantee} and the career acceleration offerings both showed him just how serious TripleTen was about getting him into tech and away from the dead-end jobs he felt stuck in. Convinced, he scheduled a call with one of our advisors.

After a frank one-on-one, he was sold, and he enrolled in the Quality Assurance (QA) program.

Gaining the skills to power the career pivot

Diving into the program, Matt appreciated the structure.

The projects were tailored to the learning needs. They encompassed what we were learning in the sprints, and we were able to learn as we went. And the building blocks that we learned in the earlier sprints were evident throughout the entire project and throughout the entire program. Matt Lansing, TripleTen grad

But he was also realistic about where he was coming from. “I got a degree in sports and exercise science, which I don't think could be any further from the tech realm,” he said. So he knew he needed to really take his studies seriously to land the pivot he was aiming for. He hit upon a few strategies.

First, since he was also working while studying, he made sure not to be too strict with himself. He had milestones, but they weren’t do-or-die: “The most important strategy that I had was setting realistic goals for myself and then, additionally, when I wasn't able to meet a goal, not beating myself up about it.”

And while he did take advantage of TripleTen’s extensions and breaks_{Yes, Our Bootcamp Is Flexible. Here’s Why That Matters for Students.} to make sure he could see to his responsibilities outside of the bootcamp, he stayed dedicated to learning. This was met with mutual dedication from TripleTen experts: “I can't say enough about the tutors’ hours and their responsiveness when you ask a question.”

In fact, at one point, he showed up to a tutoring session he wasn’t sure he should be attending. He joined the call and quickly dropped from it, but then the tutor messaged him to ask if he needed help. Matt rejoined, and the tutor gave him the instruction he needed to tackle a problem he’d been trying to solve.

But not only the tutors helped him supercharge his skills_{The Quality Assurance Engineer Skills You Need in 2025}. TripleTen had a deep repository of knowledge that he could reference as he was studying

When you don't have any experience in coding, and you can go search up a resource that teaches you a little bit more about coding, about the languages, and walks you step by step on how to get a little bit more proficient at those things — it offers a lot of value for someone who isn't the most techy. Matt Lansing, TripleTen grad

The know-how down, he was ready for what came next: landing the job.

A tech career that allows him to dream

Just as the tutors were there to power Matt’s learning journey, his career coach_{Career Coaching at TripleTen: What It Is and How It Helps You Land a Job} was there to strengthen and hone his job search.

I really do credit TripleTen's career coaching program with giving me the strategy and the boldness to proceed with my job search. Matt Lansing, TripleTen grad

See, taking an anything-and-everything application approach just wouldn’t be effective for Matt. So he and his coach came together to focus his search on places he’d already have a leg up: “We were able to set strategies following the program that allowed me to identify industries that I would be more ideally suited for than just applying for every job that came across my desktop.”

And this specificity worked. After two months of the search, he got a hit. Now, strictly speaking, it wasn’t for a job in QA engineering — instead, he decided to merge his past in working with customers with his new expertise to go for a career in customer success. It was the right move for him.

Getting my foundation in the technological field, and using my QA certification allowed me to leverage my newfound knowledge of software and mobile applications and just the tech realm in general… It allowed me to seek out a job in customer success because that leverages both my personality and the professional skills that I've developed. Matt Lansing, TripleTen grad

It was the first interview he had, and he didn’t need another. He landed the job. Now he’s a Customer Success Manager at GRAITEC, an Autodesk reseller, and the position is remote, so he no longer has to lose time commuting unrealistic distances: “Working remotely versus out on the road — it's better for the relationships with the people in my life. I don't have to worry about missing as many events because I'm not spending all of my time out on the road or in a facility away from the people I love.”

And best of all, it’s opening up space for Matt to follow through on his dream of becoming a foster parent: “My wife and I are planning on fostering, and this will give us the flexibility to really take care of these kids that we want to take care of.”

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