WEBVTT - Booting Up a Better Career

0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.440
<v Speaker 1>This is on the Job, a podcast about finding your

0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.000
<v Speaker 1>life's work on the job, is brought to you by

0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:16.159
<v Speaker 1>Express Employment Professionals. This season, we're bringing you stories of

0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.160
<v Speaker 1>folks following their passion to carve their own career path.

0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.000
<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen has virtually changed the job market and given

0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.400
<v Speaker 1>us all a glimpse at occupations that weren't built to

0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.600
<v Speaker 1>survive something like a pandemic. And as the world opens

0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.960
<v Speaker 1>back up, businesses are pivoting to be more sustainable in

0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.200
<v Speaker 1>times of crisis. But for the millions of employees who

0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.760
<v Speaker 1>worked those jobs that have vanished, pivoting to a new

0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.919
<v Speaker 1>one is not easy. In today's episode, we talked with

0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.320
<v Speaker 1>someone who's made it their job to give those people

0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.879
<v Speaker 1>an opportunity. In this last year of the pandemic. My

0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.640
<v Speaker 1>job as a radio producer has changed a lot. I

0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.840
<v Speaker 1>used to interview people face to face all the time

0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.840
<v Speaker 1>and be able to record them in person. Now it's

0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.120
<v Speaker 1>almost completely remote test test. So it is a real

0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.000
<v Speaker 1>treat when whoever I'm talking to is tech savvy and

0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.480
<v Speaker 1>willing to record on their end. Okay, so you're recording,

0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.440
<v Speaker 1>You're good. I'm here, baby. We live luckily. My interviewee

0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.640
<v Speaker 1>for this show works in tech as the CEO and

0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.960
<v Speaker 1>founder of Burlington Code Academy in Vermont, and his name

0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.280
<v Speaker 1>is Benjamin Boas, but I go by Benny and I

0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.800
<v Speaker 1>am twenty eight years old. Benny is kind of on

0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.880
<v Speaker 1>a crusade to make this new reality of working remotely

0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.679
<v Speaker 1>accessible for everyone, which is why Burlington Code Academy he

0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.320
<v Speaker 1>provides coding boot camps and boot camps and technology fields.

0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.040
<v Speaker 1>So boot camps are these accelerated programs are sometimes twelve weeks,

0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.720
<v Speaker 1>sometimes fourteen weeks, and point of them is that in

0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.360
<v Speaker 1>a very short period of time you're gonna learn all

0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.280
<v Speaker 1>of the skills you need to get a job in

0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.360
<v Speaker 1>a technology field. The term he uses for this is

0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:52.160
<v Speaker 1>rapid reskilling. He says this is the solution to a problem.

0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.000
<v Speaker 1>The problem being COVID put a ton of people out

0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.280
<v Speaker 1>of work, and as of March, there are still twelve

0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.200
<v Speaker 1>million people unemployed due to the pandemic, and about the

0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.120
<v Speaker 1>jobs that were lost for most of these unemployed folks

0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:12.360
<v Speaker 1>are not going to come back. That's a lot of jobs.

0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.760
<v Speaker 1>That's a lot of jobs. Let's put it this way.

0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:20.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm not concerned with jobs disappearing I'm concerned with where

0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:26.800
<v Speaker 1>those jobs are going. Okay, to get into the nitty

0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.880
<v Speaker 1>gritty real quick. At the height of the pandemic, unemployment

0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.639
<v Speaker 1>peaked at almost a lot of those jobs that paused

0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.680
<v Speaker 1>or disappeared were manual labor jobs, service jobs, factory jobs,

0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.680
<v Speaker 1>all lines of work that even before the pandemic were

0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:46.040
<v Speaker 1>hugely affected by businesses moving toward automation and digitization. And now,

0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.280
<v Speaker 1>after a year of businesses really having to pivot to

0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.959
<v Speaker 1>use automation rather than hiring employees, they're less inclined to

0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.120
<v Speaker 1>go back. And so that is the big eye opener

0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.200
<v Speaker 1>for people who are you know, sitting at home trying

0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.400
<v Speaker 1>to devise how to get back into their role, is

0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:05.840
<v Speaker 1>that their role isn't really stable anymore. And so what

0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.800
<v Speaker 1>that means is we need to think about how do

0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:13.839
<v Speaker 1>we train those people into those jobs that service automation.

