How Bootcamp Alum Austin Cox Landed a Software Engineering Role

Career success is about more than securing the training and experience to land a role. Rather, it’s a mindset, a process, and a continual evolution of professional skills—both technical and interpersonal. It’s a big commitment, but the good news is you don’t have to do it alone!

A graduate of the Virginia Tech Coding Bootcamp powered by Fullstack Academy, Austin Cox, emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining the right support system to foster growth throughout your career. He advises prospective tech professionals to start forming a network right away:

"Connecting at events and on LinkedIn is awesome, but if you're new to the networking world, it can be hard, so find ways to utilize your current network until you are more comfortable reaching out to new people. Your classmates and instructors, current and previous coworkers and managers, friends, and family are all great places to start your job search.”

In line with these recommendations, Virginia Tech Coding Bootcamp students are encouraged to access built-in career success services from day one of the program. This empowers students to kickstart their career journey by engaging with connections early on—building confidence in their networking capabilities, while also paving the way to expand their reach.

Although technical skill-building is distinct from interpersonal career and networking training, the two go hand-in-hand in the Virginia Tech Coding Bootcamp. Students spend the bulk of their instructional time honing their software engineering skills in Javascript. Through a combination of collaborative exercises (pair programming), live instruction, and independent project building, prospective coders are constantly learning by doing (active learning). Students then graduate with a portfolio of projects to represent their skills to potential employers.

Cox encourages bootcamp students to continue honing their craft following graduation, too:

“Don't stop coding and building projects. In between interviews, you should be coding. If you are nervous for interviews, you will find so much confidence when you know the answers to technical questions and have a story to tell about how you've implemented your knowledge into one of your projects. Interviews can be rare at first, so make them count."

This growth mindset has been key to his success. In his current role, he’s both regularly sharpening his technical skills and building connections and experience for the future. And to help secure this role, Cox has made excellent use of the Fullstack Academy Career Success Program in bootcamp and beyond:

"My career coach became my personal cheerleader. [She] was a huge part of my job search and success in landing my current position as a Software Engineer Intern. She sent me every job listing she found and gave me the resources I needed to make my resume and application stand out from other applicants. She provided mock interviews, lists of common interview questions, advice on negotiating salary, and most importantly confidence. I left every meeting less stressed about my job search and excited for the next application. I could not be more thankful for her guidance!"

Congratulations, Austin Cox!

Looking to tell your own coding career success story? Apply and enroll in the Virginia Tech Coding Bootcamp today to graduate with the skills to launch a thriving tech career.