There’s no denying that being a mom is one of the toughest jobs there is. In many cases, fiercely intelligent and ambitious women can end up putting aside their careers to focus on raising their children and taking care of their families. But that doesn’t mean that the spark and ambition to work is lost. In fact, far from it.
This desire has led many moms to attempt getting back out into the workforce—but years later, industries have changed. The things they’ve learned are likely no longer relevant, leaving them feeling totally out of the loop.
For four mothers, their determination to overcome this obstacle through retraining and upskilling led them to join accelerated learning programs powered by Trilogy Education Services, who partners with leading universities with the goal of helping bridge the digital skills gap. These moms found that Trilogy-powered boot camps empowered them with relevant and up-to-date skills, provided many helpful resources, and offered vital flexibility so that they could balance caring for their kids and other responsibilities alongside their program.
Accelerated learning programs are intensive and challenging, but these moms proved that they had more than enough passion, strength, and perseverance to complete their courses and embark on meaningful careers. Here’s a look at the uplifting stories of the mothers who changed their lives and became true supermoms with accelerated learning through Trilogy-powered programs.
Anitharaj (Anitha) was a stay-at-home mom based in New Hampshire—before that though, she had received a B.S. in computer science from the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology in India. But after coming to the United States, she wasn’t able to find a job and eventually gave up work to care for her kids.
As her children started getting older, Anitha had an itch: after all this time, she still wanted to pursue computer science. But she knew that if she wanted to reenter the workforce, she’d have to update her knowledge. She came across the UNH Coding Boot Camp, signed up, and the rest is history.
Anitha cleared the hurdles of accelerated learning and finished the program with new skills and a full portfolio, which led to her receiving a full-time position at Hewlett-Packard as a software engineer and UI/UX developer. Anitha was able to overcome the massive gap in her skill set in a short amount of time, and was able to pick up the career she left behind so many years ago without skipping a beat.
Argentina-born Carla Cox had just finished earning her degree in computer engineering while in the U.S. on a student visa when she gave birth to her first child. She initially wasn’t going to let this stop her from balancing a career, but she ended up having to wait two years for her green card—by which time her skills were already becoming outdated.
Carla had started working after receiving her green card, but she needed a better salary, and the skills to match it. To fix this, she enrolled in the University of Richmond Coding Boot Camp. Carla had trouble balancing a part-time job, tutoring, and caring for her two kids. Luckily, she relied on the instructors, TAs, and other boot camp staff in her program who aided her in understanding various concepts and prepared her for the workforce.
Carla soon after began a position as an embedded software engineer at Power Distribution, Inc, a position that tripled her previous salary and now allows her to both find fulfillment in her career and provide for her family.
Marie Nabors loved her position as a teacher at her two daughters’ private school, but her salary allowed them to just barely make ends meet. She had also always loved using technology in the classroom to help her students learn, so after attending a workshop on teaching kids the fundamentals of computer science and subsequently viewing an ad for the UCF Coding Boot Camp, she took the opportunity to revamp her career.
Marie faced difficulties in managing the course while also teaching and taking care of her kids, but she managed to overcome them with help from instructors, TAs, and her student success manager. After finishing the boot camp and strengthening her online presence, she was contacted by Disney and soon hired as a full-time UI software engineer at Disney Resort Technology, showing that despite her troubles, all her hard work and perseverance paid off in spades.
After going through a divorce, Funda Istvan knew she needed to get back to work. As she searched for jobs, Funda tried many different ways to earn money, all the while she taught herself HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through an app on her phone. She suddenly realized how passionate she was about coding, and decided to attend Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, which gave her the convenience of a part-time program, as well as a legitimizing certificate of qualification from a leading university.
Funda relished the challenge of the program and found the intellectual problems she had to solve highly rewarding. She was so moved by her boot camp experience that she took on a full-time position as a TA and worked nights as a tutor. She then became a student success manager for nine active classes at Rutgers Coding Bootcamp, and acted as general manager of the program, advising students, managing TAs, and consulting with instructors to ensure that every student’s boot camp was as impactful as her own. Now, she is a software engineer at Vivoom and continues using her skills to find meaning in her career.
The stories of these dedicated and hardworking mothers show that it’s never too late to get back in the game. Anitha, Carla, Marie, and Funda overcame many challenges to succeed in their Trilogy-powered boot camps, and became capable tech talent who are now living out their dreams in exciting careers. Their effort and success are a shining example that when it comes down to it, moms should never be underestimated!