0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.960
<v Speaker 1>Benny says, in the next five years, there's a projected

0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.720
<v Speaker 1>twelve million new jobs coming to the US in the

0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.200
<v Speaker 1>tech field, which is enough for each and every American

0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.920
<v Speaker 1>who doesn't have a job right now. And since so

0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.280
<v Speaker 1>much of this work will be remote, people have more

0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.640
<v Speaker 1>access to the nineties six million global jobs that are

0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:38.480
<v Speaker 1>projected for software development million global coding jobs. There are

0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.280
<v Speaker 1>so many coders right now, and yet we still don't

0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:49.200
<v Speaker 1>have enough. It's pretty unbelievable. So back at Burlington Code Academy,

0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.480
<v Speaker 1>these are what the boot camps are there to do.

0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.280
<v Speaker 1>Give people the tools they need to get these new

0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.880
<v Speaker 1>jobs in a new world. And it's sort of like

0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.120
<v Speaker 1>a second chance because most of the people who attend

0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.600
<v Speaker 1>these programs are aren't undergraduates. They're not graduate from high school.

0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.480
<v Speaker 1>They're adults who are mostly between the ages of thirty five,

0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.400
<v Speaker 1>but really range up to midlife career switchers and even

0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.360
<v Speaker 1>before retirement age. These are people who don't have work,

0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.240
<v Speaker 1>or don't have enough work, or just people looking for

0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.720
<v Speaker 1>better opportunities. And there's a lot of that opportunity in tech.

0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:28.200
<v Speaker 1>So that is what specifically these programs do. Benny has

0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.760
<v Speaker 1>built his business around planning for the future, planning for change,

0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.680
<v Speaker 1>and to fully understand how he got there, we've got

0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.400
<v Speaker 1>to go back to how he grew up. Yeah, let's

0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.679
<v Speaker 1>let's backtrack a little. Okay. So, um, I'm a first

0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.080
<v Speaker 1>generation American. Both my parents were born in Europe. My

0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.920
<v Speaker 1>mother came over here in nineteen sixty nine, during the

0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.800
<v Speaker 1>height of the Cold War. His mom was born in Czechoslovakia,

0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.359
<v Speaker 1>which was under Soviet leadership at the time and is

0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.039
<v Speaker 1>now known as the Czech Republic. She just didn't see

0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.760
<v Speaker 1>much of a future for herself in a communist country

0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.920
<v Speaker 1>and couldn't really matter continuing her life there, so she

0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.960
<v Speaker 1>came and fled to America and escaped Communism to start

0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.120
<v Speaker 1>a new life here. And my father also fled persecution

0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.920
<v Speaker 1>to come to America. Benny describes his parents as super smart,

0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:18.479
<v Speaker 1>entrepreneurial educated, heavy artsy types, but it was hard finding

0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.400
<v Speaker 1>work as immigrants in a new country, so they tried

0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.920
<v Speaker 1>to start a bunch of businesses on their own. They

0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.440
<v Speaker 1>had Benny and his brother. They moved around a lot.

0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.760
<v Speaker 1>They lived in California and Colorado and Maine. They didn't

0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.640
<v Speaker 1>try your design and taught English as a second language.

0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.360
<v Speaker 1>They even had a bed and breakfast, But Benny says

0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.680
<v Speaker 1>they always had kind of a tough time getting their

0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.920
<v Speaker 1>businesses to take hold. I remember when we were about

0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.680
<v Speaker 1>I was like, I don't know eight. My mom wanted

0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.520
<v Speaker 1>to open an ice cream shop, so she rented this space,

0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.240
<v Speaker 1>got this awning like guy seated up made it look

0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.839
<v Speaker 1>beautiful and then wouldn't charge anybody for ice cream. It

0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.719
<v Speaker 1>was a really bad business model because she wanted to

0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.279
<v Speaker 1>sell ice cream two kids, but felt bad charging the

0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.919
<v Speaker 1>kids for ice I don't even think that is a

0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.520
<v Speaker 1>business model. No, it's so bad. And so my friends

0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.039
<v Speaker 1>and I just used to go there after school and

0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.160
<v Speaker 1>just like drink the soda and like eat the candy,

0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.440
<v Speaker 1>and then like just watch my mom just not charge

0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.640
<v Speaker 1>anybody for ice cream. And I was like, all right, well,

0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.200
<v Speaker 1>this isn't gonna work for very long. And it didn't.

