BENLIGHTEN ALUMNI STORIES: TOM, FULL STACK DEVELOPER

Tom first joined BENLIGHTEN Academy in Fall 2023, where he leveraged his knowledge in software development and updated his skillset with new technologies. After 5 months of the Full Stack Program, Tom became a software developer at Positive Learning.

Hey Tom, congrats on graduating from BENLIGHTEN Academy! For you, what was the biggest benefit that BENLIGHTEN provided?

Primarily, I value the motivation I got to build new things and the freedom to build them the way I wanted to. At BENLIGHTEN, I could freely develop creativity while being guided by the instructors and my fellow coursemates. Sometimes it’s difficult to see how you can improve your skills without knowing what exactly it is that you’re missing, and so you might just be doing things in the wrong way and will benefit a lot from constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. If you are unaware that you are on the wrong track, you’ll never know you need to change it. And then once I can address these aspects with extra help from BENLIGHTEN people, I have the freedom to work on them in my preferred way.

Is there anything else you feel was especially great at BENLIGHTEN?

The people that work at BENLIGHTEN. I think they’re all fantastic. I’ve seen people happily go out of their way even during a weekend to help others. Whenever I’ve raised a query with team members, they’ve been incredibly helpful and quick to reply. There’s also a lot of respect between both parties, and people are always willing to offer their help. For example, when I started my new job and was in need of a certain device, BENLIGHTEN personnel immediately agreed to provide the support.

To me, their can-do attitude demonstrates that my team members at BENLIGHTEN will pull out all the stops to ensure you can produce your best work.

Let’s discuss job opportunities! Do you feel BENLIGHTEN was helpful in finding a suitable job for you?

Absolutely. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were increasingly cautious about hiring international talent. I think being British somewhat factors into that as well, as there was a lot of uncertainty about the effect of Brexit on people. BENLIGHTEN was fantastic about reaching out to employers and communicated with us whenever they received an update on the process. With BENLIGHTEN being an established company with a proven track record, it gave employers peace of mind and a sense of security that their new employee was a talented developer who respected their values.

Thank you, Tom. Take care and continue your awesome work!

If you got excited by Tom’s story, the application is already open for the Fall programs, both the Full Stack Program and Data Science & Machine Learning Program. Apply NOW and launch your career in technology!