From Stressed Out Finance Job To IT Job In Less Than 3 Weeks

What's happening, guys? Welcome back to the channel today. I have another very special guest on the channel. This is Kevin. And Kevin was able to take the course careers I.T. training and he was able to land a job. So I actually don't know anything about Kevin's story. So I'm going to be learning as you guys learn as well. So, Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the channel. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Shane, for having me. I'm happy to be here. Happy to talk about my story. Awesome. Awesome. OK, so let's start off at the very beginning. So before you discovered course careers, before you discovered I.T., tell me about like what was going on in your life. What what kind of educational background did you come from? What kind of jobs were you doing? And what brought you to discovering course careers and going into I.T.? So, yeah, before I course careers before I.T., I was actually working as an associate banker. I was an associate banker for two years. I do have my bachelor's in finance. That's why I was going like the finance route. So I was an associate banker for two years and I was just like very miserable at that job. I didn't see myself growing within the company. It was actually Chase. And the next role after an associate banker would become a banker. And I just didn't see myself becoming a banker. And if like and if you're like in a position or you're in a job where it's like you don't see yourself growing within the job, you just start to hate it. You just start to become miserable. And that's how I felt. I was there for two years and I started feeling like that. Like after my first year, that's when I started to feel like that because I just didn't see myself growing within Chase. And in doing so, that's when I like the same videos that I see online through TikTok, through YouTube about course careers. That's what basically first introduced me to course careers. And and yeah, that's basically how I got introduced into course careers. Awesome. So you saw a video just like this, most likely, you know, someone talking about their story, jumping in to course careers and getting a job. So cool. So you discovered it, you know, just by probably just on your phone one night, just watching videos and it popped up and that's how you discovered it. What made you choose IT, right? Specifically, you could have chosen tech sales. There's a lot of options at course careers. What made you jump into IT specifically? So the main reason for me was actually I first got introduced to cloud. I got introduced to cloud. So that's what basically got me into like IT. But I know like cloud is a very high level job, right? I feel like you need years of experience or, you know, it's not like just an entry level position you can go straight into. And I actually did have a few interviews for cloud engineering. I was able to land a few interviews. And most of the feedback that I got from the recruiters was that for me to start as like an entry level role in IT. So that's basically what got me into like IT and specifically to get like my foot in the door with entry level IT. Got it. OK, that's that's actually. Yeah, that's really smart. That's really smart, because you're right. Cloud is like it's pretty high up there, but it's a super, super valuable skill to learn. And a lot of people get their foot in the door in the tech industry. Straight up with IT. It's probably the easiest way to get your foot in the door. I'd say tech sales or IT. Those are the two easiest ways to get your foot in the door in the tech industry. Yeah. Software development's not that easy to get into anymore. It's like it's actually like quite difficult now to get an entry level job. But a lot of people kind of that instead of like going from entry level software to, you know, upper level software, they go from like IT to like upper level positions and they can kind of move horizontally into upper level, upper level software positions. That's kind of a better way to do it these days. Yeah. So, OK, cool, cool. So that's why you chose IT. How was CourseCruise? How was the course? How was the community, the instructors? How was your experience with it? I bought CourseCruise, I think, at the beginning of this year around like I think like at the end of January, I want to say. And I knew I wanted to change my life. I knew I I knew this course was like the course that I was going to that was going to change my life because of all the previous videos I saw. And everybody just talking about CourseCruise. So I knew this this course was going to change my life. I just I also knew that I had to put time and effort into it. Like everything you do in life, you have to put a time and effort into it. Yeah. So I bought this course late January, late January, and I put like I was still working at Chase and for like the next two, two and a half weeks. All I did was the course. I just put like after work, like three, four hours, Monday through Friday. That's all I did. All I did was the course because I knew I wanted to get it done. I knew I wanted to learn as fast as I could and just proceed with the course like that. And I CourseCruise, I found it very, I wouldn't say like easy, but it was like it was a structured path where it was like easy to follow. It was easy to follow. And and yeah, I feel like I learned a lot through it. And and yeah, it was a big change. I was happy with taking it and I learned a lot through it. I learned a lot through it. Awesome. Awesome. So how long did it take you to get through the course? It took me from when I started like two, two and a half weeks for me to start it, to completely finish it. Got it. Two and a half weeks total. Excellent. Yes, that's really fast, by the way. Good job there. That's really fast. And how long did it take you to land a job after finishing the course? So it took me another two to three weeks after finishing the course. I got I actually got two offers. I got two offers when I completed CourseCruise. One was around like twenty four dollars an hour, which I actually said yes to first. I said yes