0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.320
<v Speaker 1>She had to close the shop like two months later. Eventually,

0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.560
<v Speaker 1>his family settled down in Vermont, where Benny went to

0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.320
<v Speaker 1>high school. In high school, I was definitely a rebel.

0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.000
<v Speaker 1>I got kicked out at two high schools. I was

0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.640
<v Speaker 1>a complete stop, Benny says. At the time, he was

0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.200
<v Speaker 1>just being a punk. But in hindsight, he said the

0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.000
<v Speaker 1>schools he was thrown into and Vermont just didn't work

0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:42.360
<v Speaker 1>for him. He felt underwhelmed and unchallenged, unstimulated. He was smart,

0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.680
<v Speaker 1>he got good grades, but my attendance, my behavior, my

0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.120
<v Speaker 1>attitude was so poor that it caused me to actually get,

0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.440
<v Speaker 1>you know, removed from multiple high schools. So by the

0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.760
<v Speaker 1>time he was a junior in high school and starting

0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.920
<v Speaker 1>to even consider college, he thought there was no chance

0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.280
<v Speaker 1>of him getting into any school because of his record.

0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.520
<v Speaker 1>Until one day I was hanging out at a friend's

0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.160
<v Speaker 1>house and this kid walked up to me and said, Bang,

0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:09.479
<v Speaker 1>do you want this? And he had a folder in

0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.760
<v Speaker 1>his hands, and it was Manawa envelope, and in that

0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:18.840
<v Speaker 1>folder was all of my disciplinary records. Ever, because at

0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.960
<v Speaker 1>the time they kept him on paper, they didn't put

0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:24.800
<v Speaker 1>them into a digital system. He was in a detention

0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.360
<v Speaker 1>and he saw my disciplinary record in the principal's office

0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:36.960
<v Speaker 1>and stole it and gave it to me. Benny got

0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.200
<v Speaker 1>into his top choice school, Bennington College, a place he

0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.800
<v Speaker 1>thought was for smart, weirdos like him who didn't fit

0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.800
<v Speaker 1>into the normal school system. He studied political science and economics,

0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.160
<v Speaker 1>art and philosophy. Then after college, I graduated and I

0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.040
<v Speaker 1>was like, oh this, I'm so prepared for the job world.

0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.800
<v Speaker 1>And I was so wrong. I literally couldn't get a

0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:02.200
<v Speaker 1>job anywhere. He eventually took a job at a staffing agency,

0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.040
<v Speaker 1>hated it, and he quit, which means it definitely wasn't

0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.920
<v Speaker 1>a job at Express Employment. Professionals. He then got a

0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.880
<v Speaker 1>job as a receptionist at McCann, the ad agency of

0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.520
<v Speaker 1>Madman Fame, and he was super interested in McCann's UX

0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.680
<v Speaker 1>department and ended up shadowing there, getting his first taste

0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.600
<v Speaker 1>of coding in the tech world, which he loved. He

0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.160
<v Speaker 1>got a full time UX coding job afterwards at a

0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.600
<v Speaker 1>different agency, and then about three years later, I was

0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.920
<v Speaker 1>working UX job that I really liked. But I kind

0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:30.520
<v Speaker 1>of looked back and I said to myself, I was like,

0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.800
<v Speaker 1>how did I get here? Like I didn't study UX

0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.480
<v Speaker 1>in college, and I didn't know what I was gonna do.

0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.640
<v Speaker 1>And wait, wait, wait, wait wait, sorry, um, what happened

0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.280
<v Speaker 1>to the Manila folder with the one with all your records?

0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:47.640
<v Speaker 1>It's at my house. Yeah, it's so funny you have it. Yeah,

0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.560
<v Speaker 1>it's still I still have it at my house. How

0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:52.400
<v Speaker 1>does that make you feel? Do you feel guilty about

0:08:52.400 --> 0:09:02.800
<v Speaker 1>it at all? Oh, that's a good question. I feel guilty. No,

0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.240
<v Speaker 1>I don't feel guilty that I got into college. Like

0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.839
<v Speaker 1>the system wasn't working for me, and it was so

0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.360
<v Speaker 1>obviously not working that I had to make it work

0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.440
<v Speaker 1>and that was the only way, Like there was no

0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.840
<v Speaker 1>if I I'd much rather be a productive member of

0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.000
<v Speaker 1>society than an unproductive member of society. And I can't

0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:26.800
<v Speaker 1>see how I would have gotten to where I am

0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:28.480
<v Speaker 1>right now if that could have not stole them my

0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:35.680
<v Speaker 1>that Manila folder. So um, yeah, do I feel bad? No?

