August 1, 2024 • 8 mins
Can a global pandemic be the catalyst for discovering your true passion? Join us on this eye-opening episode of the Skills First podcast as we journey through Rosalyn from Pong's incredible transformation from a fourth-grade teacher to a software engineering apprentice at Pathways Consulting. Rosalyn talks about how her tech interests, which began with MySpace, resurfaced during the pandemic and led her to tackle the financial hurdles of tech boot camps. She candidly shares the steep learning curve, imposter syndrome, and the unique challenges she faced as a Black woman in a predominantly white and male industry, demonstrating the vital role of community support and representation.
As Rosalyn dives deeper into her tech transition, she recounts her pivotal experience with the Creative Coder Careers program and the crucial support from G-Code. The episode unravels how a salaried apprenticeship became a game-changer for her, leading to intensive learning in JavaScript and React, and ultimately landing her a role at ServiceNow. She reflects on her personal and professional growth, highlights her latest tech accomplishments, and gives a heartfelt shoutout to her supportive colleague, Carrie. To wrap things up on a lighter note, Rosalyn shares her love for seaweed snacks. Don't miss this inspirational story of resilience, growth, and the power of chasing your dreams.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
While I was teaching they told me hey, like we have
this potential opportunity foryou, you should apply.
And beforehand I was like, ohmy goodness, I don't know if I
have the skill set to actuallygo right into an apprenticeship.
I'm not sure.
And I took the risk and did aninterview with you.
And what's the price?
I landed it and then quit myteaching job a week afterwards
and then just move straight intothe apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey everyone, this is Mike Roberts, creator of the
Apprenticeship Playbook, andyou're tuned in to the Skills
First podcast.
In today's world, skills First,hiring is revolutionizing the
job market and on this show Isit down with trailblazers who
are rethinking hiring practicesand embracing experiential
learning, as well as the peopleimpacted.
(00:47):
Follow along as we dive intotips, innovative ideas and
proven strategies to help younavigate and thrive in the
evolving landscape of modernapprenticeships.
So can you tell me your nameand what is it that you're doing
right now?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hi, my name is Rosalyn from Pong.
What is it that you're doingright now?
Hi, my name is Rosalyn fromPong.
I'm from Harlem, New York, andcurrently I am an apprentice at
Pathways.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Nice Pathways Consulting.
Amazing, shout out to them.
So let's just jump right in.
What were you doing before whatyou're doing now?
Before I was a fourth gradeteacher.
Wow, fourth grade, that's tough.
I have a youngster, that's achallenge.
So kudos, all right, that's abig shift.
So what made you decide thatyou wanted to get into tech?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
During the pandemic gave me a lot of time to think,
just reimagining what I wantedmy life to be.
And, granted, I did a littlebit of tech during, like the
MySpace days, creating your ownwebsite.
Didn't really know that wascoding and I was like, oh, this
is something that I'mpotentially interested in.
But during that time it wassuper hard.
Like every boot camp was about$20,000.
(01:54):
And I definitely wasn't makingthat as a fourth grade teacher.
So trying to pivot to where Iwas now into a software engineer
career or a career within tech,into a software engineer career
or a career within tech.
So I went through Googling,found a bunch of programs,
eventually was able to land anapprenticeship at CCC and it
(02:17):
just went forward from there,nice.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So what is one of the biggest challenges in the
journey to become a software?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
engineer for you.
Oh, the learning curve.
So beforehand, before I wasable to actually be in a
community where I was givenresources to learn how to code,
just getting the resources andknowing where to start right,
there was a bunch of languages,there was a bunch of information
that was out there.
So it's hard to really plantyour foundation.
So finding a community that wasable to give me the right
(02:43):
amount of research, tell meexactly how to start and just
being a community with otherpeople to learn from, was like
really huge than rather justlearning by myself and just
being on this never endingcampster wheel.
Also, people in especially likethe software engineering world
there's not a lot of people thatlook like me.
So it's hard to go and findsomeone who's also Black and a
(03:04):
woman and say, hey, how were youable to start and how can I
start, knowing that I don't havea degree in computer science
and, just like the learningcurve, it's like a lot of
information at once.