to first because that's the only offer I had. And then I got the offer, which my current job is, which is like the range was 60 to 70,000 when applying to it. And then I got an offer for that. And then I had to say no to the first offer, which I felt really bad doing so because I already said yes to them. But I had a better offer, so I couldn't say no to the to the better offer. So, yes, it was like two, three weeks after finishing the course. That's incredible. So basically the entire time between like enrolling in the course to finishing it was a month and a half or so. Something like that. Yeah. About a month and a half to four to six. Yeah. Four to six weeks to a completely new job and a completely different industry. Like that's that's pretty incredible. Just to put this in perspective, guys, I you know, I've talked to a lot of students who are, you know, graduating college, for instance. A lot of them are taking six months, eight months, 10 months, 12 months to land a job after they start applying when they're graduating college. So like the economy is pretty rough right now. So like two, you know, two and a half weeks after graduating from the course or a month and a half after starting the course. That's that's pretty good. It doesn't get much better than that. That's like, yeah, that's about as good as it gets. So awesome. Were you able to get a remote job? So my position right now is hybrid. Hybrid. It's hybrid where I do work like five days most of the time from home. Got it. And then Monday to Thursday office. Yeah. Got it. OK, cool. Cool. Yeah. Like a lot of people will. Like their first job, sometimes it will be in person. And then once you get a little experience, if you want to, you can get a remote job. Some people don't want to. Some people like, you know, hybrid or in person. So cool. I feel like the what is it like? Remote or hybrid jobs are like really harder to get and to apply to because it's just like very competitive, especially with like with someone not having any experience in IT and a remote IT job. It's just very highly competitive to get. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's just harder to get. So that's why, like, like a tip that I have right when I went applying to when applying to like entry level IT jobs is I this is what I did. I applied to like just on site, on site and hybrid, because I know those what is it jobs were like less competitive and I had like more chance of like landing an interview and stuff like that. But I know a lot of people do like the remote. So got you. Got you. Yeah. OK. Yeah. And that is a that is a great strategy. I would say another strategy is to apply to jobs in kind of like undesirable areas like small towns and stuff that places where people don't really want to live. That's those are probably the easiest jobs to land, because if you're willing to live in a like an undesirable area, a small town or something, then, you know, it's just super easy to land those jobs. And, you know, to get your first like year of experience, it's it's not a bad thing to do, right? Because it can be hard to get that that initial experience. But once you have that, you're you're way better off. So awesome. By the way, guys, if you're wondering about like what, you know, I.T., the course certificate, I'll put a free training down the description of the pen comment below. It'll go over like what entry level I.T. is like the different jobs they go for. Typically, it's I.T. help desk. That's the most common one. And like what you'd be learning, what you would expect in terms of salary, etc. So check out that free training in the description in the pen comment below, because it'll help you to get into I.T. So what was that first job that you landed? What was the official title? So it was I.T. help desk level one. OK, perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Do you like I.T. help desk? It's actually funny. I was only in that position for like two months because I got promoted right afterwards within the company. Yeah. Well, that's that's awesome. Congrats. So, wow. So two months to get the job, another two months to get a promotion. Yeah. You're crushing it, man. You're absolutely crushing it. That's that's epic, man. OK, so so you were an I.T. help desk for two months. What was the next job? Currently, my current position is I.T. asset analyst. Got you. Got you. OK. And everyone does want to know. Right. So if you want to give a range, like whatever you are comfortable, what was that pay for the entry level job? And then what was the pay for your current job? Yes, I can give a salary. So for my company, the entry level position for help this level one was from 60 to 70,000 starting as a help desk. OK. Awesome. 60 to 70,000 starting. OK. From my current position right now, I.T. asset analyst, the current range for my company is from 65 to 90,000. Got it. OK. Very cool. And you made it there so fast. That's amazing. Yeah. Hey, you're going to be we do an interview next year. You're going to be the CEO of the company. It's funny because all all my friends are saying the same thing. Like, just give it a few more months, you know. Yeah. You'll be CEO next year. That's awesome. That's awesome. OK. So, yeah, yeah. Congrats. That's really amazing. So, OK, so I think a lot of people would also want to know about kind of like work life balance and job satisfaction. So how is your work life balance in your job satisfaction now compared to when you were working in the finance industry? Finance industry, by the way, is known for having very bad work life balance. And generally speaking, like job satisfaction is not the best either. So, yeah. How is that now? So for me, when I was an associate banker, my work life balance wasn't the worst. But it's more of the fact that like it was just very repetitive. What I did on the day to day tasks, it's just very repetitive. And you eventually just get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. And like I said, I just didn't see myself going within the company because when I was an associate banker, I worked I worked like nine to five or eight to five thirty, like that type of