We’re incredibly proud of our students and the hard work they put into learning through Microverse. 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 global job opportunities earning salaries up to 10x more than what they earned before — without paying Microverse anything until they’re employed.
This week, we’re delighted to highlight one of our alumni who since graduating from Microverse has landed an amazing software development job. Miguel Prada is from Colombia and is currently working as a Ruby Developer at Colombia-based, Austin Software. He shared his experience at Microverse and how life changed since he landed a full-time developer job.
Miguel went to university in Colombia, graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering before going on to work as a structural engineer. While in university, Miguel's interest in software development piqued. He became incredibly passionate about it and wanted to learn more, so he began to explore the industry further. Then, his brother told him about Microverse. To Miguel, it seemed like the perfect way for him to learn quickly and become a professional developer. As he knew he wanted to follow his passion and change careers to become a software developer, he decided to join Microverse's full-time software development program. Within 8 months of starting Miguel landed a great job as a software developer.
When asked about the most memorable part of Microverse, Miguel was quick to mention the final capstone project that he worked on. The final capstone project at Microverse is at the end of the program, and students build a real-world solo project using all the technical skills they have learned throughout the program. Miguel said that this was super interesting to build and found it a terrific learning experience.
He also really enjoyed all the coding challenges and standup meetings with his team, where he got to know other students and build camaraderie. Miguel said how interesting it was to share daily experiences and learnings with his team, speaking highly of his standup meetings, which helped him develop further as a software developer.
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After completing the Rails curriculum, Miguel began to update his LinkedIn profile. He added information about his software development skills and replaced his civil engineering title. Within two hours of these updates, he received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter about an opportunity. Miguel did not take the first offer, but two weeks later received another offer, this one, from Austin Software, he decided to accept.
When reflecting on the impactful part of his Microverse experience, Miguel said,
“The most useful thing was learning how to solve problems. Before Microverse I had some programming skills but with Microverse I learned how to formalize them and structure my ideas for tackling problems and projects.”
This is an incredibly important skill, solving problems is one of the key aspects of being a successful software developer. Miguel also noted how the coding challenges were helpful for learning how to approach problems.
Throughout Microverse, students spend 1,200+ hours working through the program and developing a lot of non-technical skills too. This is something Miguel noted as well. He said the many hours of pair programming plus meetings with his team, really helped strengthen his English and collaboration skills. He also mentioned how helpful this is on a daily basis at his new role.
Since Miguel started Microverse through to now, he’s learned so much and his life has significantly changed. Throughout he learned not only how to be a professional software developer, but also improved his soft-skills and gained real-world experience working in a remote environment. He also significantly increased his salary and is now making more than his peers. One thing that really stands out that, is that Miguel said how happy he is at his new job.
Miguel is currently working as a Ruby developer, building a product that uses Ruby in the backend. (Ruby is one of the main languages learned at Microverse). Most of what he is working on currently is related to security and finding and solving issues around it. He’s engaged and learning in this new role, and we’re thrilled he’s enjoying it so much.
When asked to share advice with Microverse Students and aspiring developers Miguel said this,
“My advice is to persist. Learning web development or software development is something that can be frustrating sometimes because of the learning curve. But you must persist and keep working.”
We know that becoming a software developer is not an easy path, but one that if you’re focused and motivated can be incredibly rewarding. Miguel also spoke about a ‘magic-moment’ of sorts, that being the moment when you come up with the solution, or realize how it works. This moment will feel very exciting and inspire you to continue pushing forwards. He also noted that the skills you gain while becoming a developer, like dealing with daily problems and the frustration that comes with them, will help you in many other ways in your life. We couldn’t agree more.
To date, Microverse has enrolled full-time students from 100+ countries, received applications from more than 200 countries, grown to a team from 12 countries, and helped our students from around the world land life-changing jobs.
Microverse is an online school for remote software developers, where you pay nothing until you get hired. If you’re ready to change your life by becoming a global software developer with Microverse, get started below.
Meesen is the Head of Marketing at Microverse. She enjoys exploring ideas around the future of work, education and sustainability.
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