Lisa’s Story from Social Worker to Sales Engineer
The well-decorated Lisa Money is an IT project manager and Salesforce professional who graduated from Momentum in 2019 just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She is passionate about life-long learning and nonprofits. Excelling during her time with Momentum, Lisa now works as a Sales Engineer for CyanGate.
Lisa has a background in social work, although she quickly realized that this career path did not pay well and consumed her with stress. When she moved to North Carolina, she had trouble finding a full-time social work position, so when she was pregnant with her son, she decided to focus on her new role as a parent. After a few years, Lisa felt it was time to return to work, and she began exploring her options when a friend of hers told her about Momentum.
When Lisa started with Momentum in person, she felt nervous, intimidated, and entirely out of her element. After all, her background was in social work, it had been a few years since she was in college, and jumping back into learning and studying 24/7 was difficult with a toddler at home. Nonetheless, Lisa thoroughly enjoyed her journey with Momentum. The program opened her eyes to the developer world, providing ample skills and projects to discuss in interviews, enhancing her professional network, and eventually connecting her with her mentor.
When Lisa started the Momentum program, her life was starting to take a turn after a year-long battle with her health. She felt ready to start a new journey and re-enter the workforce, and she saw a bright future ahead of her. Toward the end of her Momentum program, Lisa found out she was pregnant with her second child. Once she graduated, the COVID-19 pandemic hit which heightened her sense of needing to care for her health and pregnancy. Lisa again found herself needing to prioritize her role as a mother. She reached out to her mentor at Salesforce, whom she met at Momentum’s demo day, and decided to rebrand herself with Salesforce-specific skills. Lisa signed up for a Salesforce study program that opened up an array of networking and learning opportunities for her, ultimately leading to her landing her current position at CyanGate.
So many stay-at-home moms, parents with young kids, or those with health issues think they aren’t good enough or ready for this, but they are.
The most important lesson that Lisa has learned thus far is that women belong in this industry. So many stay-at-home moms, parents with young kids, or those with health issues think they aren’t good enough or ready for this, but they are. You do not need prior experience in this niche. Being a software developer is all about learning as you go. The information is there, but you have to take the initiative to work to figure it out, and the foundational knowledge that Momentum provides can help you in that aspect. In Lisa’s case, she had the soft skills needed to succeed in this field, and with Momentum’s help, she mastered the hard skills as well. If you are considering a career change to tech, contact our team at Momentum today to learn more about how our software engineering bootcamp is right for you.
