Caitlyn Greffly - From Beer Sales to Coding Via Thinkful Bootcamp #73
Caitlyn Greffly is a software engineer who recently transitioned from beer sales into tech via Thinkful bootcamp. She also tries to advocate for others who are making the career switch, and enjoys talking about tech with anyone who will listen.
A note from Grant
Today on the Develomentor podcast, we’re going to talk beer, sweet, or sour as is popular these days, beer. That magical elixir that makes you feel good and all your troubles disappear… Oh wait, we’re not actually going to talk beer, but we are going to talk how Caitlyn Greffly, our guest today, is building a career in software engineering after 5+ years of working in, yep, you guessed it, the beer industry for the likes of Founders Brewing, Freewheel Brewing and one of my all time favorites Stone Brewing.
That’s right, Caitlyn, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in psychology, has successfully transitioned into software engineering after a number of years working in the beer sales, including reaching the level of beer cicerone. We’ll dig into what that actually means and hear how and why she made the leap!
--Grant Ingersoll
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Episode Summary
“I spent a good chunk of time working in the beer industry. And I just got sick of the travel. There was a lot of mandatory drinking events and I was just burning out. So I decided to make a career shift and joined the Thinkful coding bootcamp. Its a remote boot camp. After 6 months I got hired and became an associate software engineer.”
“Within 2 weeks of getting that rejection letter saying ‘you need to learn how to code’ I was enrolled in a coding bootcamp.”
“I still can’t believe how generous people are in the tech industry with their time. There were so many people who didn’t know me and would just offer me their time to help me or to just talk to me.”
“As a junior (developer) its easy to feel like you know nothing and everybody else knows everything.”
—Caitlyn Greffly
Key Milestones
- Before we talk tech, Caitlyn spends a moment digging into that psychology degree and those early years working in the beer industry
- Caitlyn studied to become a beer cicerone - it required 6 months!
- Caitlyn was able to hold a full time job and attend data analytics bootcamp. What was that experience like?
- Why did Caitlyn choose the Thinkful bootcamp for data analytics?
- Caitlyn’s networking tips coming out of bootcamps involve meetups, LinkedIn talking, and much more.
- Most junior devs don’t jump right in to speaking and writing. Caitlyn wanted to share her experience coming into tech.
- Caitlyn’s first junior developer role had great on-boarding. Unfortunately this isn’t the case at all companies. What can senior engineers do to help support junior developers?
Additional Resources
Learn more about Thinkful Bootcamps - https://www.thinkful.com/
