Living in a close-knit household, Rebecca Ruiz found the idea of leaving the comfort of her family in Roanoke, Texas, scary. She attended school at the University of Houston, majoring in Computer Engineering Technology. When she decided to join Revature, it was a big deal to leave her home for an entirely new area.
“I went to the Tampa training location. It was worth it. The main thing that drew me to Revature was that the program promised experience. My previous job was customer service. So, when you’re new in the (tech) field, and you don’t have internships or anything, you keep hitting roadblocks, and this was a way out of that cycle.”
Being that the tech industry is primarily male-dominated, Rebbecca was concerned she would be the only female. “I saw my two other roommates were women and I thought ok cool, maybe it’s just us three. But then when I got to training, there were six other girls in my training group. I was excited!”
In the midst of training, Rebecca wasn’t lonely. She enjoyed connecting with her roommates and sharing common interests like singing karaoke, playing D&D (Dungeons & Dragons), and hanging out. She confided that she found support not only from roommates but from Revature trainers.
“I have anxiety and ADHD. This sometimes means I have the tendency to make a problem bigger than it actually is or I second-guess myself. So, when I was called into the office about how I was doing by my trainer, I immediately thought something was wrong. Instead, it was my trainer telling me how amazing I was doing. Revature helped me trust myself more – they made my confidence stronger.”
Now, Rebecca is a software engineer for an industry-leading systems integrator in California and values what she learned from Revature. “I always was interested in the tech world, but I was more on the mechanical side. Revature helped me access the software side.” What’s her advice for people considering the program?
“Go for it. What you put into the program is what you will get out of it. Yeah, the training can be a little tough, but nothing easy is ever worth it, and this is more than worth it.”