#120: Jerrick Warren – How Career Karma’s first member became a Software Engineer at Gemini

Play episode

Jerrick Warren has an inspiring story of breaking into the Blockchain Tech Startup Gemini coming from a background in medicine. 

He went from joining the Career Karma community, to getting accepted into Lambda School to getting a Software Engineering job in a year!

Today, he shares with us the many struggles he had to overcome and how Career Karma helped him pave his way to success.

Career Karma is a community that helps you figure out a road map that is customized to you, your preferences, and your needs. Lambda School is a coding bootcamp that offers a unique pay structure to its students. Find out more about them.

About:  
Lives In:

New York City

 Current Job: Mobile Engineer at Gemini
Date Recorded 11/01/2019


Show Notes:

[02:15] What is Career Karma and what it means to Jerrick: He talks about how Career Karma has changed his trajectory from med to tech

[04:55] Jerrick explains why he chose Lambda School, its stipend program, and its admissions process.

[08:35] The learning process: Jerrick recalls his bootcamp experience and finding himself as part of an amazing, collaborative community.

[12:10] Jerrick illustrates the art of coding and how a bootcamp is different from a traditional education system.

[13:15] Leadership opportunities: Jerrick discusses the various leadership roles he took on throughout the program

[18:00] Personalization & persistence are keys: Some great strategies when looking for jobs (Find out how many rejections Jerrick got!)

[25:35] Jerrick shares more lessons gleaned from his job search experience.and how he landed a role at Gemini.

[30:40] Why language doesn’t really matter and the art of faking it until you make it

[33:30] The inner game: How Jerrick manages to make it all work

[37:20] Failure as the greatest teacher: Although he excelled in college, Jerrick talks about how his failures at medical school while dealing with deaths in his family.

[47:40] Guess how much student loan Jerrick has got now? Hint: It’s crazy! And what’s great with the income shared agreement at Lambda.

[54:24] Through Lambda, Jerrick’s earnings increased by $100k. (Here’s a big-picture too of how much you will be getting as a doctor.)

Contact Info:

Jerrick Warren

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrick-warren

Learning Resources

Lambda School 

Career Karma

Join the Breaking Into Startups Facebook Community

More from this show

Subscribe

Episode 31