What We Have Done | 
On our last webinar, we got this question on: “Can I get a coding job with just a certificate?”. Let’s find out together in this blog!
Audrey: The next question is by Rajah. Rajah says, “Which position can I enter for my career? “Is it possible for me to enter into the coding industry “with just a certificate of coding?” Very interesting. Okay. So this is how I actually talk to quite a number of friends, and for me one key thing is I try to understand which phase of life you’re in. First thing first let’s just answer the second part. Is it possible to enter the industry with just a certificate of coding? Believe it or not, this has been a very interesting industry because there are so many companies who will come up to me and say, “Can you code or not? “Can you do an app or not? “Do they understand data structures well or not?” And the key thing, this is a very interesting opportunity because they told me, “You know, I’ve seen a lot of graduates out there, but, they don’t have enough hands on experience.”
Different role from universities
So I think, for us, we play a very different role from universities. For us, ours is very practical, very practical. I think it’s very complementary, whatever, both what unis can offer and what Next Academy can offer. So uni offers a lot of concepts, a lot of theoretical concepts, which I think is important as well because you want to know how things starts. You want to know how things are like, and so in the future you can innovate as well. But at the same time, for us Next Academy, we focus on hands on coding. So we spend 90% of the time just coding, coding, coding and people are there to build things, to build apps, to build solutions, to explore new technology, to implement new technology. And I think we have been very fortunate to have so many employers reaching out to us. A lot of them have hired Next Academy graduates before and had a very good experience with them and say that, “Wow, these guys are not from IT background and “they assimilate well with the company ” and they are contributing so much in the company. “That’s great.” Right? “I don’t need that, what I care about is your portfolio.
“I want to see the student’s portfolio “and see how they contribute.” So certification is one thing, but what people care about is beyond certification, because a certificate can’t tell me if you’re good or not. But when I look at your portfolio, when I look at what we call GitHub, GitHub is where you store all your portfolio of code. When I look at your GitHub, I really don’t care, I still need to look down, I still need to go down to code and see what you can do with it. So what position can I enter for my career with coding? It’s interesting because there are so many opportunities out there. First thing first, right, last time when we talk about tech jobs, they talk about, oh, building apps, become a data scientist, building apps, become a data scientist, do AI machine learning, you know, it’s very specialized technologies, we call it technology specialist. But today I’m seeing a shift as well, right. Today, you know, sometimes people are saying like, “You know what? “I’m looking for accountants who can code.
“I’m looking for consultants who can code.” It’s very interesting, right? “I’m looking for finance people who can code.” Sometimes you start saying: I’m not really looking for a, I mean, I would love to have a coder, but I would want someone who understands code very well. Because these are the people, let’s just say, I’m a finance person, I have finance background, and I can code. I am at the best position to impact the industry, to come up with solutions. Compared to someone who only know finance. This person can only imagine what sort of automation could happen. Or compared to someone who knows how to code but don’t know anything about finance. You bring this person in and you tell that person, “Accounting, eh credit, debit”, that person look at you and say, “I don’t know what you’re saying.” So today I’m seeing people who are looking for two different disciplines that can merge and that can come in hand in hand together. So I think this is a very interesting opportunity. That is something that you can also look into.
Combining industries together
For people who are mid-career for example, I have people who are in their late 30s, early 40s asking me, “Audrey, you know, how the economy is like, “things are not looking really well in the job market. If I learn to code, where should I go to? “What should I do?” You know guys, I think this is a very legit question. Some of them just tell me, “It’s very hard for me”, they said, “It’s very hard for me to start fresh, from scratch. “Go down all the way to a fresh software developer, you know,” as a fresh grad pay. “I have family commitments and so on.” And this is a very real conversation, guys, and I had this conversation with quite a number of them, and I said, “You know what? “I understand that it’s very hard for you “to change your career all the way to a software developer.”
But you are an expert, you are a master in the industry “that you are in right now. “My question is this. “If you know technology, are you able to figure out ways “that could disrupt the industry?” Because I think that is what a lot of companies are looking for. There’re companies are looking for ideas but now you as an expert comes in, you are an expert in the industry you’re in, maybe say oil and gas, you join an oil and gas company and you say, “Hey guys, “I have very good knowledge of oil and gas” for example, “and I understand coding as well. “And I can code as well, let me be able to, come up with a solution “where I marry both oil and gas “and tech together and this can grow the company you know, “in a better way.”
The hardest people to find are people who understand the industry well, and also understand technology well. So if you’re in a mid-career change and you’re thinking how can coding help you, I’ll say guys, this is where you can leverage on your expertise in the industry, plus your tech, your knowledge in technology. You may or may not be the one to code in the end. It doesn’t matter. But very often a lot of people need that one person who speaks the right lingo to both sides, to both the oil and gas or your management or whatnot, as well as the developers to be able to work together and to create a sustainable, good solution for the company. So I do hope that helps answer your question.
