Switching to Tech for His Family: Jeremy Laurange’s TripleTen Story

It’s elemental to the human experience: we want to take care of our kids. We want to be reliable companions and guides for them while they grow up, and we want to give them the resources they need to have joyful, fulfilled lives.

And because it’s so core to the human experience, even a sentence without a subject or verb immediately expresses all you need to know.

For example: Why did Jeremy Laurange decide to make the switch to tech? Because father.

Read on to see how he upgraded his know-how with TripleTen to pursue the next evolution in his career and fulfill the myriad aspirations contained in that two-word phrase.

The art of numbers: where he started

As with many high school seniors, Jeremy didn’t know what path to take. “I was completely lost, but my parents said, ‘You gotta go to school,’ so I went to school for fine art,” he said. He graduated with an associate’s degree from his local community college. But even he himself admits, “I wasn’t the starving artist sort.” So he needed to pursue something. That choice ended up bringing him to Hawthorne Valley Association, a nonprofit that operates at the intersection of agriculture, art, and education.

In 2010, he started as an operations manager. But, because he was in a fairly rural area, that meant he was doing a lot more than one might expect. “I was essentially receiving invoices, managing their database, doing everything for them technologically speaking, because we're in the middle of nowhere and the skill sets there are very low in terms of technology.” In fact, “for a hot minute, I used to be their IT person. I am not qualified to be an IT person,” he said, laughing.

But he was more than qualified to dive into the operation’s numbers, and for him, that was also what had attracted him to art. “When you look at an image, you can break it down into numbers.”

Still, he knew that his basic know-how wasn’t going to take him where he wanted to go.

I craved something a little bit more in order to hone my skills to be able to move on to something more. Jeremy Laurange, TripleTen grad

So he started looking into options.

He came across TripleTen, read up on reviews of the newly-launched Business Intelligence Analytics Bootcamp, and talked to one of our team members. “She walked me through what it would actually look like, and I really got excited.”

He enrolled in one of TripleTen’s first BIA groups.

Gaining the know-how to build a better career

Jeremy soon realized just how much he was going to have to learn. “I thought I was good at spreadsheets until I took the course. And then I realized, there's a whole ‘nother world that I didn't know.”

His grasp of the BIA basics was strong, but the bootcamp challenged him to reach a new level. Of course, the demands were met with commensurate aid. “TripleTen support was proactive, and that made me feel like I was a part of something as opposed to doing it all on my own.”

His dedication to the bootcamp was met with mutual commitment from TripleTen. He got detailed feedback from professionals reviewing his assignments. In fact, once while he was on vacation, he was making sure every bit of one task was perfect. “I had this deadline that I had to get this project in. I was pouring over it putting all this work into double checking every single thing.” It was a case of clashing timing. “On the beach, my wife was just like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘It’s the first project, I gotta get it done!’”

But when he submitted it, the response was swift. “The reviewer came back with amazing feedback, saying, ‘This was fantastic. Here are areas you can improve on, but you don’t really need to change anything for your review.’” The recognition of his hard work was gratifying.

It felt really, really good to hear that feedback and to know that the good work I was putting into it actually meant something. Jeremy Laurange, TripleTen grad

And aside from the first project he finished on the beach, he actually found it easy to make time for his kids, work, and the bootcamp. “What I would do is I put the kids to bed and essentially study for around three or four hours each night. And it was kind of my relax time.” 

After all, he could control how and when he approached the material, as the bootcamp was flexible. “I liked to be able to go at my own pace. So if one day I felt burnt out coming home from work, I didn't need to do it because I had enough time to do it.”

Naturally, he still had projects to do and deadlines to meet, but that was also a positive for him. “What excited me was that you had to do these projects, and that these projects were actually reviewed by a real person that could give you real feedback.”

When the bootcamp wrapped up, he knew he was ready for something more.

A step towards more time with his kids

Jeremy’s new expertise didn’t go unnoticed. His company saw that he had upped his skills, and he was offered a new position: Director of Retail Operations and Enterprise Development. “The company really wanted to utilize my skills in order to look at all these other enterprises that they're doing in an analytical way to gain efficiencies.”

So he’s now using his new know-how in Tableau and spreadsheets to add to what his nonprofit can do, and he’s achieved a higher position. 

But he’s ambitious. After all, his core motivation wasn’t professional recognition: he was focused on his family.

I really want to work remotely just because I want to spend more time with my children. Jeremy Laurange, TripleTen grad

This is guiding his aspirations for what comes next, wherever it may be. Thanks to his new skills, he’s now more than capable of discovering a new career path. “If I wanted to, I could make a pivot to healthcare. Or I could make a pivot to marketing. I think that's really cool. If I really wanted to change up the genre of my life a little bit, I could with just a little bit of effort. And I think that's what excites me the most about it all.”

Our pitch to you

If you, too, want to augment your skills so you can pursue more time with your family, check out our Business Intelligence Analytics Bootcamp.

And for another story of how one of our grads who switched to tech to find time for his family, watch this testimonial from AC Slamet.