TJ Livermore believes there’s never a bad time to reinvent yourself. That’s why UofT SCS Cybersecurity Boot Camp was such an enticing option for him. After working as an HVAC technician for 11 years, TJ decided it was time for a change. He’s always had a passion for technology, but lacked the hands-on skills he…
“Learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Learning doesn’t occupy a finite space in time, and it isn’t just a four-year, pre-career commitment — at least, not for Andy Durette. If you want to be successful in work or in life, you need…
After nine years of working in IT, Harinder Bhathal was ready for a new challenge. He didn’t want to fully part with technology, just change directions, and pinpointed cybersecurity as his next move. “In cybersecurity, you’re always learning,” he said. “I really liked that.” Landing a cybersecurity job without direct experience would require dedication — but that…
Having moved from India to Saudi Arabia to Canada, Anas Qazi was no stranger to change. But when he first arrived in Toronto hoping to break into the city’s growing IT industry, he realized just how much was different from his previous experience in the field. Anas had years of experience working with physical servers in Saudi…
When Faissal Islambouli first immigrated from Lebanon to Canada, he was most excited about the opportunity to expand his career choices. This meant pursuing technology, a field he’d always been fascinated with but didn’t have the ability to pursue back home. The only problem was that Faissal wanted to explore it all. He needed to gain new…
Kaliesha Pickering didn’t always know that she was interested in coding and web development. But after working for five years at Bell, the largest telecommunications company in Canada, she had learned enough about the field to discover that she was hungry to learn more. Kaliesha’s next step was launching her own business. While still employed at Bell,…
In 2011, Shahmeer Amjad immigrated from Pakistan to Toronto. Less than 10 years later, he attended University of Toronto SCS Data Analytics Boot Camp, building a portfolio of data-driven projects that captured the city’s unique themes, from its restaurant scene to its real estate landscape. Shahmeer graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a background…
Paskwa Mutunga launched her career in technology infrastructure and operations, performing systems management and administration. She enjoyed implementing the infrastructure for various organizations, but found her fascination with the actual software continuing to grow. Paskwa was drawn to the creativity and possibilities of software development — and in short, she felt she was missing out on…
Nitin Madaan was born and educated in India. When he got a job offer in the U.S. to work in business analytics, he made the move without hesitation. Four years later, he decided to go back to school for music production. After receiving his music degree, Nitin wanted to pivot back to analytics, but the industry…
“For me, everything came back to confidence. In order to succeed, I needed to believe I could be accepted as a developer at my age.” – Fil Gambatesa From the outside, it looked like Fil Gambatesa had it all: At age 52, he was the senior director of technology transformation for one of Canada’s leading banks. But…
Christine Hong knew she wanted a job in the tech industry. What she didn’t know was how to make it happen. A year and a half out of college, she was desperately craving a career change. But without any formal computer science education or experience, securing a technical position felt impossible. “I was tired of drifting…
Many of today’s leading employers are beginning to embrace new models of education, including online learning. As a result, we see a number of employers hiring online boot camp s due to their work ethic and combination of hard skills (technical knowledge) and soft skills (adaptability, collaboration, creativity, etc.). Because of the fast-paced nature of…
Until recently, Rajiv Ahuja spent his entire career working in client management, but on the side, he had been pursuing furthering his education in technology. Fascinated by the evolving field and endless learning opportunities it provided, Rajiv was always searching for online courses and training programs that would quench his thirst for knowledge. Even with a couple…
As a technical recruiter for the largest bank in Canada, Anja Milenkovic learned a lot about STEM professions. Tasked specifically to look for cybersecurity talent, she grew to understand what it would take to live in that world. It intrigued her. “My exposure to cybersecurity gave me a lot of perspective. I wanted to do something more…
The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies recently published a story about one of its enthusiastic boot camp learners, Saumil Bapat. So genuine is Saumil’s enthusiasm for tech and for UofT SCS that he is involved in not just one but two of the school’s boot camps: He completed the Coding Boot Camp earlier this year, and he…
By Lisa Santonato Six months ago I committed to a ‘boot camp’ program in data analytics. I had been thinking for some time about developing skills in this relatively new field. Two years prior, in 2016, I had started my master’s in cinema and media studies at York University and had hit a major roadblock with…
Toronto is well-known for its vibrant technology industry and culture of innovation. It’s a great place to work and live if you have a passion for the field—and is even considered the “Silicon Valley of the North.” While Paolo La Vita was part of this buzzing tech scene as an information systems analyst, he wanted to be…
Some passions last a lifetime and impact the trajectory of our lives. That was the case for Allan Hartigan. His love of tech started way back in the 1980s when computers were new and exciting. “Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in computers,” he said. “I was one of the first people…
Not many people have the courage or drive to uproot their lives and relocate 6,000 miles…for a dream. But Aboozar Mojdeh is not most people. Inspired by instinct alone, Aboozar jumped into the unknown—and into the University of Toronto Coding Boot Camp. It would turn out to be a move that transformed his life. A Young…
When Toronto resident Lisa Freedman found out she had breast cancer, she asked herself a simple question. What’s my passion? At 58, the legal adjudicator knew the answer. It wasn’t the law; it was technology. Coupled with her diagnosis, that realization was a big wake-up call for Lisa. And it started a journey which led…
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