Terry believes that what made the biggest difference in the course was how everyone helped each other out.
“You Can Learn Anything” – How Terry Went from Building Sites to Tech.
When Terry had his knee replacement, it was a proper wake-up call. He’d picked up the injury during his time in the Royal Marines, and it had been getting worse for years.
“I was self-employed, doing all sorts,” Terry tells me. “Plumbing, tiling, plastering, you name it. But my knee was deteriorating rapidly.”
He knew he couldn’t keep going in the building trade. The physical side was just too much now. But when you’ve spent your whole working life with your hands, where on earth do you go next?
Terry started looking online for tech bootcamps. He’d always been interested in technology and had worked with computers years back, but he’d never actually written a line of code. That’s when he discovered CodeYourFuture.
“I’m one of those people who researches everything thoroughly,” he says. But CodeYourFuture just felt right. It was part-time, which meant it could work around his life, and they promised to stick with you right through to getting a job. Plus, it sounded like a really supportive community.
Finding Time When There Isn’t Any
Getting started was challenging, though. Really challenging.
“I was getting up at five every morning just to get some studying in before everyone else woke up. I’m not great at night, so mornings were my only chance.”
The self-doubt was probably the hardest part.
“You’re trying to keep up with everyone else, and you can’t help comparing yourself. You see some people just picking things up quickly, and you think, am I falling behind here? But the thing is, you don’t know what anyone else’s background is. You just have to ignore all that and keep going.”
Slowly though, things started clicking into place.
Supporting Each Other
What really made the difference, Terry believes, was how everyone started helping each other out.
“Once we all got to know each other properly, you could see who was struggling with what. People started feeling comfortable saying, ‘Right, I’m completely stuck on this, can someone talk me through it?’ And there’d always be someone saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve got time later this week, let’s jump on a call.'”
Instead of everyone trying to outdo each other, they became a proper team. Sharing tips, encouraging each other, celebrating the small wins.
Learning to Figure Things Out
All that practice started paying off. Terry got much better at solving problems and thinking things through properly.
The big change, he says, was learning to have a proper go at something before asking for help.
“Before, I might have just asked straight away and then gone off to find the answer. I completely flipped that around. Now I’ll have a proper attempt at figuring it out myself first, and only then ask if I’m really stuck.”
He became much more methodical too, especially when it came to testing code and sorting out bugs. It’s something that’s stuck with him, and it even came up in job interviews later on.
Getting Over the Fear of Speaking Up
Standing up and presenting to people was another hurdle. In his old job, Terry only really dealt with small groups of people.
“I wasn’t used to having lots of people watching whilst you’re trying to explain something. To be honest, it gave me quite a bit of anxiety.”
But at CodeYourFuture, you’re regularly presenting your work and explaining how you’ve tackled problems. The more he did it, the easier it got.
“It’s like anything, really. The more you do it, the less daunting it becomes. And it’s something I use all the time in my job now.”
“I Can Learn Anything I Want To”
The biggest change though was how Terry started thinking about what he could achieve.
“Before CodeYourFuture, I knew I could do things, but it was always physical stuff or just being mentally resilient. This was different.”
Now he can sit down and work through complex problems for hours, think critically about things in a way he never could before. Without having been to university or anything like that.
“These days, I genuinely believe I can learn anything I want to. That’s a massive shift.”
Terry’s Message to Anyone Thinking About Joining CodeYourFuture:
Terry’s now working as a software consultant at a major tech company. He’s also running a non-profit, trying to use technology to make things better locally and beyond.
His advice to anyone thinking about CodeYourFuture?
“I’ve watched it completely change people’s lives. I’ve seen people lift themselves and their families right out of poverty.”
If Terry’s story sounds familiar, maybe consider CodeYourFuture’s Intro to Digital course.
The course may not be easy, but you won’t be doing it on your own.
👉 Sign up for the next Intro to Digital course here.
Free. Flexible. Community-powered. And it just might change your life.
Completing the advanced courses at CodeYourFuture changed Terry’s life.