0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:41.400
<v Speaker 1>Do I think the system is broken? Yes? M mhm.

0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.560
<v Speaker 1>We'll get back to our story in a second. First,

0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:50.400
<v Speaker 1>a word from Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic

0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.920
<v Speaker 1>takes pride in a job well done, sweats over the details.

0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.440
<v Speaker 1>This is you. But to get an honest day is work.

0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.120
<v Speaker 1>You need a response, you need a call back, You

0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:09.000
<v Speaker 1>need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we

0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.199
<v Speaker 1>understand what it takes to get a job. It takes

0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.200
<v Speaker 1>more than just online searches to land a job. It

0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.240
<v Speaker 1>takes someone who will identify your talents, a person invested

0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.760
<v Speaker 1>in your success. At Express, we can even complete your

0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.439
<v Speaker 1>application with you over the phone, will prepare you for interviews,

0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.400
<v Speaker 1>and will connect you to the right company. Plus, we'll

0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.479
<v Speaker 1>never charge a fee to find you a job. At Express,

0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.800
<v Speaker 1>we could put you to work with companies of all

0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.640
<v Speaker 1>sizes and industries, from the production floor to the front office.

0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.280
<v Speaker 1>Express nose jobs get to no Express find your location

0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.840
<v Speaker 1>at Express pros dot com or on the Express Jobs app.

0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.760
<v Speaker 1>Now back to on the job. So with this second

0:10:54.840 --> 0:11:01.160
<v Speaker 1>chance mentality in mind, Benny started Burlington Code Academy. Burlington

0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.680
<v Speaker 1>Code Academy is an immersive, full time program that prepares

0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.400
<v Speaker 1>graduates to enter a new career as a web developer

0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.960
<v Speaker 1>in twelve weeks. That's Benny's voice in a promo video

0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.439
<v Speaker 1>for b c A. Right after they got started, they

0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.560
<v Speaker 1>were immediately getting really positive feedback from students and rolling

0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.719
<v Speaker 1>in the programs. It really is project based learning during

0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.959
<v Speaker 1>projects every single day in collaboration with other students. What

0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.920
<v Speaker 1>sets b c A apart is that they recognize the

0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.679
<v Speaker 1>problem with the tech world that the technology itself is

0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.839
<v Speaker 1>usually what keeps people away from these kinds of jobs. Yes,

0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.680
<v Speaker 1>unlike a lot of other boot camps, we actually don't

0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.480
<v Speaker 1>accept students based off of technical skills, So you don't

0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.679
<v Speaker 1>have to have any technical skills to come to our

0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.680
<v Speaker 1>program at all. Small class size, so the teachers and

0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.840
<v Speaker 1>the t a s are very accessible and always willing

0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.640
<v Speaker 1>to help. So Benny says, to get into the program,

0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:53.840
<v Speaker 1>you have to have people skills. You've got to be

0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.400
<v Speaker 1>able to work on a team, have good verbal skills.

0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.920
<v Speaker 1>You have to want to learn and want to work.

0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.960
<v Speaker 1>That's for helped a lot of folks who might have

0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.800
<v Speaker 1>been shut out from other coding boot camps get through

0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.240
<v Speaker 1>our doors and into a tech job. And I just think,

0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.920
<v Speaker 1>if I could get to do this professionally, if this

0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.920
<v Speaker 1>could be my job, that'd be great. Most of the

0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.800
<v Speaker 1>people that have come through our doors, they're a lot

0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.120
<v Speaker 1>like me. Actually, they're not your prime candidate for tech job.

0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.439
<v Speaker 1>Then he's seen Walgreens cash years quit their jobs and

0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.720
<v Speaker 1>go to Burlington Code Academy and leave with jobs making

0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:34.439
<v Speaker 1>eighty thou dollars a year. We've had parents, um including

0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.880
<v Speaker 1>single mothers, able to get a job that would allow

0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.600
<v Speaker 1>them to work from home and take care of their kids.