schedule. But honestly, I didn't have to work after hours, usually anytime, because it's just when the bank would be open or when it would be closed. And but now I work eight to four. So it is a little bit more. I do have a little bit more time for myself. And and like I said, for me, it's like every single day. So it's a different thing. It's a different project I have to do. It's a different one. I was helped us different ticket. Like no, like every single day it was a different task I had to do. Not not one single day was like the same day as previous. It was always different. And honestly, that's what I like. I just I just I for me, I just didn't like the repetitiveness of doing the same task over and over and over again. Yeah. OK, so so you basically like the new the new job, the new situation better. OK. Yeah, a lot better. I love it. Yeah. Got it. Got it. Well, actually, between your current role and I see help desk, which which one did like, did you like one better than the other or something like I don't know, I guess each has its ups and downs. Right. Because when I was in help desk, I did have a lot of like not I wouldn't say a lot, a lot of downtime, but I did have a little bit more downtime than what I have now. So during that downtime, I would I my company pays for you to me and for my certifications. So I would have time to like during my downtime when I was a help desk, like the two months I was there, I would be able to like go through any course or do any course that I wanted to do. And they would pay for my certifications. I mean, they still pay now, but I guess I had the downtime before to do all that. Now, in my current role as an IT analyst, most of my days are like full. Where's like I don't really have a lot of downtime like that. I don't have a lot of downtime like that where I could just, you know, play a video in the background. I could listen to music and stuff, but it's not like I could, you know, watch a video and take notes and stuff like that. Yeah, I feel you. So, yeah, so honestly, like I like it. I like both, you know, both. I feel like I like what I tell IT as an analyst now, because for me, it feels like I'm growing within the company already. Yeah, two months. And I'm also learning a lot. I'm learning a lot as I grow. So so, you know, you can't hate on that. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I could I could definitely see. Yeah, the benefits of both of those, for sure. Like you with the downtime, you could get more certificates and certifications and level up even more. But that's that's cool. OK, cool. So what would you say is like a to someone who's on the fence about jumping into course careers, what would you say to them? Like, should they do it? Should they should they not do it? Like what what should they consider? What would you say to somebody who's like watching this right now? They're on the fence about jumping in. In my opinion, they should do it without any hesitation. I know it's like obviously what I feel like anything you do in life, right? You have to pay money for whether you go to college or whether you take a course. I went to college. I went to four years to get my bachelor's in finance. And I honestly wish I didn't do that. And I honestly wish I knew about course careers a lot sooner. But but hey, I'm not going to, you know, look back at the four years and disregard college because, you know, to each their own. But for me, in my personal opinion, I I would have chosen the course career route. And for anybody that's like on the fence about it, I feel like you really don't have much to lose, especially if you put in like so much time and so much effort into this course, you will see results. You will see results. And yeah, so anybody that's on the fence, go get the course. OK, love it. Love it. I yeah, it's I've heard similar sentiment from a lot of people who, you know, have gone to college. It's like, yeah, it was a good experience and stuff. But I don't know if it was actually worth it at the end of the day. Yeah, I kind of wish there's like a lot of other ways to get a good job. So but I kind of, you know, thought that that was the only way. And that kind of thing. So, yeah, especially when you're like at a young age, you feel like if you don't go to college, you're not going to be successful. And it's also the fact like maybe like when you're like 18, just out of high school, you don't really know exactly what you want to do. So that's why maybe you just enroll into college just to like maybe like find out what exactly you want to do. So like that's why like I don't regret going to college. I had a great experience. I did spend a lot of money, though, on tuition. But but hey, it is what it is. And I'm just happy I found course careers now and I was able to learn a lot from it. So for sure. For sure. Cool. So, OK, so you found course careers and you're you're you would definitely recommend that somebody jumps into it. What would you say is your number one tip to somebody who wants to go into IT specifically? What is your number one tip for them to get a job? OK, so for someone who doesn't have like any prior experience, right? One well, one thing I would say is like to build projects, especially if you have no experience, if you have no experience, recruiters, they like to see you do you like showing them projects that you've done on your own time, especially with no experience. Like this just puts you on top of everybody else that doesn't have experience. And there's many like projects that you could search up online and stuff. But also course careers offers, they teach you many great projects. And that's why I that's why I like course careers, because it's like all a structured path to learn. And it's just to be able to land your first entry level IT job. It's just everything structured. It's a structured path. And it's not like, oh, you could take or like, how do I say this? You could do projects on your own, like through YouTube and stuff. But it might take longer as well. Like with trial and error, I feel like if you don't want to waste more time, I would just follow the course. Everything's outlined for