So I just dealt with a lot ofimposter syndrome while going
through the journey.
So just making sure I had likepeople around me to remind me
(03:25):
like oh, this is where I belongand help me along the way was
super like instrumental.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Nice, yeah, a lot of that.
I feel like it resonates Right,and after having a career so
long in tech and seeing so fewpeople that look like me, I can
definitely understand how thatcould be a big challenge for
people that are coming in thatjust don't have the context of
feeling like, okay, I know a lotof people that do this, so I
can do it right and we want tochange that though.
We definitely want to changethat.
(03:51):
How did you hear about theprogram?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I heard about Creative Coder Careers, actually
through another program that Iwas in called G-Code, where they
taught me like the, I guess,like some of the fundamental
things.
And while I was teaching theytold me, hey, like we have this
potential opportunity for you,you should apply.
And beforehand I was like, ohmy goodness, I don't know about
(04:15):
the skill set to actually goright into an apprenticeship,
I'm not sure.
And I took the risk and did aninterview with you and was
surprised.
I landed it and then quit myteaching job a week afterwards
and then just moved straightinto the apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Wow.
So you took the leap.
Now I'm guessing it helped thatthere was a salary right.
It wasn't as much of a leap,but still that's a big shift,
okay.
So how long did it take for youto complete the training
portion of the program?
So, as I understand it, you'reright now you're on the job
going through.
You're on the job part of theapprenticeship, but how long did
(04:51):
it take you to get ready forthat?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
get ready before I move into Pathways, right?
So first I had to learneverything through creative
coding careers.
So I learned all like thefundamentals JavaScript, react.
Once I was able to do that, Iwould say it was about like a
six to eight month eight monthkind of turnaround.
So I learned everything I needto learn in order to be like a
(05:14):
software engineer.
And then I moved into learningeverything I need to know
regarding service now to be likea software engineer.
And then I moved into learningeverything I need to know
regarding ServiceNow to be likeacquainted with the I guess the
infrastructure of it.
And then I was placed withinPathways in which I had a three
month like apprenticeship,learning a bunch and then
building a bunch.
So I would say like an eightmonth.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
What do you look forward to most now
professionally?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I would say, just seeing what else I can
accomplish from here on.
So I'm like pretty proud ofmyself that I'm in this position
right now and I can completelysay that I completely
transitioned into, like my techcareer.
So now seeing if I can justmove up the ranks right, what
(05:59):
more I can learn, what more Ican create and build, and just
see where I go from here.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Nice Moving up the ranks.
I like that.
That's good.
That's good From the verybeginning.
It's a good way of thinkingabout it.
There's levels and just one ata time, chipping away, getting a
little bit better every day,that kind of stuff.
So I like it.
What kind of impact has codingmade on you, Do you think, like
in your both your professionallife and your personal life?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Personally, it gave me a lot more confidence that I
was able to learn something andthen make a career out of it.
So now I feel like I'm in thisposition where, if someone were
to give me something or put meassigned to a new task, I have
the confidence to complete it,because I've done it beforehand
and professionally, it just putsme in a position to make a lot
(06:42):
more than what I was makingbefore, so that's always a great
thing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
What's the last new thing thatyou learned?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I learned how to create an update set for my
instance after I already createdit, so that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Nice, Tell us a little bit like what's an update
set for someone that's not inthe ServiceNow ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Basically how you can think of it as like a folder,
right?
So I'm creating this instancewhere everyone is able to
interact with it, but you needto save it in order for other
people to play around with it.
Moving forward, so I was ableto create like a website save it
within an update set so that itdoesn't expire, so that anyone
can have access to it.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Perfect, I like it.
That makes sense Basically.
You're hitting that save buttonin the middle of the game.
Who's someone that you eitherlook up to or you want to give a
shout out to.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I want to give a shout out to everyone who helped
me along the way.
Right, so it wasn't like aone-man team.
So one person I want to shoutout was carrie, because even
through my apprenticeship, justhaving someone I can bounce
ideas back off or who can lookover certain things to make sure
I'm not making mistakes or keepan eye on me so just having a
friend going through the sameprocess as you are, who's also
new in the industry, it wasreally great.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Nice Shout out to Carrie.
