Forging His Own Path to Tech: Luke Schmidt’s TripleTen Story

Imagine it: you’re most of the way done with a bachelor’s degree. You’ve chosen a sensible major, economics, and the conventional wisdom is congratulating you for making All The Right Decisions. And yet, something fundamental just feels wrong. What do you do? 

For Luke Schmidt, you choose your own path and find success on your own terms. Here’s the story of how he joined TripleTen to make that possible.

Bucking the conventional wisdom

Luke knew that college wasn’t the fit for him. So, even after cresting the hill towards getting his degree in economics, he decided to leave. Following that, he held a few different odd jobs, none of which quite lit a fire in him.

But then, in his spare time, Luke started tinkering with Linux and Python. Eventually, he even wrote a script that controlled an LED light strip. It wasn’t the only thing that suddenly lit up. "I hadn't really experienced that before: where I had done something from a work-related standpoint and had actually been excited about the process and the completion of it. And I think it was at that point where I said, 'Okay, I'm going to give this a try. Maybe this is for me,'" he says.

Then, as he looked into web development, his excitement grew.

The things that you can build as a web developer can positively affect thousands or potentially even millions of people. There aren't many industries where you can do that. Luke Schmidt, TripleTen grad

Luke knew this was something he wanted to pursue. Now he just needed to figure out how. Ultimately, he chose a bootcamp because of the community, flexibility, and deep education provided. He wanted to make sure he chose the right one, though, so he made a spreadsheet. “I had a list of all of the coding bootcamps that were on any of the major review websites, which I think was like eighty. And then I excluded a few due to either extreme cost or bad reviews. As I narrowed down the list, TripleTen was still in there. And the more I got rid of things, the more I was like, 'Oh, TripleTen is looking really, really good here.’”

He enrolled.

Gaining knowledge

He started the program just as something else was also beginning: the pandemic. Because of it, his company cut his hours. But for Luke, that meant he could concentrate on the bootcamp. “It was hugely fortuitous for me because I was able to really devote all of my time, energy, and focus to learning with TripleTen."

Then, as things slowly returned to normal, his hours ramped back up. “Things became a bit more difficult to manage,” he recalls. But ultimately, “it was between 15 and 30 hours per week, which is sustainable, I would say, as long as you decide that TripleTen is a priority for you.”

One thing that also helped? The people within the TripleTen community. “The tutors follow up, message, and check in with people, and are willing to be flexible with scheduling. Like there's just so many positive things about this setup that really made the experience more valuable."

This also helped him advance his soft skills. “I love talking to people and got much more proficient at that with this course. It exposed me to professionals. It was almost like a pseudo-internship, you could say, because I was watching other professionals just do things.”

And it worked. Even before finishing the program, he’d landed an interview.

The path he’d been looking for

Unbeknownst to him, a friend of his had put in a referral for him at his company. The people in charge of hiring liked what they saw, so they invited him to have a chat. “One thing led to another, and I showed them some of the work that I had done with TripleTen. We had an interview with the CTO and another with my current boss, which were both great, super positive experiences. They hired me full-time.”

Now, he’s at a fintech company, where he’s responsible for front-end development and quality assurance. “I'm a QA analyst and a developer-in-training with the intent of transitioning to full time dev in the next year. My company pretty much starts everyone off as a quality assurance analyst to learn the basics of the project, and then transitions people into development, typically four to eight months later.”

His path is clear. Best of all, it’s one that he chose for himself, and that has made all the difference.

I plan to continue to allow myself the freedom to do the things that I want to do, and put 100% into my job and my work. Because it's been really rewarding to me. Luke Schmidt, TripleTen grad

Our pitch to you

If you, too, are looking for a part-time bootcamp that will help you forge your own career path in tech, then TripleTen can help. Find out more about our bootcamp and stay in-the-know about launching a great tech career by signing up for our newsletter below.