‘Learn To Code’ Went From A Meme To The Flatiron School Teaching Average Americans To Become Well-Paid Tech Professionals

During a campaign rally back in 2019, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke to a crowd in a coal mining town. Advocating a green agenda, the audience was understandably unhappy. To console the coal miners, Biden offered some career advice: ‘Learn to code.’

Shortly after the comments were made by Biden, over 1,000 jobs in journalism were eliminated. The fired journalists shared their sad stories on Twitter. As former colleagues gave their condolences and offered job leads, there were many people mockingly tweeting the reporters, telling them that they should seek out a new profession and “Learn to code.” 

Fast forward a few years and ‘Learn to code’ went from a derogatory meme battle between blue collar miners and truckers, and college educated journalists, to becoming a real career option for many people.

Software developers are the most desired employees in our rapidly changing digital economy. Take a look at any job board or online corporate career section and you’ll find a steady stream of job openings for coders.

Seeing a dire need for tech talent and large numbers of people wanting to switch careers, the Flatiron school offered an immersive bootcamp type curriculum focused on teaching people how to code. The irony is that only a few short years ago it was considered a joke that the average working class American could forsake their job and reinvent themselves as a tech professional. 

The educational facility is open to training people from all walks of life, no college degree or experience required. You do, however, need to have some aptitude, motivation and dedication. The roughly $16,900 price tag on a Flatiron bootcamp is much less than four years of college tuition. 

In an interview with Rebekah Rombom, Chief Business Development Officer of Flatiron School, she discussed the company’s  mission is to enable the pursuit of a better life through education. For over eight years, Flatiron School has helped students achieve that goal by preparing them for careers in tech.

Rombom shared that her students have a nearly 90% placement rate, and the average starting salaries are over $70,000.00. She says that her Career Services team hires high-quality mentors and career coaches committed to helping students find a career in tech. 

The Flatiron School, founded in NYC’s Flatiron District, was one of the first coding bootcamps to make tech training more accessible through its hands-on 15-week programs in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity and product design. The accelerated program “offers an alternative route to education for those without the time, means or opportunities to pursue a traditional degree. Students can choose the pace at which they prefer to learn based on their needs and schedules.”

As the economy reopened, the job market looked completely different compared to pre-pandemic 2019. There is now a war-for-talent being waged by businesses. The ‘Great Resignation’ trend is a revolutionary movement of workers demanding that they won’t put up with long hours, low pay and a lack of respect from managers. They’d rather quit without another job lined up than deal with a bad boss. 

The virus outbreak has made people reimagine their jobs and careers. Many have decided to pivot or reinvent themselves by pursuing something new, exciting and a career that offers good pay and long term career growth potential. Recruiting and retaining talent has been a big struggle for companies. Around 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August 2021 alone. 

Although the school started out by offering classes, big companies such as Amazon have turned to the Flatiron School to help their own employees learn to code. The giant online retailer also wants to offer their staff courses in cyber security, data science and other related topics in an effort to upskill and retool workers. 

Just like Walmart and Target offered free college tuition to recruit and retain talent in a tight job market, Amazon contends that by teaching their warehouse, fulfillment center and other workers tech skills, they can rise up in the ranks. The good will also helps with recruitment and retention, and cuts the costs associated with hiring from the outside.

Earlier this year, Amazon partnered with Flatiron School to enroll its first cohort — its warehouse employees — “in an intensive coding program to become software engineers and cybersecurity analysts and leave the company to fill roles in tech elsewhere.” Recently, 270 employees graduated from the program.  

Rombom offered some examples of the school’s success stories:

Marissa Nolan—Software Engineer Graduate

After years of pursuing her passion in culinary arts, she decided to transition to a more stable career as an IT recruiter.  Then as a software engineer, Marissa gained granular knowledge of the soft and hard skills required to work in tech — so when Marissa was furloughed from her IT job during the pandemic, it ultimately opened the door to explore new opportunities in tech.

She enrolled in Flatiron School’s software engineering program on a full scholarship and became Flatiron’s 5,000th grad hired as a software engineer at a law firm in Colorado.  

 Assane Savadogo—Software Engineer Graduate

Since fleeing an uprising and mass protests in Western Africa in 2015, Assane worked odd jobs (electrician, Uber, selling appliances) and took initiative to learn English as his second language. A casual conversation with an Uber passenger in 2019 turned out to be life-changing when he learned about the world of coding. Having zero coding experience, he spent weeks in prep courses and eventually received a scholarship to a part-time software engineering course. Surrounded by mentors and career coaches, he landed a fellowship at Liberty Mutual where he is currently a software engineer. 

 Taylor O’Leary— Cybersecurity Graduate

After spending 14 years in the Army working in law enforcement and recruiting, a self-described “cyber nerd,” found himself considering an alternate career choice in cybersecurity after seeing the massive impact a cyber attack could have while serving overseas.

The pandemic made Taylor curious about how the transition to civilian life would be. He enrolled in Flatiron’s 20-week intensive cybersecurity coding program. He admits there was a significant learning curve, but within months of graduating, he landed a job as an analyst at a global cybersecurity consultancy where he combats cyberattacks every day.

Learning to code is no longer a joke. It’s a ticket for many workers to reinvent themselves and embark upon an exciting new well paying career in a fast growing sector.