“Working as a remote developer allowed me to improve my income and have an internationally competitive salary by leaving the local market rate.” - Salvador Olvera Nava
Microverse students work incredibly hard to become professional software developers and we’re so proud of all our students and the work they put in. From making sacrifices to be able to support themselves throughout the program, to spending thousands of hours learning, they’re committed to improving their lives. Our alumni have landed jobs around the world, earning an average of 3x more than what they made before — without paying Microverse anything until they’re employed.
We are delighted to highlight another one of our alumni, who landed an amazing software development job. Salvador Olvera Nava is a Mexican student who landed a job as a Full Stack Software Developer at LatAm based Nexton in August 2020. We asked Salvador about his experience learning to code, his journey at Microverse, and how life has changed since he landed a full-time developer job.
We asked Salvador a series of questions to learn more about him and his journey to software development. He shared how he developed his initial interest in coding and how he came to the decision to change careers to pursue software development full-time.
“My passion for coding started when I was 14 years old."
"In middle and high school, I had robotics and technology subjects where I learned some basic things about robots and web design. I started creating some websites for friends and began participating in robotics competitions.
When I went to university, I decided to study mechatronics engineering. At the time, I was more interested in robotics systems. I began to build some robotic projects where I needed to create user interfaces to improve the user experience. That’s when I saw an opportunity to combine two of my passions - web design and robotics. I started learning software development, but my learning was very slow.
After I graduated from university, I worked for five years as a mechatronic engineer in an additive manufacturing startup in Mexico. During my time at the company, I was the CTO and COO and I was in charge of the daily operations and technology improvements. I developed multiple systems to automate daily processes, integrated robotic systems, and created some very basic web applications.”
Deciding to change careers is never easy, but a brave decision that can have such a positive impact on your life and career. Salvador shared with us how he came to make that decision.
“I felt that I needed to improve my software development skills to be able to create awesome web applications to compliment my robotic systems. So, I began looking for courses and discovered that the software development industry was growing a lot. I also saw that remote jobs were starting to become a trend (all this was before the current pandemic).
At that time, I saw an opportunity to switch careers to become a full-stack developer. So, I decided to pursue my other passion, software development. I also saw it as an opportunity to improve my income by working for a company outside of my country. It was around that time, that I saw a Facebook advertisement for Microverse. I found it very interesting - the program, curriculum, and $0 upfront cost - so I decided to apply.”
Salvador was accepted to Microverse and began the full-time program in January 2020. We asked him about his journey at Microverse and the most impactful things he learned.
“The most memorable part of Microverse for me was definitely the cultural diversity of the community and my teammates. The opportunity to work and collaborate in the curriculum projects doing pair programming with partners from different countries and cultures was really impactful. "
He learned a lot at Microverse, both technical skills, and soft skills, such as communication. Here's what Salvador had to say about that.
"Microverse really helped me improve my coding skills and update my knowledge. It made my transition from Mechatronic Engineer to Full Stack Developer much easier than I anticipated and it helped prepare me for the job market. After I landed my current job, I realized that Microverse really helped me improve my English and communication skills. It also prepared me to work in a remote environment. "
"Now, I feel very natural taking ownership of the different products that I have developed, as well as participating in scrum meetings and communicating asynchronously.”
Salvador shared his experience job searching and how the interview process went for him. We know this looks different for everyone but Salvador had rather quick success in his job search.
“I started applying for jobs after I finished the React and Redux section of the Microverse curriculum. At that time, my Github profile, resume, cover letter, portfolio, and LinkedIn profile were reviewed by a career coach and they helped me to improve them all."
Salvador shared that he was applying for around five positions per week and began moving through the application process with some of the companies he had applied to. A few weeks into his job search, a recruiter contacted him and invited him to participate in the recruiting process for a Ssr Full Stack remote position.
"I then had initial screening video calls, a technical interview, and a take-home challenge. After I passed these different stages, they made an offer and I accepted it.”
Everyone always wants to learn about the different roles our alumni land, but that’s just one part of life after Microverse. Salvador shared the company he now works for and what he’s currently doing for them, as well as how his life has changed since Microverse.
“I’m currently working at Nexton, an amazing company, where we match the best LATAM talent with outstanding companies in the US. I have been working on multiple internal projects and clients projects developing websites, web applications, scrappers, chrome extensions, and Back End API's. The tech stack that I'm using right now is React.js in the front end and Node.js in the back end."
"Working as a remote developer has allowed me to improve my income and have an internationally competitive salary, by leaving my local market salary rate.”
Finally, Salvador shared some great wisdom for aspiring developers and Microverse students to help inspire you on your journeys.
“One of the most important things that I would recommend to aspiring developers is to have a solid online presence. You need to spend time networking with other people, have a professional resume and LinkedIn profile and show your skills and projects in a Portfolio. This is super important for landing your first job in tech.”
Through a lot of hard work, focus and dedication, Salvador completed Microverse and landed a job as a remote software developer in the summer of 2020. To date, Microverse has enrolled full-time students from 100+ countries in it's full-time online program, and helped students from around the world land life-changing jobs. If you’re ready to change your life by becoming a remote software developer, get started below!
Ariel is the founder & CEO of Microverse, an online school for software engineers. Read more about Microverse and how it can help you.
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