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Today’s post is written and sponsored by Austin Coding Academy. Thank you for supporting the brands and organizations that support San Antonio Mom Blogs!
Do you love your job? Be honest. Do you feel like you make enough money or have enough time with your family? While the answer for a lot of us might not be, “I have the worst job ever,” most of the time it’s also not, “I have the best job ever!” Did you know “Software Developer” consistently makes US News’ list for best jobs? Did you also know that there are more than 600 unfilled developer jobs in San Antonio alone, and that the average salary is about $60,000?
Despite what those folks over at Google would have you believe, Silicon Valley isn’t the only place on the planet where tech happens. In fact, there’s been an exodus of tech experts from the San Francisco Bay area lately, thanks to the ridiculously-high housing prices in SoCal that take a huge chunk out of those otherwise-decent salaries. Both start-ups and established tech-orientated companies are setting up shop away from Silicon Valley, in affordable, livable places like San Antonio which, according to Digital Trends, is, “quickly becoming a hub for biotechnology and cybersecurity firms.”
Austin Coding Academy offers accessible and affordable courses in software coding and has since 2014. Now we’re opening a new location in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio’s tech boom over the past few years provides jobs for highly skilled coders that need to filled. We’re here to help.
Despite the lures of higher pay and more comfortable work environments, the idea of just jumping into the tech industry can be an intimidating one. When it comes to learning to code, there are many options out there. There are more free resources available online than ever before and the proliferation of full-time coding “boot camps” have ushered in a new style of technical learning unseen in the past. While these are both great options for some, for many others, teaching themselves online lacks structure and accountability, while boot camps tend to be prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
At ACA we take students from beginner status to job-ready through three, 10-week courses. Our goal is to normalize coding and make getting an education in it straightforward and approachable, while also keeping tuition costs low and class schedules practical. We do this by teaching classes in the evening and creating an incredible learning experience where it’s ok to make mistakes and ask questions. In fact, it’s encouraged.
Austin Coding Academy offered the ability to learn how to code without having to quit the temporary day job I had gotten to support my family. The more I learned about HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the more passionate I became about web development and the school itself. My professors gave me the one-on-one attention I needed to completely understand and master complex concepts, while pushing me enough to challenge my own intellectual limits.”
– Luke Stenis, class of Spring 2016.
Luke Stenis, a recent graduate from ACA, shared his story with us recently. When he first enrolled in classes he had just been laid off and was looking for a way to break into Texas’ tech industry. With a young family to support, he couldn’t commit to a full time program and so was looking for a way to learn how to code while still maintaining the temporary job he had gotten to pay the bills.
Now, exactly one year removed from a director-level position in digital marketing, I successfully changed careers into web development.”
– Luke Stenis
While it shouldn’t be understated how hard Luke worked to make that transition, his is just one of the many stories about people we’ve helped successfully transition from non-tech to tech careers. At ACA, we have graphic designers and teachers, bartenders and entrepreneurs, parents and teenagers, and all sorts of other professionals who’ve come to ACA to learn to become successful coders. The only common denominator we’ve been able to deduce about our students is that they are all looking to make a positive change in their lives and they’re all willing to work hard to make it happen.
About 670 new coding jobs were created in the Alamo City in 2015 – jobs that come along with nice, hefty paychecks and a ton of awesome add-ons. With the continued demand for technology in business, it’s clear that tech workers will be a hot commodity for a very, very long time. We’re here to help build this sector in San Antonio and we’d love to have you join us.
Our next session of classes in San Antonio begins July 18th. Classes are broken up into Intro, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. They run 10 weeks at a time and are taught twice a week, in the evenings. Learn more about our courses on our website or keep up with our latest news and events on Facebook and Twitter.
Luke Filipos is co-founder of Austin Coding Academy. Together, with Chris Sica, they created ACA in 2014. He grew up in Portland, Maine and went to college in Virginia where he and Sica Sica met. Alongside a love for growing communities, Luke spends his free time cooking, traveling and practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
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