Booting Up a Better Career

times of crisis. But for the millions of employees who worked those jobs that have vanished, pivoting to a new one is not easy. In today's episode, we talked with someone who's made it their job to give those people an opportunity. In this last year of the pandemic. My job as a radio producer has changed a lot. I used to interview people face to face all the time and be able to record them in person. Now it's

almost completely remote test test. So it is a real treat when whoever I'm talking to is tech savvy and willing to record on their end. Okay, so you're recording, You're good. I'm here, baby. We live luckily. My interviewee for this show works in tech as the CEO and founder of Burlington Code Academy in Vermont, and his name is Benjamin Boas, but I go by Benny and I

am twenty eight years old. Benny is kind of on a crusade to make this new reality of working remotely accessible for everyone, which is why Burlington Code Academy he provides coding boot camps and boot camps and technology fields. So boot camps are these accelerated programs are sometimes twelve weeks, sometimes fourteen weeks, and point of them is that in a very short period of time you're gonna learn all of the skills you need to get a job in a technology field. The term he uses for this is

rapid reskilling. He says this is the solution to a problem. The problem being COVID put a ton of people out of work, and as of March, there are still twelve million people unemployed due to the pandemic, and about the jobs that were lost for most of these unemployed folks are not going to come back. That's a lot of jobs. That's a lot of jobs. Let's put it this way. I'm not concerned with jobs disappearing I'm concerned with where those jobs are going. Okay, to get into the nitty

gritty real quick. At the height of the pandemic, unemployment peaked at almost a lot of those jobs that paused or disappeared were manual labor jobs, service jobs, factory jobs, all lines of work that even before the pandemic were hugely affected by businesses moving toward automation and digitization. And now, after a year of businesses really having to pivot to use automation rather than hiring employees, they're less inclined to

go back. And so that is the big eye opener for people who are you know, sitting at home trying to devise how to get back into their role, is that their role isn't really stable anymore. And so what that means is we need to think about how do we train those people into those jobs that service automation. Benny says, in the next five years, there's a projected twelve million new jobs coming to the US in the tech field, which is enough for each and every American

who doesn't have a job right now. And since so much of this work will be remote, people have more access to the nineties six million global jobs that are projected for software development million global coding jobs. There are so many coders right now, and yet we still don't have enough. It's pretty unbelievable. So back at Burlington Code Academy, these are what the boot camps are there to do. Give people the tools they need to get these new

jobs in a new world. And it's sort of like a second chance because most of the people who attend these programs are aren't undergraduates. They're not graduate from high school. They're adults who are mostly between the ages of thirty five, but really range up to midlife career switchers and even before retirement age. These are people who don't have work, or don't have enough work, or just people looking for better opportunities. And there's a lot of that opportunity in tech.

So that is what specifically these programs do. Benny has built his business around planning for the future, planning for change, and to fully understand how he got there, we've got to go back to how he grew up. Yeah, let's let's backtrack a little. Okay. So, um, I'm a first generation American. Both my parents were born in Europe. My mother came over here in nineteen sixty nine, during the

height of the Cold War. His mom was born in Czechoslovakia, which was under Soviet leadership at the time and is now known as the Czech Republic. She just didn't see much of a future for herself in a communist country and couldn't really matter continuing her life there, so she came and fled to America and escaped Communism to start a new life here. And my father also fled persecution

to come to America. Benny describes his parents as super smart, entrepreneurial educated, heavy artsy types, but it was hard finding work as immigrants in a new country, so they tried to start a bunch of businesses on their own. They had Benny and his brother. They moved around a lot. They lived in California and Colorado and Maine. They didn't try your design and taught English as a second language.

