An Interest in Tech Born from Hospital Administration

Not long after graduation, Sonia worked at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, an upscale hospital near Beverly Hills. At the time, she thought her future lay in hospital administration. Instead, she discovered a passion for cutting-edge tech.

“Part of my job at the hospital was editing research papers and blogs for public release. One common topic that caught my eye was big data: collecting and analyzing huge quantities of information. In healthcare specifically, these techniques have been used to diagnose illnesses, recommend treatments, and study the effectiveness of drugs, among other applications.”

With that, her imagination lit up. The possibilities seemed endless, reminding her of her excitement as a kid when she dreamed of exploring outer space.

“I decided that I had to pursue a career in tech.”

Breaking Past “Experience Needed”

Sonia first attended a well-known coding boot camp offering intensive tech training. The curriculum was excellent, but she struggled to enter the industry after finishing. 

“I wound up applying and applying and never hearing back from anywhere.”

While still hunting for jobs, she saw a Revature ad. It promised free training and the opportunity for job placement. Revature also started a new business analysis program, which she thought would better suit her background and interests than traditional software development. “After messaging a few people to make sure it was legit, I signed up.”

Developing the Skills to Aim Even Higher

“Calling the training at Revature ‘rigorous’ would be like calling the treatment at Cedars-Sinai 'decent’: a massive understatement. At any moment, someone from quality control might drop in, point to a person, and ask them a question about any aspect of the training.”

Sonia found the hard work didn’t stop there. “In another part of the training, we went through round after round of practice interviews to get us ready for placement.”

These were some of the toughest interviews Sonia had experienced, and she found them to be excellent preparation for life in a competitive industry. After completing training, Sonia was placed with a top-tier IT consulting firm, where she worked as a Systems Analyst on a project involving the topic that made her interested in tech: big data in a healthcare setting.

“These days, I work for a leading company in the finance industry, supporting a software platform that helps financial advisers better serve their clients. I enjoy leading a team and being part of developing a useful product. It’s a management-track role, and that’s exactly where I want to be.

Revature has been key to getting me there, because the program didn’t just teach technical know-how. It developed my leadership and interpersonal skills, gave me confidence, and set me up with industry experience right out of the gate. That’s why I’m proud to call myself a Revature alum.”