Question: Hey Jaehwan, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself?

Answer: Well I should start by saying that I always wanted to live in Canada, and I’ve been here for five years now. As far as an educational background, I studied Nuclear Engineering in South Korea.

Question: Wow Nuclear Engineering! With a degree like that you must’ve found a job fairly quickly when you moved here.

Answer: Actually it was quite the opposite! After months of applying I couldn’t find a job in my field. Eventually I started applying to entry level positions outside my degree and got my first job in Canada in a Quality Assurance role.

Question: So as soon as you came to Canada you made an immediate career change. What got you into coding and web development?

Answer: I was given an opportunity to do coding tasks by my boss. It was the first time I felt challenged in a while. I even asked if I could come in on my own time to do more coding tasks! From there I started to fall in love with code and really thought about switching careers.

Question: Picking up coding like that must’ve been hard with no background. Did you try to enroll in a bootcamp to learn more?

Answer: I thought about it, but I like the idea of starting from scratch. So I taught myself, watched youtube tutorial videos, read reddit posts and did a ton of online challenges to sharpen my skills.

Question: So you’re back to starting fresh in a relatively new country hoping to start a new career. Was this application process different than before?

Answer: I almost think it was worse! In about a year I had sent out over 100 resumes and had two interviews. Not the greatest stats.

Question: We’ve all been in the same position, don’t worry. When did things start turning around for you?

Answer: I applied to Hatchways and completed the coding assessment. It was challenging but I enjoyed it. From there I worked with the technical advisor Shums on technical and behavioural questions to get prepared, and he even helped me work on my weaker points. It was also great because I got help with my interviews, and it opened me up to a tech network I never would’ve been exposed to.

Question: That’s great to hear! So what was the final outcome and what’s your biggest takeaway from using Hatchways?

Answer: For starters I loved how I could use my skills to showcase my talents instead of being judged by my resume. While working with Hatchways I had three interviews set up in one week! A long way from two interviews in one year haha. I’ve been at a tech company for about two months and I love the team I’m with!

Question: That’s amazing, congrats! Anything else you’d like to share?

Answer: I really appreciate the team at Hatchways. Without them I would definitely still be looking. My new job has a great work culture and great snacks, I wouldn’t change it for anything!