They even had a bed and breakfast, But Benny says they always had kind of a tough time getting their businesses to take hold. I remember when we were about I was like, I don't know eight. My mom wanted to open an ice cream shop, so she rented this space, got this awning like guy seated up made it look

beautiful and then wouldn't charge anybody for ice cream. It was a really bad business model because she wanted to sell ice cream two kids, but felt bad charging the kids for ice I don't even think that is a business model. No, it's so bad. And so my friends and I just used to go there after school and just like drink the soda and like eat the candy, and then like just watch my mom just not charge anybody for ice cream. And I was like, all right, well,

this isn't gonna work for very long. And it didn't. She had to close the shop like two months later. Eventually, his family settled down in Vermont, where Benny went to high school. In high school, I was definitely a rebel. I got kicked out at two high schools. I was a complete stop, Benny says. At the time, he was just being a punk. But in hindsight, he said the schools he was thrown into and Vermont just didn't work

for him. He felt underwhelmed and unchallenged, unstimulated. He was smart, he got good grades, but my attendance, my behavior, my attitude was so poor that it caused me to actually get, you know, removed from multiple high schools. So by the time he was a junior in high school and starting to even consider college, he thought there was no chance of him getting into any school because of his record. Until one day I was hanging out at a friend's house and this kid walked up to me and said, Bang,

do you want this? And he had a folder in his hands, and it was Manawa envelope, and in that folder was all of my disciplinary records. Ever, because at the time they kept him on paper, they didn't put them into a digital system. He was in a detention and he saw my disciplinary record in the principal's office and stole it and gave it to me. Benny got into his top choice school, Bennington College, a place he thought was for smart, weirdos like him who didn't fit

into the normal school system. He studied political science and economics, art and philosophy. Then after college, I graduated and I was like, oh this, I'm so prepared for the job world. And I was so wrong. I literally couldn't get a job anywhere. He eventually took a job at a staffing agency, hated it, and he quit, which means it definitely wasn't

a job at Express Employment. Professionals. He then got a job as a receptionist at McCann, the ad agency of Madman Fame, and he was super interested in McCann's UX department and ended up shadowing there, getting his first taste of coding in the tech world, which he loved. He got a full time UX coding job afterwards at a different agency, and then about three years later, I was working UX job that I really liked. But I kind of looked back and I said to myself, I was like,

how did I get here? Like I didn't study UX in college, and I didn't know what I was gonna do. And wait, wait, wait, wait wait, sorry, um, what happened to the Manila folder with the one with all your records? It's at my house. Yeah, it's so funny you have it. Yeah, it's still I still have it at my house. How does that make you feel? Do you feel guilty about it at all? Oh, that's a good question. I feel guilty. No,

I don't feel guilty that I got into college. Like the system wasn't working for me, and it was so obviously not working that I had to make it work and that was the only way, Like there was no if I I'd much rather be a productive member of society than an unproductive member of society. And I can't see how I would have gotten to where I am right now if that could have not stole them my that Manila folder. So um, yeah, do I feel bad? No? Do I think the system is broken? Yes? M mhm.

We'll get back to our story in a second. First, a word from Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic takes pride in a job well done, sweats over the details. This is you. But to get an honest day is work. You need a response, you need a call back, You need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we understand what it takes to get a job. It takes more than just online searches to land a job. It takes someone who will identify your talents, a person invested

in your success. At Express, we can even complete your application with you over the phone, will prepare you for interviews, and will connect you to the right company. Plus, we'll never charge a fee to find you a job. At Express, we could put you to work with companies of all sizes and industries, from the production floor to the front office. Express nose jobs get to no Express find your location at Express pros dot com or on the Express Jobs app. Now back to on the job. So with this second

chance mentality in mind, Benny started Burlington Code Academy. Burlington Code Academy is an immersive, full time program that prepares graduates to enter a new career as a web developer in twelve weeks. That's Benny's voice in a promo video for b c A. Right after they got started, they were immediately getting really positive feedback from students and rolling in the programs. It really is project based learning during

projects every single day in collaboration with other students. What sets b c A apart is that they recognize the problem with the tech world that the technology itself is usually what keeps people away from these kinds of jobs. Yes, unlike a lot of other boot camps, we actually don't accept students based off of technical skills, So you don't have to have any technical skills to come to our program at all. Small class size, so the teachers and the t a s are very accessible and always willing

to help. So Benny says, to get into the program, you have to have people skills. You've got to be able to work on a team, have good verbal skills. You have to want to learn and want to work. That's for helped a lot of folks who might have been shut out from other coding boot camps get through our doors and into a tech job. And I just think, if I could get to do this professionally, if this could be my job, that'd be great. Most of the people that have come through our doors, they're a lot

like me. Actually, they're not your prime candidate for tech job. Then he's seen Walgreens cash years quit their jobs and go to Burlington Code Academy and leave with jobs making eighty thou dollars a year. We've had parents, um including single mothers, able to get a job that would allow them to work from home and take care of their kids.

