| Stephane Roy | What CodeBoxx represents to me
After 26 years in the telecommunications industry, I needed a change. I was clearly no longer happy in my job and several aspects of my daily life were impacted. Morale, health, my relationship with my loved ones, to name a few, have suffered from my inaction. I had excellent benefits and a really good salary, but that was no longer enough to motivate me to work in a company with which I no longer had any affinity.
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. A return to school over a long period was not an option. It was then that on a rainy afternoon, I remember being parked in a residential area waiting for one of my employees to make a field observation of his work. I was listening to the radio and suddenly someone I didn't know came over to talk about his project: CodeBoxx School of Technology.
A man named Nicolas Genest, very enthusiastic and dynamic, described what he had set up in Quebec. I immediately became interested in the subject and saw it as a great opportunity for my boy who did not really know what to do after high school. As soon as I got home I was quick to share with him everything I had heard about CodeBoxx. He was unfortunately not as excited as I was and did not register for the cohort which started a few months later.
For my part, I could see myself trying my luck in the world of developers. Having always been interested in all things technology, although I knew absolutely nothing about the different programming languages, the idea matured for a while. Getting into work was more and more difficult and painful.
Then the opportunity to leave my employer on good terms presented itself. I then jumped at the chance and talked about CodeBoxx again to my son, Andrew, who still hadn't figured out what would motivate him in the future despite the months that had passed since I had told him about CodeBoxx. He was still hesitant to do the bootcamp. When I told him that I had just signed up, he immediately followed suit. So it was together that we started the second cohort which began on January 21, 2019. You read that right: my son Andrew and I did the cohort together! Andrew was also the subject of a graduation portrait similar to this one.
I liked everything about CodeBoxx: the environment, the meetings I made there, the "coaches", Nadya and Nicolas. What I enjoyed most of all was seeing my son excited about something new. I found a motivated young man who had a taste for success and to surpass himself. His career filled me with pride and I am all the more so since he is now employed by Coveo, a Quebec unicorn (private company with a valuation of over $ 1 billion) and a flagship of the technology industry.
CodeBoxx represents for me a new start in life. My morale and health are much better and my relatives have found a Stéphane whom they had not seen for a long time. Thanks to life, thanks CodeBoxx! |