#116 - FFTSquad – A Career Karma Squad of Highly Motivated People Breaking Into Tech Together

#116 - FFTSquad – A Career Karma Squad of Highly Motivated People Breaking Into Tech Together

Today, we have a special group of people joining us who go by the #FFTSquad. #FFTSquad is a group of people on Career Karma who are working together to help each other grow, learn how to code and switch careers into tech. They were with us early from the very beginning. In fact, a lot of the members of the FFT Squad were part of Career Karma before the app even came out. Here are their names: Meet the FFT Squad: Melanie Harris (Ms. CEO, Lady Savage) Jennifer Weaver (J-Smooth) Elisabeth Earley (Lady Boom) Benjamin Earley (Benny Boom) Tyrone Smith (Fly Ty) Elise Spain (Famous Amos) Levar Morris (The Wizard) Jennifer Carney (J-Chill) Gregory Jordan (Papa Smurf) Kesha Lake (Rose Code) For those of you who may not know, Career Karma was started by Artur, Ruben & Timur as a result of us breaking into tech and launching the Breaking Into Startups Podcast together. Today, Career Karma is a community that matches people to the best coding bootcamps and gives them support for the rest of their careers. The FFT Squad is a living testament that developing your technical skills can totally change your life. No matter who you are, what color you are, what race you are, or what religion you are – you DEFINITELY can do this!

Jaksot(124)

#28: Rodney Urquhart - How a 16-year-old High School Dropout became a Software Engineer at Slack

#28: Rodney Urquhart - How a 16-year-old High School Dropout became a Software Engineer at Slack

Rodney Urquhart grew up in a North Philly neighborhood ridden with gang violence and effects of the crack epidemic. After seeing people around him get involved with gangs and crime, he realized that s...

25 Helmi 20171h 51min

#27: Jotaka Eaddy - From Senior Advisor at NAACP to Head of Government Affairs at a Tech Startup

#27: Jotaka Eaddy - From Senior Advisor at NAACP to Head of Government Affairs at a Tech Startup

Jotaka Eaddy is a concrete example that you can come from political and social activism, take those exact same skills, and use them everyday to help build a business that creates change. Even back as...

19 Helmi 20171h 12min

#26: Charles Pridgen - Account Executive at Loggly & Founder of BPN

#26: Charles Pridgen - Account Executive at Loggly & Founder of BPN

A Baltimore-native, Charles Pridgen majored in International Business and Finance, but realizing that he didn’t fit into the financial field he pursued a career in sales and eventually decided to brea...

17 Helmi 201736min

#25: Ty Olatoye - How to Build Genuine Relationships & Land a Job

#25: Ty Olatoye - How to Build Genuine Relationships & Land a Job

Influenced by a strong Nigerian culture of excellence, education and faith, Ty moved from Arizona to San Francisco in search of that ONE opportunity that would push him every single day. Currently, Ty...

13 Helmi 20171h 19min

#24: Divine - The journey from going in and out of prison to Breaking Into Tech

#24: Divine - The journey from going in and out of prison to Breaking Into Tech

A Newport-native, Divine started dealing drugs at 13, got incarcerated at 18, and found himself not only locked up physically in federal prison, but also, in a psychological cycle of recidivism. Alw...

7 Helmi 20171h 54min

#22: Idalin Bobe - Community Organizer who broke into Tech and became a Tech Activist

#22: Idalin Bobe - Community Organizer who broke into Tech and became a Tech Activist

Growing up in one of the poorest zip codes in the U.S., Idalin wanted to bring change and put social justice in the forefront. From North Philly to Cali, Idalin wanted to break into tech so she could ...

5 Helmi 20171h 12min

#23: Rita Henderson - Who broke into startups as a Teen Mom

#23: Rita Henderson - Who broke into startups as a Teen Mom

Growing up in one of the poorest areas in Philadelphia, Rita Henderson broke a ton of barriers as a single mom proving to the society that she was more than just a statistic. Moving from North Philly ...

5 Helmi 201755min

#21: Mo Woods - Ball is Life: Pro Basketball Player (6' 10" in) who became a Designer

#21: Mo Woods - Ball is Life: Pro Basketball Player (6' 10" in) who became a Designer

Maurice is a 6'10" Richmond, California-native, legendary designer, and former professional basketball player who worked at several tech companies including Microsoft and Yahoo. He is the Founder of I...

31 Tammi 20171h 6min