0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.880
<v Speaker 1>They've had people right off assembly lines breathing not just fumes,

0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.199
<v Speaker 1>or people working tough manual labor jobs into old age

0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.120
<v Speaker 1>people in physical pain from their work who were able

0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.520
<v Speaker 1>to find more sedentary jobs like coding or software development.

0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:59.080
<v Speaker 1>We've had women be able to leave abusive relationships on

0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.480
<v Speaker 1>multiple occasion because they've had the earning power to move

0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.319
<v Speaker 1>out of their house after going to Burlington Code Academy.

0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.960
<v Speaker 1>There's just been so many stories of people who have

0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.079
<v Speaker 1>never thought that they were going to be a quote

0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.640
<v Speaker 1>or um. They didn't think that they could do it

0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:19.000
<v Speaker 1>until we existed and you opened up in seen how

0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.920
<v Speaker 1>many people have been through the program so far. So

0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.880
<v Speaker 1>we've helped almost a couple of hundred people find their

0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.680
<v Speaker 1>first job in tech. Wow. When you think about those stories,

0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.080
<v Speaker 1>how does that make you feel like as a person

0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.160
<v Speaker 1>who was part of making them happen? I don't know,

0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.680
<v Speaker 1>you know, I don't think about it that much, to

0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.640
<v Speaker 1>be honest, and I probably should, but I don't. I'll

0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.319
<v Speaker 1>tell you why. Because Burlington Code Academy has done such

0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.120
<v Speaker 1>a good job at amplifying the voices of folks who

0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.840
<v Speaker 1>are in a lot of ways underserved or in some

0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.559
<v Speaker 1>scenarios underprivileged. And that's really great. But it's just not enough.

0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:07.280
<v Speaker 1>It's really not It's really meaningful. The most meaningful part

0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.480
<v Speaker 1>of my job is to hear when a student gets

0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.360
<v Speaker 1>a job. That's absolutely makes everything worth it, even the

0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.800
<v Speaker 1>high highs and the low lows. It's when a student

0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.360
<v Speaker 1>gets the job. That's what is the most important piece

0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.280
<v Speaker 1>of what we do every day. But that's one student.

0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm Blanton Code Academy has graduated a couple hundred people

0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.080
<v Speaker 1>and that's been three years now. You know, it's like,

0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.920
<v Speaker 1>really great because we're doing it, but it's not at

0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:41.960
<v Speaker 1>the level of which I want to. Benny's ambition is

0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.000
<v Speaker 1>pretty daunting, to be honest, but talking with him, I

0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.200
<v Speaker 1>get it. You know, he's helped two d people in

0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.560
<v Speaker 1>a very rural state find jobs in the coding and

0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:56.400
<v Speaker 1>software development world. That's huge. But if the boot camps

0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.720
<v Speaker 1>could help so many people so quickly, if the demand

0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.680
<v Speaker 1>for the is that high, why aren't they the standard

0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.560
<v Speaker 1>in so many rural areas. Your Your whole thing is

0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:10.560
<v Speaker 1>that not that like some people can't do these tech jobs,

0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.720
<v Speaker 1>is that they can't see them, So how would they

0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.040
<v Speaker 1>even know how to go about it? Exactly? The way

0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.840
<v Speaker 1>I think about it is, if you are in the

0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.280
<v Speaker 1>middle of West Virginia near a coal mine, or even

0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.840
<v Speaker 1>more rule than that, there is no college near you,

0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.560
<v Speaker 1>would you ever consider college? You can't do what you

0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.440
<v Speaker 1>can't see. Yeah, exactly, Like, there's no reason why you

0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.680
<v Speaker 1>shouldn't be able to go to your local community college

0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.240
<v Speaker 1>and take a coding boo game. That's that should be.

0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.520
<v Speaker 1>That should be a staple in their curriculum and and

0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:52.600
<v Speaker 1>it will be the reason he's so confident because that

0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.240
<v Speaker 1>is what he's doing now. In the last couple of years,

0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.800
<v Speaker 1>he started a new company called Upright Education, which will

0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.200
<v Speaker 1>help colleges all over the country set up the same

0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.120
<v Speaker 1>boot camp programs he started at Burlington Code Academy. He says,

0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.240
<v Speaker 1>with the enormous growth in community college over the last

0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:13.120
<v Speaker 1>few decades, America's infrastructure to make these classes accessible is

0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.160
<v Speaker 1>already there. His goal is to just use it. The

0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.240
<v Speaker 1>truth is, the system isn't what we're trying to change.

