How Career Services and Real-World Learning Helped This Boot Camp Grad Pivot from Recruiting to Data on the Cutting Edge at PepsiCo

Standing Out and Moving Forward

With one month to go in his boot camp experience, Akibo got the call he was waiting for: a job offer from Veritas Technologies, for a six-month contract as an IT operations analyst. He accepted the offer, completed his final project for the boot camp, and jumped into his new role.

"All of the technical aspects I learned in the boot camp connected exactly with what I was doing at Veritas at first," Akibo says. "As a boot camp graduate, what makes you special is that you've not only worked hands-on with code and understand how databases work on the back-end, you also know who to talk with to get the data you need. All of that relevant training makes you better at navigating those conversations across your team. It's a game-changer."

That was certainly the case for Akibo, who proved his skills with Veritas enough to be upgraded to a full-time role as an IT business analyst. But the progress didn't stop there.

"Eventually, I didn't need to touch much code to get through my responsibilities," Akibo says, "because I was having more strategy discussions about running processes on different tools and upgrading our internal capabilities. I was getting to ask bigger-picture questions, but I still knew how everything technicallyworked: what data was being captured, how it was being collected, where it was being stored, etc. That helps you separate the wheat from the chaff when making technological business decisions-and that's how I flipped the role to make it my own."

Taking Control and Igniting His Passion

Fast forward a year, and Akibo found himself to be yet another snug fit at PepsiCo. At the company's New York global headquarters, he evaluates startup technologies to help solve some of PepsiCo's business challenges.

"The hands-on nature of the boot camp ultimately enabled me to be a better strategic partner to the stakeholders I work with at PepsiCo," he explains. "I'm getting further away from code with each new role, but I'll always remember being that guy who struggled to set up a Google Maps API for a class project. In the boot camp, you learn what it really takesfor tech teams to build the best systems in the shortest amount of time. That experience helped me develop more empathy for every side of a business. I think that's what makes you a much better force inside of your own domain."

Today, Akibo feels much more confident walking into a meeting room, knowing he won't feel lost or not in control.

"The Columbia boot camp brought me to the cutting-edge at PepsiCo," Akibo says. "When you're doing this kind of research and analysis, sometimes you're the first person to see numbers roll off a spreadsheet that translate to a new phenomenon or discovery. That's what makes my career so fulfilling. Two years ago, I was sitting at home, unemployed, wondering what my next move would be. Now, I'm working on implementing some of the most innovative technology. The boot camp kicked all of this off."

~~~

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.