Last, most important questionwhat's your favorite snack?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
My favorite snack is seaweed snacks.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Ooh, those are good.
Those are tasty.
My wife's starting to pickthose up.
I'm with you.
Those are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's super addictive yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, awesome, all right.
Thanks so much for joining ustoday, rosalyn.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, Thank you.
Bye everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You've been listening to Skills First, the
Apprenticeship Playbook podcast.
By the way, if this is valuableto you, don't be lame.
Share the game.
This is how we know you love it.
If you're a company thinkingabout changing how you hire,
please share it so we know thistype of stuff is what you want.
While I was teaching they told me hey, like we have
this potential opportunity foryou, you should apply.
And beforehand I was like, ohmy goodness, I don't know if I
have the skill set to actuallygo right into an apprenticeship.
I'm not sure.
And I took the risk and did aninterview with you.
And what's the price?
I landed it and then quit myteaching job a week afterwards
and then just move straight intothe apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hey everyone, this is Mike Roberts, creator of the
Apprenticeship Playbook, andyou're tuned in to the Skills
First podcast.
In today's world, skills First,hiring is revolutionizing the
job market and on this show Isit down with trailblazers who
are rethinking hiring practicesand embracing experiential
learning, as well as the peopleimpacted.
(00:47):
Follow along as we dive intotips, innovative ideas and
proven strategies to help younavigate and thrive in the
evolving landscape of modernapprenticeships.
So can you tell me your nameand what is it that you're doing
right now?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hi, my name is Rosalyn from Pong.
What is it that you're doingright now?
Hi, my name is Rosalyn fromPong.
I'm from Harlem, New York, andcurrently I am an apprentice at
Pathways.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Nice Pathways Consulting.
Amazing, shout out to them.
So let's just jump right in.
What were you doing before whatyou're doing now?
Before I was a fourth gradeteacher.
Wow, fourth grade, that's tough.
I have a youngster, that's achallenge.
So kudos, all right, that's abig shift.
So what made you decide thatyou wanted to get into tech?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
During the pandemic gave me a lot of time to think,
just reimagining what I wantedmy life to be.
And, granted, I did a littlebit of tech during, like the
MySpace days, creating your ownwebsite.
Didn't really know that wascoding and I was like, oh, this
is something that I'mpotentially interested in.
But during that time it wassuper hard.
Like every boot camp was about$20,000.
(01:54):
And I definitely wasn't makingthat as a fourth grade teacher.
So trying to pivot to where Iwas now into a software engineer
career or a career within tech,into a software engineer career
or a career within tech.
So I went through Googling,found a bunch of programs,
eventually was able to land anapprenticeship at CCC and it
(02:17):
just went forward from there,nice.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
So what is one of the biggest challenges in the
journey to become a software?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
engineer for you.
Oh, the learning curve.
So beforehand, before I wasable to actually be in a
community where I was givenresources to learn how to code,
just getting the resources andknowing where to start right,
there was a bunch of languages,there was a bunch of information
that was out there.
So it's hard to really plantyour foundation.
So finding a community that wasable to give me the right
(02:43):
amount of research, tell meexactly how to start and just
being a community with otherpeople to learn from, was like
really huge than rather justlearning by myself and just
being on this never endingcampster wheel.
Also, people in especially likethe software engineering world
there's not a lot of people thatlook like me.
So it's hard to go and findsomeone who's also Black and a
(03:04):
woman and say, hey, how were youable to start and how can I
start, knowing that I don't havea degree in computer science
and, just like the learningcurve, it's like a lot of
information at once.
So I just dealt with a lot ofimposter syndrome while going
through the journey.
So just making sure I had likepeople around me to remind me
(03:25):
like oh, this is where I belongand help me along the way was
super like instrumental.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Nice, yeah, a lot of that.
I feel like it resonates Right,and after having a career so
long in tech and seeing so fewpeople that look like me, I can
definitely understand how thatcould be a big challenge for
people that are coming in thatjust don't have the context of
feeling like, okay, I know a lotof people that do this, so I
can do it right and we want tochange that though.
We definitely want to changethat.
