Where are they now? Tanner RiddleMarch 28th, 2022
Tanner Riddle always wanted to help people. No wonder he chose to pursue a career in nursing.
But life threw him a curveball after only a few semesters of med classes: a baby boy. A newborn and an onslaught of medical school classes didn’t mesh very well, so Tanner searched for a new career.
Fortunately, life threw him another curveball that he hit out of the park.
That curveball was TrueCoders.
Diving In
Tanner heard great things about TrueCoders through the grapevine, such as the affordable financing options and unlimited one-on-one tutoring outside of regular class hours.
But coding isn’t for everyone; Tanner needed to feel it out to see if coding was right for him. Fortunately, TrueCoders facilitated that; an entire course cost a fraction of the typical college semester, and Tanner would be prepped for a new career in nine weeks.
"I knew coding was a solid, ability-based career path," Tanner says. "But, it’s a pretty intimidating thing to dive into. I’ve always been ambitious, though, and TrueCoders is known for its accessibility, even for people who don’t know much about coding. I figured I'd give it a try."
But really, how scary could software engineering be for someone who was prepping to save lives?
Learn Through Doing
Software engineering can be a jarring shift if you’ve never seen a line of code, and Tanner stumbled more than a few times getting his bearings.
"I won’t lie,” he admits, "coding is definitely an acquired taste. There’s not much procedure you can lean on. Almost everything about coding involves problem-solving."
Fortunately, that’s exactly how TrueCoders teaches: presenting problems and helping students solve them.
TrueCoders cuts out the timesinks of traditional classes by feeding you information as you learn, expanding your problem-solving toolkit, bit by bit. Tanner was able to slowly build his skills then test those skills by creating his coding projects before moving on to tougher challenges.
This trial-by-trying method is a core component of how TrueCoders teaches people to code, even if they have no prior coding experience.
"I definitely owe a lot to the instructors," Tanner says. “ Problem-solving is the most important skill for coding, and TrueCoders makes problem-solving second nature. And whenever I had trouble, I didn’t hesitate to ask questions. There’s no judgment with TrueCoders, so you view help as just that: help."
This lack of judgment allowed Tanner to focus solely on building his skills rather than pleasing some artificial grading rubric.
And those skills landed him at one of the largest businesses in the country.
New Skills, New Doors
"I joined Shipt shortly after I finished up at TrueCoders. It’s pretty astounding how in-demand coding expertise is, but then again, coding is the foundation for modern technology."
Today, Tanner is a Shipt associate engineer, focusing his skills on perfecting the Shipt Shopper mobile app. It’s his responsibility to make sure the app quickly delivers information to the Shipt employees while they shop for customers.
Tanner focuses on quality control. This involves making sure the app behaves and, if not, figuring out what changes are needed. If changes are necessary, he uses his TrueCoders knowledge to dive into the code and squash any bugs he finds.
This position led to a life Tanner never expected.
"I can live comfortably now, and I’m still very new to the industry. That’s the great thing about coding, that you get paid for what you can do. I have TrueCoders to thank for that. I feel like I’m ready for whatever life throws at me now."
And there’s nowhere to go but up.
A New Road Just Around the Corner
Maybe you know exactly what you want to do with your life. Maybe you have no clue. Maybe you do, but something has pushed you off in a different direction.
No matter your situation, no matter your coding background, TrueCoders can help you get your foot in the door.
You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be ready to chase something new, just like Tanner.