Student Stories - Abdirisak’s Effective Approach to Job Hunting
Importance of the right attitude for anyone learning how to code
Abdirisak Mohamed, a Fikrcamp full-stack bootcamp student, recently landed a remote job as a entry level software developer through LinkedIn at a company in the United States.
Abdirisak joined Fikrcamp only a few months ago, but he has already showed significant improvement in his abilities, not only in technical skills but also in other valuable skills such as proper communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and curating himself as a strong candidate for jobs using LinkedIn.
Abdirisak was born and bread in Burco city, he had aspirations of getting into finance industry at early age, but had a change of heart after he has seen a documentary released by Google titled The Age of AI which has inspired him to pursue a career in technology.
Eagerness to learn
After his application to Fikrcamp bootcamp, the selection team reported that Abdirisak enquired about the program commencement many times, displaying drive and hunger to elevate his skills, his passion is off the charts - during the program he usually stays back at the facility after classes and weekends as he constantly codes, learns or challenges himself by building things. This dedication allowed him to grapple with the most important concepts and uplift his abilities.
"Learning how to code is difficult, especially when doing so on your own. I didn't have a good path/curriculum to follow when I initially started learning how to code, and I didn't have an instructor or mentor who could help, which often led to burnout and pushed me to stop coding for a long time thinking this was impossible to achieve.”
It is estimated that every year more than 300,000 people purchase programing courses online and only less than 21% commit, finish and are able to apply the knowledge and skills they have obtained from the online courses according to World Economic Forum.
In 2016 - 21 million students registered for Coursera’s online courses, a number that increased annually by around 7 million over the next two years. But the switch to remote working as the pandemic hit triggered a three-fold increase in new registrations, bringing the figure to 71 million in 2020, and 92 million in 2021.
Eagerness to learn and elevate skills is there but the access to this courses at a finger tip reach comes with it’s challenges including the opportunity cost.
How is Fikrcamp different?
"I've learnt how to be particular in programming and where to focus and what to avoid," Abdirisak said after attending Fikrcamp. "At Fikrcamp, I've met a lot of programmers who are experts in the industry and are happy to help, spending time with them motivated me and encouraged me to do and learn more.”
Fikrcamp realized that a space to code, learn from, and work from is a luxury that most students do not have access to, that is why our facility includes a co-working space where students can come to learn, code, and work on challenges given by the instructors. The same space also serves as a place for networking and inspiration.
Finding a job
Abdirisak has set up a LinkedIn profile and associated a front-end developer with his skills and had a reach out from a hiring manager in Minneapolis, Minnesota and asked for an interview with him. LinkedIn can be a great tool to navigate opportunities and showcase ones abilities.
Abdirisak's success in learning how to code, network, and get a job online is a testament to how important the right attitude is for anyone learning how to code or any other skill. Humility plays a big part in learning how to code and other professions.
If you want to break into tech and learn programming, join our future cohort, which is a blend of offline and online learning where you may learn from anywhere of your choosing.