0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.320
<v Speaker 1>You have to work with the resources that have are

0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.320
<v Speaker 1>already available. These schools are working because colleges do work.

0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.760
<v Speaker 1>They have uplifted to middle class, they have uplifted to

0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.560
<v Speaker 1>lower income families. So it's working now. We just need

0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.480
<v Speaker 1>to make it work for the twenty century. When you

0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.520
<v Speaker 1>think about doing that, in your head, do you imagine

0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.400
<v Speaker 1>young Benny who was kind of failed by the system?

0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:49.760
<v Speaker 1>Are you are you kind of like making something for him? Um,

0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.200
<v Speaker 1>that's funny. These are all questions one's ever asked me.

0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:59.640
<v Speaker 1>I've never thought about Uh. I kind of more think

0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.440
<v Speaker 1>about my parents actually, because they were immigrants you know,

0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.240
<v Speaker 1>to this country, and um, it was really hard for them.

0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.440
<v Speaker 1>You know, they were like forward by everything here, let

0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.919
<v Speaker 1>alone like how the job market worked. The purpose of

0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.040
<v Speaker 1>what we do is for people like my parents. The

0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.800
<v Speaker 1>reason why we do it is because Benny went to college.

0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.159
<v Speaker 1>Benny is a self starter. Young Benny was also rebellious

0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.720
<v Speaker 1>and probably kept a lot on his own. But my

0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:31.640
<v Speaker 1>parents didn't have an opportunity. They did everything they could

0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:33.639
<v Speaker 1>to give my brother and I a good life, and

0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:35.520
<v Speaker 1>I think about what would have been like if they

0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.639
<v Speaker 1>would have had an opportunity to have gotten to a

0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:48.600
<v Speaker 1>stable career earlier in their life. I'll be honest. Hearing

0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.359
<v Speaker 1>Benny's story made me think about second chances in a

0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.000
<v Speaker 1>way that I hadn't in a while. Like think of

0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.640
<v Speaker 1>that punk kid you knew in high school, or maybe

0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:58.280
<v Speaker 1>a family member who has been in and out of

0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.600
<v Speaker 1>trouble and couldn't hold a job. Maybe it's you having

0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.960
<v Speaker 1>a hard time knowing what you're gonna do with your life.

0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.159
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it's not that you don't fit into the world.

0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:12.000
<v Speaker 1>Maybe is that the world doesn't fit you. And given

0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.399
<v Speaker 1>a Manila folder a second chance of finding something that

0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:24.159
<v Speaker 1>works for you, what could you do with it with

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.600
<v Speaker 1>a year that we've all been deeply affected by. I

0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.720
<v Speaker 1>think most people can get down with the idea of

0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:33.600
<v Speaker 1>a do over, and in spite of historically high unemployment numbers,

0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.200
<v Speaker 1>Benny has made it his job to make sure people

0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.680
<v Speaker 1>who need a second shot at least have the option

0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.600
<v Speaker 1>to take it. I'm not gonna feel satisfied until we

0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.119
<v Speaker 1>make a big dent in any of those numbers that

0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.960
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned earlier. You got your work cut out for you.

0:18:48.359 --> 0:19:01.040
<v Speaker 1>It'll work out. We'll get there. For On the Job,

0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:08.480
<v Speaker 1>I'm Otis Gray. Thanks for listening to On the Job,

0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.560
<v Speaker 1>brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This season of

0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.680
<v Speaker 1>On the Job is produced by Audiation. The episodes were

0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.320
<v Speaker 1>written and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive producer

0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.240
<v Speaker 1>is Sandy Smallens. The show is mixed by Matt Noble

0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.280
<v Speaker 1>for Audiation Studios at The Loft in Bronxville, New York.

0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.120
<v Speaker 1>Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Find us on I Heart

0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.640
<v Speaker 1>Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard,

0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.000
<v Speaker 1>please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts

0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.000
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For

0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:50.680
<v Speaker 1>more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Audiation,