Student Spotlight: Jovan Hernandez

6 months ago, I was­­ working sales at one of the top companies always listed in Fortune and other major business magazines. I had a salary, benefits, and regular hours, everything you should want after you graduate, but I still wasn’t happy. Making 40 dials a day trying to sell HR software while working for a corporate office in a cubicle definitely was not the life for me.

For all of my life, computers and technology had always fascinated me. (Don’t ask me why I didn’t go to school for it, I probably got lost between the partying and city life of Philadelphia — I graduated with a business degree from Temple University.) While I do not regret my time at Temple, and I cherish my business degree, I always wondered what would have happened if I had gone to school for Computer Science.

It was 6 months ago that I eventually had enough. I had enough of the cold calls, enough of the grey cubicle walls, and enough of the rat race of commission, accounts, and never ending e-mails riddled with bullshit no one cared about. I up and quit my job and never looked back.

Sometimes in life, you have to take one step backwards in order to take two steps forward. I quit my job as a sales rep to work for Apple as a Genius Bar specialist. While working for Apple, I met people who were chasing the same dream as me. Apple was a great company to work for, but it is hard to earn a decent pay if you are just starting out there.

While working part-time for Apple, I took my days off as an opportunity to learn how to code. I knew some basic HTML but really had no idea where to start.

While working part-time for Apple, I took my days off as an opportunity to learn how to code. I knew some basic HTML but really had no idea where to start. After running through some CodeAcademy courses, I knew I needed something a little more in-depth.

That’s when I invested in One Month courses. Chris and Mattan do an excellent job at making something as complicated as coding seem accessible to everyone. They’re funny, honest, and easy to follow. Something as dry as coding can be difficult to understand if you are just reading and studying out of a book. Chris and Mattan bring coding to life with their amazing videos and friendly forum community.

Chris and Mattan do an excellent job at making something as complicated as coding seem accessible to everyone. They’re funny, honest, and easy to follow. Something as dry as coding can be difficult to understand if you are just reading and studying out of a book. Chris and Mattan bring coding to life with their amazing videos and friendly forum community.

One thing about One Month is that they don’t promise to make you a master coder, but they do provide you with a solid foundation. I honestly still feel like a novice when it comes to coding, but I can at least open a text editor and view a page source to understand the structure and framework of a website. I am thankful for One Month by providing me with the confidence to pursue my dream of having a career in IT.

Long story short, after creating an online portfolio and getting my presence up on social networks, I landed a job at one of the top creative ad agencies in New York City, right down on Wall Street. It wasn’t easy, and there were a lot of times that I felt lost, but I kept chugging along with other courses from TeamTreeHouse, CodeSchool, and other coding sites. I couldn’t be happier with where I landed and how everything turned out. The path to change your career is not always the easiest, but it can be the most rewarding if you make the jump. A career in IT is an exciting opportunity with a lot of growth.

If there were ever a time to do it, the time is now.