Your dream could be only one bootcamp away

Karzan always knew that he wanted to start his own business. And when he saw the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting his friends, family, and even himself, Karzan knew he wanted to create something good in healthcare and mental health space.

"I think in our society, in the Middle East in general, mental health support and visiting therapists as a bad thing. But I think an application can solve that." Typically, mental health issues in Arab families are treated with fear, embarrassment, and loss of reputation—stigmas that Karzan wanted to change.

But Karzan had one crucial barrier stopping him from realizing his dream: "Nothing in my life was related to coding, and I was dying for some coding to do.” Karzan said.

So what next?

Despite having several Engineering degrees, Karzan was frustrated by the fact that this didn't get him any closer to being able to design an app.

"There isn’t a lot of coding, it is mostly research and going deep into some advanced theoretical subjects. The languages they used in my university is Matlab and Java which are outdated and are only used for advanced algorithm research." Karzan explained.

While finishing his master's Karzan also got a job, but he felt that this was getting him even further from his end goal, "It was not related to coding at all and that bothered and frustrated me because I felt like I was forgetting the little coding knowledge I already had."

Karzan wasn't sure what was next for his dream to code until he got a notification for one of Re:Coded's upcoming bootcamps.

Finding the right path

"I can say I was one of the first ones to apply to the bootcamp," Karzan laughs. Karzan had been following Re:Coded for a while.

"I remember a few years ago when my friends getting accepted into Re:Coded, and I was getting rejected. I was always jealous of them and their stories about how nice the classes were and how lovely the environment was. I have always wanted to join the bootcamp, especially the frontend bootcamps, because it is the skill that I especially lack.”

Earlier this year, Karzan finally got his chance. "This is the first step to following my dream.”

"The bootcamp made the path clearer for me with the teaching of strong frontend development and most importantly the way to learn and find resources for the future."

Ready for the future

Karzan is equipping himself with the skills he needs to achieve his dream. Throughout the bootcamp, Karzan has built up his frontend coding skills and gained complimentary professional skills with the Re:Coded careers service.

"The bootcamp has a group of talented software developers or soon-to-be developers gathered in one place, which is a valuable networking opportunity," Karzan commented. A great environment for someone looking to build their own coding company.

"I can’t express how wonderful it is going, you can’t comprehend it not until you experience it yourself."

Looking forward to graduation, Karzan is one step closer to building his very own startup.