How a Diverse Skillset Provided New Opportunities

How the unlikely parallels between the study of law and engineering created a path for success.

From the busy market town of Loughborough, England, just outside of the city of Leicester, where the echoes of football (soccer) fans ring loud and clear in the stadium stands. Where football is not just a game, but a way of life, Jacob Wood began his journey and career in Corporate UK Law.

With a passion for the details and enjoyment of the intricacies of understanding the laws, he naturally found a connection with programming, which would eventually bring him halfway across the world to the sunny shores of San Diego, California.

Jacob quickly found out that the jump from Corporate UK Law was not far off from the technical discipline of engineering. As he put it, “There’s a lot of translation between learning a technical UK legal system language and all of the terminology and legalese, with a programming language, like Python. It’s very technical and specific…there’s a lot of cross over there”.

As Jacob transitioned from the structured environment of corporate law to the dynamic world of startups and entrepreneurship, he discovered a burning desire to not just excel in his craft but to actively participate in the creation process.

As an Analyst at a startup company, Flux, he found himself surrounded by engineers and technical experts shaping the company's trajectory. The experience exposed him to a world of incredible talent and brilliance, with engineers accomplishing feats that initially felt beyond reach.

In his own words, “I never really saw myself developing that skillset. It just seemed so out of reach.”

Soon after this exposure to the tech side of business, he found himself in his first experience in entrepreneurship creating Launchpad, a venture studio embedded with Falmouth University. However, the absence of an in-house engineering team meant substantial costs associated with outsourcing, having to raise funds for the project, paying an agency to build the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and then come up with a pitch, etc.

It was through these challenges Jacob learned a lot about what it takes to create and build a successful company. This would prove to be beneficial in the future when he would once again re-visit his desire to create and build. However, this time he would have the knowledge to do it on his own.

After being a part of a startup company and dabbling in entrepreneurship, he uprooted himself and moved to San Diego and landed a couple of Account Executive positions, which helped him work on the art recruitment and sales.

During this time Jacob tried to program on and off for a couple years. However, he found it difficult to learn and perform well with a full-time job. So, in order to dedicate the time needed and have the structure to be successful, he found Nucamp was the best fit.

He enjoyed the fact that it had a classroom environment, with 24-hour access to others learning as well. On the weekends there was dedicated time to meet with the course Instructor and other students.

Being able to “see how other people think about the problems and ask questions was helpful.”

Some advice from Jacob when considering a bootcamp, “expectation setting - what do I want out of this? for me it was proving that I could be more technical, and engineering minded about the actual way of looking at problems. I knew I had the legal background which actually really helped in terms of being rigorous and detail orientated. A lot of those skills have huge crossover with the engineering discipline.”

After leaving the Backend Bootcamp with huge excitement and the feeling that “I can build anything”, Jacob eventually landed an Account Sales Engineer position. This being the first time having “engineer” in his title.

Feels like a real achievement to me.

He realized he had a diverse skillset between sales and engineering and now utilizes that knowledge to set himself apart.

When working with the dev teams, he understands the problems that clients are facing. He can troubleshoot and help resolve customer tickets with the knowledge he’s previously obtained. This helps create happy customers and the company creates efficiency.

I’m sure the dev team appreciates his team mindset, “whatever you can do to solve customer problems where you don’t have to do something to the actual code itself, you are playing a huge role in alleviating the stress and burden upon those software development teams.”

A lot of people think that “one must ultimately become a software engineer”. However, realizing that the path to success in the tech world is not limited to a singular destination. Rather than confining oneself to the predefined title of a software engineer, Jacob recognized the vast array of roles available within a software company that didn't necessarily require him to be a full-fledged coder.

In reflecting on his journey, Jacob emphasized the importance of cultivating a technical understanding, regardless of the specific role one pursues. The realization that there is a myriad of opportunities within a company, each requiring a varying degree of technical acumen, became a guiding principle. Jacob's experience underscores the idea that a diverse skillset and a technical mindset can open doors to a multitude of opportunities within the tech industry, challenging the notion that a singular path defines success in this dynamic and ever-evolving field.

And if Jacob wasn’t busy enough with his new position, he also found time to launch SensAI Group. This company delves into the exciting topic of AI and is “on a mission to revolutionize the world of sales training by harnessing the power of generative artificial intelligence.”

This time he was able to use the skills that he learned at Nucamp to create and build on his own.

If you're contemplating a coding bootcamp, let this inspiring story be your motivation to embark on your coding adventure. Register for the Complete Software Engineering Path today: https://www.nucamp.co/complete-bootcamp/software-engineering