They've had people right off assembly lines breathing not just fumes, or people working tough manual labor jobs into old age people in physical pain from their work who were able to find more sedentary jobs like coding or software development. We've had women be able to leave abusive relationships on multiple occasion because they've had the earning power to move out of their house after going to Burlington Code Academy.

There's just been so many stories of people who have never thought that they were going to be a quote or um. They didn't think that they could do it until we existed and you opened up in seen how many people have been through the program so far. So we've helped almost a couple of hundred people find their first job in tech. Wow. When you think about those stories, how does that make you feel like as a person

who was part of making them happen? I don't know, you know, I don't think about it that much, to be honest, and I probably should, but I don't. I'll tell you why. Because Burlington Code Academy has done such a good job at amplifying the voices of folks who are in a lot of ways underserved or in some scenarios underprivileged. And that's really great. But it's just not enough. It's really not It's really meaningful. The most meaningful part of my job is to hear when a student gets

a job. That's absolutely makes everything worth it, even the high highs and the low lows. It's when a student gets the job. That's what is the most important piece of what we do every day. But that's one student. I'm Blanton Code Academy has graduated a couple hundred people and that's been three years now. You know, it's like, really great because we're doing it, but it's not at the level of which I want to. Benny's ambition is pretty daunting, to be honest, but talking with him, I

get it. You know, he's helped two d people in a very rural state find jobs in the coding and software development world. That's huge. But if the boot camps could help so many people so quickly, if the demand for the is that high, why aren't they the standard in so many rural areas. Your Your whole thing is that not that like some people can't do these tech jobs, is that they can't see them, So how would they

even know how to go about it? Exactly? The way I think about it is, if you are in the middle of West Virginia near a coal mine, or even more rule than that, there is no college near you, would you ever consider college? You can't do what you can't see. Yeah, exactly, Like, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to go to your local community college and take a coding boo game. That's that should be.

That should be a staple in their curriculum and and it will be the reason he's so confident because that is what he's doing now. In the last couple of years, he started a new company called Upright Education, which will help colleges all over the country set up the same boot camp programs he started at Burlington Code Academy. He says, with the enormous growth in community college over the last few decades, America's infrastructure to make these classes accessible is

already there. His goal is to just use it. The truth is, the system isn't what we're trying to change. You have to work with the resources that have are already available. These schools are working because colleges do work. They have uplifted to middle class, they have uplifted to lower income families. So it's working now. We just need to make it work for the twenty century. When you think about doing that, in your head, do you imagine young Benny who was kind of failed by the system?

Are you are you kind of like making something for him? Um, that's funny. These are all questions one's ever asked me. I've never thought about Uh. I kind of more think about my parents actually, because they were immigrants you know, to this country, and um, it was really hard for them. You know, they were like forward by everything here, let alone like how the job market worked. The purpose of what we do is for people like my parents. The reason why we do it is because Benny went to college.

Benny is a self starter. Young Benny was also rebellious and probably kept a lot on his own. But my parents didn't have an opportunity. They did everything they could to give my brother and I a good life, and I think about what would have been like if they would have had an opportunity to have gotten to a stable career earlier in their life. I'll be honest. Hearing Benny's story made me think about second chances in a

way that I hadn't in a while. Like think of that punk kid you knew in high school, or maybe a family member who has been in and out of trouble and couldn't hold a job. Maybe it's you having a hard time knowing what you're gonna do with your life. Maybe it's not that you don't fit into the world. Maybe is that the world doesn't fit you. And given a Manila folder a second chance of finding something that works for you, what could you do with it with

a year that we've all been deeply affected by. I think most people can get down with the idea of a do over, and in spite of historically high unemployment numbers, Benny has made it his job to make sure people who need a second shot at least have the option to take it. I'm not gonna feel satisfied until we make a big dent in any of those numbers that I mentioned earlier. You got your work cut out for you. It'll work out. We'll get there. For On the Job,

I'm Otis Gray. Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This season of On the Job is produced by Audiation. The episodes were written and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens. The show is mixed by Matt Noble for Audiation Studios at The Loft in Bronxville, New York. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Find us on I Heart

Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard, please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Audiation,