Speaker: Christopher Garner
What influenced you to join the Pivot Tech program?
Christopher Garner: One of the reasons I wanted to join the pivot tech group is because I wanted to transition into the tech industry. I had been trying to learn uh tech on my own uh different coding languages. And uh it was, it was going OK. But I always wanted to find a place where I could learn in an environment where I had a teacher and classmates and other people that I could kind of bounce ideas off of because personally, that's the best way uh that I learn, learning on my own is OK. But when I'm in a group and I'm able to communicate with other people. Uh For me, it provides me with a lot more opportunity to learn new things and grow faster. So that's the main reason why I wanted to join uh the pivot group.
Prior to joining Pivot, what was your technical background?
Christopher Garner: My prior technical knowledge includes building a computer. When I was younger. Um When I was a teenager, I built my own PC and programmed it and kind of built it up to my own specifications and put it together, bought all the pieces for it and programmed it. And I was so happy and so uh thrilled to have my own computer and really kind of specked it out and all of that type of stuff. So that was my um initial, I would say jump into uh technical knowledge. But since then I just customize my own computers to my likings and uh my personal preferences. And I also, you know, use like the Microsoft Suite and other software that allows me to make presentations and uh put videos together and things like that for my educational purposes when I'm teaching.
How has this opportunity in tech changed your professional career?
Christopher Garner: I can't say as of right now, how being involved with tech uh affects my professional career because I'm not professionally in the tech industry as of yet. I'm currently still learning uh in the software development class with Noel and who are my teachers. Uh Although I do feel like everything that they taught me so far has uh definitely, I feel like put me in a situation where I'll be prepared when professional situations come about. Uh We've learned HTML. We've also learned CS S and we're currently learning javascript and uh we're about to start putting our javascript and cs S and html all together and really starting to build things. So I think they're teaching on top of the people who they bring into class to speak with us uh is definitely gonna set me and my colleagues up for, you know, the best situation we can have stepping into the professional industry when that time comes.
What about the Pivot program stood out the most?
Christopher Garner: I think what stands out the most about pivot tech would have to be the people. Uh I've only dealt with really good people since I've been involved with pivot tech, starting with Miss Wells. She was the first person who I came in contact with when I was trying to get involved with the software development course. Uh After that, of course, I met my teachers, Noel and uh the cote of our class, Vahan Noel being a professional software developer and Vahan being pivot alum, both of them are a wealth of knowledge and have opened up great communication lines between not only, you know, the students and them, but also create an environment in our class where we can communicate with each other. So I really think they're setting us up to uh be in a professional environment where communication is key and we're gonna be working in teams and we have to do the same thing that we're doing right now in class. So that has been great. Also, Yesenia has been a very helpful person when it comes to professional development. Uh She's helped me with my resume and also my linkedin profile, which is something new because I've been in education. So I've been worried about how I would build a resume around what I've done when it has nothing to do with tech. So all of the questions that I have have gone through her and she's been able to, uh bring back answers and, and give me advice on what I can do to build the best resume that I can and make my experiences look uh more appealing to recruiters. So from top to bottom, I think the people have been the best part of working with pivot so far.
Can you share some advice to someone who is thinking about joining this program?
Christopher Garner: I would say my best piece of advice for anybody who's trying to join pivot tech or get involved with the tech industry is just to do it. And I know that's a kind of cliche answer. Take your first step, all of those types of things. But at the end of the day, uh there's so much research you can do, you can look at all of the opportunities other people have had. You can read up on all the different stories about people who get involved with tech and it changed their lives and all of those types of things. But at the end of the day, the only difference between you and them is that they took that step, that first initial step and started. And I think that's the best thing that we all can do. Uh As far as some advice would just be, take that first step, jump and go for it. And when you go for it, don't stop going forward till you get where you wanna be.
