It has always been Yellow Tail Tech’s mission to help people with little-to-no IT backgrounds smoothly break into tech, but our methods and processes of implementing it have significantly leveled up compared to when we started, especially in these recent years.
In this year alone, Yellow Tail Tech was awarded as the 2022 Best Coding Bootcamp by College Consensus, has almost 5/5 reviews on credible sources (Course Report, Career Karma, and SwitchUp), become the only Red Hat Training Partner, and a proud AWS Training Partner.
It takes a flawless infrastructure to keep delivering what we promise with golden standards, and it takes a dedicated and exceptional leader to oversee that infrastructure. Although the credit for our milestones goes to the collective effort of each and everyone that makes up the Yellow Tail Tech team, there’s one man that’s worth honorably mentioning: Thierry Louis, our current Infrastructure Director.
Thierry ensures that our infrastructure is able to nurture our students to become thriving IT professionals. Read along and find out how Thierry started his journey with Yellow Tail Tech, from being a student to becoming an irreplaceable part of the family!
Success-Bound at First Sight: When Thierry Met Yellow Tail Tech
Thiery was taking up his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, working as a Data Center Technician, and an Uber driver until a friend of a friend recommended Yellow Tail Tech to him and how it can help him level up in the IT industry. “He (that friend) actually set up a meeting to meet Jubee and Paloma (our co-founders). After meeting them both, it makes sense why Yellow Tail Tech was the perfect fit for me. I had to do my research, and discuss the opportunities with my wife, then I signed up as a student.”
During his days as a student, Thierry shared that he fell in love with the process easily. He was able to quickly absorb and understand the lectures because of Yellow Tail Tech’s teaching methods. He then started helping his fellow cohort mates over the weekends, and met outside of class hours whenever they could. “Right after I got certified, I knew that the next thing for me is to let Jubee know that I’m interested in becoming a TA (Teacher Assistant), and the rest is history.”
As for the reason why he made up his mind to join Yellow Tail Tech as an instructor, Thierry told us that there were many considerable factors to enumerate. “First, I really enjoyed being part of the Yellow Tail Tech community. As someone who was new to Linux at the time, having people around you who have only one goal, which is the success of the students, was very encouraging.
Second was the sense of fulfillment when someone gets certified or gets a job—no word can explain that feeling. I always see myself helping others change their life, and this is what Yellow Tail Tech is about as well, so it was an easy decision to join the team.
Finally, being an instructor actually challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and helped me work on my public speaking skills.” As someone who has English as a second language, Thierry testifies that the experience helped him to overcome the fear he had of speaking in front of groups of people.
Thierry then took up the challenge of advancing as Yellow Tail Tech’s Infrastructure Director. “Jubee and I have worked on a couple of new Implementations to the program where I help a lot with the IT Infrastructure, and I kind of grew into the role over the years, constantly on the look out of what needs to be improved.” He revealed that the main reason he accepted the offer was, aside from genuinely enjoying working in the Ed-Tech company, was “knowing that I wasn’t going to do it alone. The whole team was always behind me in every decision that I was making. There was a sense of trust which gave me the confidence to keep going and learn how to fail forward.”
Thierry has been working with Yellow Tail Tech for a total of 5 years now, and he stated that he “will always be a Yellow Tailer”.
Staying On Top of the Game, Yellow Tail Tech Style
As Infrastructure Director, Thierry explains that he always has to bring in the new technology to the students. “We are always learning new ways of making the students journey and experience up high.
“I have learned over my decade of experience in this industry that technology moves fast, with most powerful certifications having only a minimum of 3 years relevancy. I have to lead by example by making sure that me and members of my team stay innovative and relevant to what the new technology Red Hat and AWS are working on.”
Thierry then expounds that the main factors he looks at when developing and keeping the current curriculum competitively relevant are:
It’s digestibility to our students. “I always put myself in my audience’s shoes, as if I’m seeing this information for the first time. To meet their level of understanding of this new technology, I have to make sure the final content is in bit sizes so it’s easy to consume.”
Aligned to Yellow Tail Tech’s Airtight Framework. “As subject matter experts in the industry, we have to work our way backwards to deliver a program that is airtight where we don’t leave anything to chance and in the process, make sure that our students understand the foundation of IT and speak like an IT professional.”
Demands the students to be resourceful. “We don’t train one trick pony. Our curriculum is designed to develop our student’s curiosity and figure out things on their own. As we know each environment is different from the other, we train IT professionals who can assess an issue and come up with the best solution.”
On top of this, Thierry adds that Yellow Tail Tech have “its eyes and ears on the street, and all of our instructors and assistants are practicing IT professionals at the same time so they can bring real-world experience into the classroom.” This is why when scouting instructors (which 95% are graduates of programs by the way), our Infrastructure Director has three uncompromisable qualities: Subject Matter Expert who has earned RHCSA and/or the AWS Sysops Certification, has charismatic leadership to guide our students to success, and genuinely passionate to change people’s lives.
No Dull Moment In Yellow Tail Tech
As this segment echoes, Thierry brags that “there’s no dull moment in Yellow Tail Tech. Aside from having an amazing team, the best thing about working here, overall, is witnessing our students’s success. This gives me validation that our hard work is not in vain.”
He then shares that his most memorable experience was having this particular moment with our student. “I reached out to congratulate one of our students upon completing the program, and he told me that Yellow Tail Tech unlocked something in him. Not only did we change his life for the best but also the experience showed him that he can do anything because coming here he did not know anything about IT.”
For our current students his advice is “to stick to our process, ask questions and be resourceful. You are steps away from getting your dream job.” As for those who want to break into Tech but still have doubts on where to start, his only words of wisdom are to “do your research on what you want to do in IT, find a program with a framework that can take you from zero to Job ready without skipping the fundamentals, and dedicate yourself to a schedule to put in the work.”
Ready to Experience Yellow Tail Tech’s Infrastructure?
If you want to transition smoothly into IT regardless of your background, ready to commit and put in the hard work, Yellow Tail Tech can take you from having zero knowledge to job-ready with an infrastructure that is designed specifically for individuals like you.
Take it from Thierry and our other graduates. “I can only tell you about what works. I was once finding a program with a clear path to success, and I tried so many different paths until I found Yellow Tail Tech. Aside from being subject matter experts, we have created two programs with a clear path to success. We also have a team dedicated to help you every step of the way. If you are ready to put in the work, you are at the right spot to start changing your career.”
Book a 10-minute intro call with our Enrollment Advisor today!