you. Yeah, for sure. And you were saying something earlier, like every way of getting educated costs money. I would argue that I would argue I agree with what you said there. But really, it costs it either costs your money or your time. Right. Yeah. Like you have to pay with your money or your time. Like there's lots of free. Yeah, you can you can get a there's lots of free stuff out there. And, you know, if you study it long enough, you'll probably be able to get a job. But, you know, it might take you like a year to get a job instead of a couple weeks. Right. So you can pay with your buddy or your time in that year. You could have been making money in IT, you know, you know, making significantly more money or just like having better work life balance or whatever. So I didn't get like, you know, a couple of promotions at the end of the year. So, you know, yeah, you pay with your money or your time at the end of the day. And of course, careers is super affordable. It's designed to be for entry level people or career switchers. So, you know, that's it's it's the best option on the market, which is why, you know, I've always promoted them. So, OK, awesome. So that is the tip when it comes to the portfolio. I'm sure a lot of people are wondering, where do you put the portfolio? Because that's what you were talking about is doing projects, right? Creating a portfolio. Do you link it on your resume? Like, where do you actually post the portfolio? So, yeah, so I do link it on my resume. And like so. So first, I actually have my GitHub, my GitHub link portfolio on my resume. But I also have like the link to each resume, to each portfolio, to each project that I've done as well. So not just my portfolio, but also the link to each project directly on it. OK, got you. That's so it's like I was going to say, like on your resume, you could just put like the title of the project, maybe a little description of tools you use or description of what the project is. And then underneath it, you could put the link to the project. And that's I like how you put each individual project because that makes it really easy for them to. And pro tip, guys, I'm sure I'm sure Kevin got this right, of course. But I have seen people that where they'll put their portfolio on their resume and then people have to request access to view your portfolio. That's not that's not good. Don't don't do that. OK, make sure they don't have to request access to view it. But yeah, yeah. So resume, LinkedIn, all good places, like especially in tech, tech, certain other types of careers, UI, UX, design, any basically anything in tech portfolios are pretty much mandatory. You need to have a portfolio. There's some certain other types of careers we can get away with not having it. But it's it's still a nice to have even in the careers where you don't need to have it. It's still a really nice to have. Like people people love to see that. So, you know, yeah, go ahead, especially with someone with no experience. Yeah, especially. Exactly. If you have no experience like that is your experience, that's your way of showcasing your experience right there. So and it's also a way for them to see what it would be like to work for you. Right. Because, for instance, putting a link to the individual project shows that you're a conscientious person. Right. You didn't make them go through, read your portfolio and then go to your GitHub and like search for the individual project. You just linked it to the project that shows that you're an empathetic and conscientious person that wants to make it as easy as possible for them to check out that individual project. Right. So the stuff like little stuff like that really matters. And it makes a big difference when, you know, recruiters, hiring managers, business owners, et cetera, are looking at your portfolio. So and that's the kind of stuff that, you know, we try to teach a course here. So overall, guys, check it out. Link in the description in the comment below. Any last moment words, any any last moment encouragement to anybody? And also, is there anything that I should have asked you, but I didn't? I can't really think of anything you should have asked me. I think I said I think I said basically my my full story of like my experience through it and just like last few words for anybody on the fence. Once again, check it out. If you don't really know, if you do, if you know that you want to get into it or you don't know how, of course, is a great starting kit or starting a structured path to go through. And it's totally worth it. It's totally worth your time, totally worth the money. So, yeah. And another thing I'll say, guys, is like all of these course careers alumni that they come on my channel, like they're all very busy people, including Kevin. And the reason that they take time out of their day to do this is because they feel like they got more value out of course careers than they received. Right. They didn't pay course careers that much money, and they were able to land a completely new career and a new job. Right. So they feel like they gave it. They got a ton of value. And that's why they feel like they want to give back to the community. Right. So like like nobody's getting paid to come on these interviews, by the way. That's another thing is once in a while I get comments like you're paying these people. No, we're not paying anybody to be on these interviews. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So Kevin took time out of his day to do this because he really appreciates like what course careers was able to do for him. And he wants to give back to the community and help other people, you know, switch careers or get entry level jobs as well. So, Kevin, really appreciate you coming on, sharing your story. Also, can we get you back on here in a couple of years when you're CEO? We can. That'd be even better story. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I'll tell my story from then. Awesome, man. OK, well, awesome. I'm going to go ahead and end it now. But yeah, hopefully we get you back on. Take care, Kevin. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything. Yeah.