Rodrigo | Mexico

A HARD TIME IS EXACERBATED BY THE PANDEMIC

Rodrigo struggled to find a well-paying job after graduating with a degree in Electronics Design and Software Engineering. While many of his classmates had been able to take internships and gain professional experience while in school, Rodrigo had been working an additional job to pay his tuition. This gap on his resume was a major roadblock, despite having significant skills and know-how in his field. He had little choice but to settle for a teaching job at the same university he graduated from, making “a very, very miserable salary,” while feeling that he was not moving forward in his career.

“It became very demoralizing,” he shared. “I had a lot of abilities, I knew how to use a lot of tools, but because of the experience I had my CV was overlooked.”

There were times he could barely afford gas for his car. “At the end of the month, I sometimes even had to take out loans.” He continued to accumulate debt and felt deeply stuck. “It was very despairing,” he shared.

When the pandemic began in March 2020, it seemed increasingly unlikely that Rodrigo would be able to find the kind of job he was looking for. At a loss, he moved home to live with his parents and save money.

“I had no idea what to do…I was really looking for a way out,” he said.

TRANSFORMATION DURING A DIFFICULT TIME

It was just in the nick of time that Generation opened its first online course in Guadalajara, Mexico. He applied and began an intensive three-month course in the middle of quarantine.

The interdisciplinary nature of the course surprised him. “At first I thought it was just a technical bootcamp,” he shared. “But it was also all the soft skills — organization, logic — that are applicable to software engineering.” Despite being fully online, he found himself in a community of like-minded individuals, who all helped each other grow and succeed. “I cried a lot at first…It was so heartwarming to know that these people were there to help us.”

Generation also helped Rodrigo to freshen up his resume and LinkedIn profile while bolstering his interview skills. As soon as he updated his LinkedIn profile at the suggestion of his Generation mentors, he was recruited via LinkedIn for an interview at a company he had longed to work for. During the interview process, he drew on his training at Generation. “They taught us in the interviews to communicate who we are, what we do…how to tell my story. When I started doing everything they taught me, I got hired at the company I am working for right now.”

FREE TO EXPLORE THE WORLD

Rodrigo now works as a Component Engineer at SnapEDA. “My salary is way more than I was expecting,” he shared.

Rodrigo’s new position has finally given him the kind of financial stability and growth opportunity he had been working so hard to find. “I wouldn’t have gotten into this company if I wouldn’t have gotten into Generation,” he told us.

One of the things Rodrigo has dreamed about for fifteen years was taking a trip around the world. In a few months as of this writing, Rodrigo plans to leverage his fully remote job contract with SnapEDA to do just that. He will continue working remotely, with the blessing of his company, and to visit some of his colleagues in Europe and Latin America.

“Generation has given me the ability to explore who I am and what the future has in store for me.”