Originally from Southern California,
Kyle Grieder moved to Utah for school, where he later started a family and his career as a sales agent. Now, after attending a coding bootcamp at DevMountain, he works in a whole new role — web developer. Read about Kyle’s full journey below!
Prior to attending his Web Development program at DevMountain, Kyle worked at a company called Clearlink as a sales agent. He liked working at his company, but the role wasn’t quite the right fit for his long-term goals.
He had always been drawn to technology, so he decided to switch careers and began looking for coding bootcamps to help build those skills.
“I’ve always been interested in computers, video games, just anything related to technology. After working here for a while I decided I wanted to try and get in that field.”
During his search, he came across DevMountain’s iOS development course. With a long-held interest in Apple products and the way they work, he knew that he would potentially want to build an app in the future. So, he decided to enroll to gain the skills he needed.
And then the question came: how would he pay for the program?
“Initially I went in 2015, and even just four years ago coding bootcamps were a little bit cheaper than they are now, but still pretty expensive. I didn’t necessarily know if it was going to pay off, how well it was going to pay off, or when it would pay off, but I wanted to do it.“
Kyle asked about DevMountain’s financing options and introduced to Climb. After a simple online application, he was approved for the loan and on his way to building the skills for a new career!
“It was really easy, very straightforward, and I would do it again if I needed to.”
So with his enrollment set and his financing approved, Kyle started his program at DevMountain and began skills to help him thrive on his new career path.
“The first thing is that I really learned how to think like a programmer … I learned how to teach my mind to think in a certain way that would let me solve the problems that you encounter when you’re doing programming. It requires very logical thinking — and step-by-step thinking — and you have to train your brain to think that way. But once you do it kind of just clicks.”
Kyle also learned that programming is a field that requires continuous learning.
“The other thing that I learned is how to learn. What I mean by that is the whole process of programming and software engineering, development, whatever you want to call it, is kind of one big trial. You stumble through things, you have to figure things out, and so you have to learn how to teach yourself the things that you don’t know. Basically through the program I was able to learn how to go and get information that I don’t have…”
After Kyle completed his program (with flying colors) he was invited to be a mentor for future students at DevMountain, which “allowed [him] to continue learning but also gave [him] the chance to help other people learn.”
Although he didn’t immediately apply the new skills in his career, one of the things that he really liked about DevMountain was their policy allowing graduates to retake their classes for free. When he was ready to pursue the career path later, he was able to go back and refresh his skills.
“When opportunities presented themselves to get back into learning programming and pick it back up again, I was able to go back to DevMountain and basically retake the class that I had already taken absolutely for free. This helped me get myself back in the mindset and kind of relearn some of the stuff that I had let degrade over time. At DevMountain they are all about learning, and anyone who goes there, they really want them to get the most out of it so that they can make something of themselves afterwards.”
Kyle got the opportunity to move to a new department within Clearlink and apply his skills at the company he already loved working for.
“Clearlink’s a great company, and they’ve always taken really good care of me. It was more about enjoying what I was doing on a daily basis rather than moving to a different company…
“I’ve loved working here ever since I started, but the job that I was doing previously — it just wasn’t it. I didn’t have any passion or drive for it. It wasn’t something that I enjoyed doing, it was just kind of something I was doing to pay the bills. But now I wake up in the morning excited to go to work, and I don’t like to miss work. Everything that I do on a day-to-day basis I fully enjoy and I have a passion for. I have ownership over the products that I work on, and there’s no comparison … it’s night and day … I love what I do, I love my job. I can honestly say that getting the experience that I got and working towards this changed my life in a lot of ways.”
Now that Kyle is thriving in his new career, he has some advice about going to a coding bootcamp.
“I think if I could go back, I would tell myself not to let myself fall out of it after I was finished. If I could go back I would make sure that I stuck with it after the first time that I started learning programming … I would encourage myself to start taking it more seriously at that time and get a head start on it because then I’d just be farther today than I am currently because I’d have more experience…”
Kyle concluded his story by reflecting on his life before and after attending DevMountain:
“…that initial taste of being a programmer and learning development really kind of created the spark — that created the fire — that I have in me now to do what I do. It really kind of showed me what my passion is in terms of my career. I guess I don’t think about this too often, but just thinking about it now from this conversation — that really was the starting point for me, and so it really had a huge effect on my life.”
Check out more from Kyle and Clearlink!
Kyle is a client of Climb’s. However, he was not paid or otherwise compensated for this testimonial. This testimonial reflects the real-life experiences and opinions of Kyle; however, it should not be assumed that all users will have the same experiences. Individual results may vary.
The quoted statements appear verbatim as given by the user, except for the correction of grammar and typing errors. Some testimonials may have been shortened or rearranged for the sake of clarity.
One thought on “Climb Credit Student Success Story: DevMountain Graduate Kyle Grieder”
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