Future-Proofing a Career: Pedro Gomes’s TripleTen Story

Even before the rise of AI_{Why AI Is Your Friend Not Foe}, Pedro Giestas Gomes knew his job could be automated. He was painstakingly pulling data from massive Excel files to see how much money companies needed to invest in their pension funds. It was arduous. It was tedious. It was a job that a computer could do better, faster, and without demanding human drudgery.

So he decided to get ahead of the change. Here’s how he future-proofed his career by studying at TripleTen.

The wrong job

Pedro was working for an international consulting company. There, he would manually sort through large Excel files to see which employees had the rights to their pensions and how much the companies should invest. If it sounds mind-numbing, that’s because it was. But it got worse — it was also incredibly demanding. "I used to work 10-12 hours per day and I was like, 'This is awful, I need something different,'" Pedro says.

But as he looked through similar jobs he might switch to, he noticed that many had started listing expected technical skills he didn’t have: Python, R, SQL, and Power BI. He knew that a computer was soon going to be doing his job, and he saw that his field was looking for more than he could provide. He began checking out tech.

He figured his master's degree in financial mathematics and bachelor's in engineering could be a solid basis for the pivot, but he didn’t have a clue how to break into tech. ''I was kind of lost because I didn't have any friends who worked in the field. I didn't know anyone."

So he decided to pursue his journey toward tech alone. The more he searched, however, the more overwhelming things became. "You get so much information, you don't really know where to start."

There are tons of resources out there. But very few of them seemed to work. The e-books and free online courses he was using just didn’t click. He briefly considered going back to college, but he dismissed that as impractical. Finally, his research led him to TripleTen.

‍Reskilling

Pedro took part in a free trial lesson, and found that TripleTen’s approach was what he had been looking for. Instead of asking him to replicate code from examples, it made him think. He enrolled, and things began falling into place. "It was the perfect timing because I really had the motivation and wanted to learn something. And it was winter, so I didn't really do much besides sit at home or watch TV." In addition, it was during the pandemic, which meant that he had extra time on his hands. 

But even with all this, keeping up was sometimes a challenge. Working a full-time job and then logging on in the evening demanded dedication. He had theory, coding practice, and projects to get to. That’s not to mention that the material itself was decently complex. "The course is not something that you can do without thinking. You need to be into it, you need to be focused on it.”

Still, he had a little flexibility. TripleTen is set up in two- to three-week-long sprints, during which students have a set list of tasks. But how and when they complete their coursework within this time is up to them. And every time his code functioned as intended, he felt a deep satisfaction. "It was like playing with Legos and building up things."

The most motivating thing was the feeling of accomplishment when I finished something, it worked, and did what I wanted it to do. Even if it took hours. Pedro Giestas Gomes, TripleTen grad

This feeling of seeing his hard work pay off kept him going. In fact, even before he finished the program, he had found a new job.

A revitalized career

Pedro had intended to return to a tech-inflected role similar to his previous one, but his time at TripleTen changed that. Instead, he chose to pursue a career in data analysis_{Will a Data Analysis Bootcamp Really Pay Off?}. In fact, while he was still studying, he decided to start sending out his resume. "If a job ad said 'data analysis', I sent it."

He ended up catching the attention of Teleperformance, a digital consulting company that helps brands sustainably streamline their business. They asked him to do a test task. When Pedro looked at it, he could tell it was just like things he had already done at TripleTen. He aced it. "They liked it and offered me a position there."

His ambitions kept him moving, though. Since then, he has moved up the ranks through two more companies, and he is now a Data Engineer at RedCloud, where the team is applying AI to help bring equity and fairness to emerging markets.

Throughout every position, tech know-how has seen him through. “I got those skills from TripleTen," he says.

Our pitch to you

If you, too, are looking for a part-time bootcamp that will help you land a future-proof career, 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.