Meet Raphael. A Computer Science graduate who needed a foot in the door

When asked to sum up his Revature experience in just three words, Raphael Sarmiento opts for the short version of a potent phrase that Revature alumni use a lot: “Foot in door.”

Even with a computer science degree under his belt, as a recent grad Raphael was unable to secure a single job interview in tech. The reason will be sadly familiar to anyone who has been there: every allegedly “entry-level” role turned out in reality to require experience.

Thankfully, Revature reached out to him by email. After a few interviews, they invited him down to Florida to train in Java. To Raphael, it seemed like “a good opportunity to get my foot in the door.”

As intense as it was, the Revature program wound up taking much of the stress out of job-hunting. In addition to developing his coding skills, the company lined up interviews for him with blue-chip employers. They even gave him training in how to interview effectively—right down to dressing the part.

He was contracted on a project for a major IT services firm in the Washington, DC area. There, he got to put his learning into practice, combining his Java coding skills with the microservices app architecture in an environment organized around agile working methods. Meanwhile, he deepened his knowledge further, learning to use technologies like the Angular web development platform.

These days, he works about an hour from the campus of his alma mater, Texas A&M, as a software engineer for a major insurance company. He is doing well—and, buoyed by his Revature experience, he is busy learning still more technologies and methodologies.

Safe to say, Raphael has gotten his foot in the door.