(03:51):
How did you hear about theprogram?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I heard about Creative Coder Careers, actually
through another program that Iwas in called G-Code, where they
taught me like the, I guess,like some of the fundamental
things.
And while I was teaching theytold me, hey, like we have this
potential opportunity for you,you should apply.
And beforehand I was like, ohmy goodness, I don't know about
(04:15):
the skill set to actually goright into an apprenticeship,
I'm not sure.
And I took the risk and did aninterview with you and was
surprised.
I landed it and then quit myteaching job a week afterwards
and then just moved straightinto the apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Wow.
So you took the leap.
Now I'm guessing it helped thatthere was a salary right.
It wasn't as much of a leap,but still that's a big shift,
okay.
So how long did it take for youto complete the training
portion of the program?
So, as I understand it, you'reright now you're on the job
going through.
You're on the job part of theapprenticeship, but how long did
(04:51):
it take you to get ready forthat?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
get ready before I move into Pathways, right?
So first I had to learneverything through creative
coding careers.
So I learned all like thefundamentals JavaScript, react.
Once I was able to do that, Iwould say it was about like a
six to eight month eight monthkind of turnaround.
So I learned everything I needto learn in order to be like a
(05:14):
software engineer.
And then I moved into learningeverything I need to know
regarding service now to be likea software engineer.
And then I moved into learningeverything I need to know
regarding ServiceNow to be likeacquainted with the I guess the
infrastructure of it.
And then I was placed withinPathways in which I had a three
month like apprenticeship,learning a bunch and then
building a bunch.
So I would say like an eightmonth.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
What do you look forward to most now
professionally?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I would say, just seeing what else I can
accomplish from here on.
So I'm like pretty proud ofmyself that I'm in this position
right now and I can completelysay that I completely
transitioned into, like my techcareer.
So now seeing if I can justmove up the ranks right, what
(05:59):
more I can learn, what more Ican create and build, and just
see where I go from here.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Nice Moving up the ranks.
I like that.
That's good.
That's good From the verybeginning.
It's a good way of thinkingabout it.
There's levels and just one ata time, chipping away, getting a
little bit better every day,that kind of stuff.
So I like it.
What kind of impact has codingmade on you, Do you think, like
in your both your professionallife and your personal life?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Personally, it gave me a lot more confidence that I
was able to learn something andthen make a career out of it.
So now I feel like I'm in thisposition where, if someone were
to give me something or put meassigned to a new task, I have
the confidence to complete it,because I've done it beforehand
and professionally, it just putsme in a position to make a lot
(06:42):
more than what I was makingbefore, so that's always a great
thing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
What's the last new thing thatyou learned?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I learned how to create an update set for my
instance after I already createdit, so that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Nice, Tell us a little bit like what's an update
set for someone that's not inthe ServiceNow ecosystem.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Basically how you can think of it as like a folder,
right?
So I'm creating this instancewhere everyone is able to
interact with it, but you needto save it in order for other
people to play around with it.
Moving forward, so I was ableto create like a website save it
within an update set so that itdoesn't expire, so that anyone
can have access to it.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Perfect, I like it.
That makes sense Basically.
You're hitting that save buttonin the middle of the game.
Who's someone that you eitherlook up to or you want to give a
shout out to.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I want to give a shout out to everyone who helped
me along the way.
Right, so it wasn't like aone-man team.
So one person I want to shoutout was carrie, because even
through my apprenticeship, justhaving someone I can bounce
ideas back off or who can lookover certain things to make sure
I'm not making mistakes or keepan eye on me so just having a
friend going through the sameprocess as you are, who's also
new in the industry, it wasreally great.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Nice Shout out to Carrie.
Last, most important questionwhat's your favorite snack?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
My favorite snack is seaweed snacks.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Ooh, those are good.
Those are tasty.
My wife's starting to pickthose up.
I'm with you.
Those are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's super addictive yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, awesome, all right.
Thanks so much for joining ustoday, rosalyn.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, Thank you.
Bye everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You've been listening to Skills First, the
Apprenticeship Playbook podcast.
By the way, if this is valuableto you, don't be lame.
Share the game.
This is how we know you love it.
If you're a company thinkingabout changing how you hire,
please share it so we know thistype of stuff is what you want.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.