 Welcome back to the channel. Today, I have an awesome interview for you. I brought James on the channel and he has such a cool story. He was able to actually get a job in information technology without any certificates or certifications using an iPad in two weeks. He was able to get an entry-level job and he actually got several job offers. So, James, you are kind of a bit of a legend with my circle, you know, of Josh, Troy, etc. You're a bit of a legend because we just thought your story was so awesome how you were able to get a job just using an iPad. So, welcome to the channel. I'm super excited to bring you on and have everyone hear your story. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Awesome. So, we'll go ahead and just kind of start off at the beginning. So, maybe if you could just give us a little bit of a background about yourself and kind of tell us how you discovered IT, how you discovered that you wanted to go into information technology. Well, my background started off as a union carpenter and everything was pretty good. You know, there was a little layoffs here and there, but really, really, really took a turn. For the worst was the whole COVID pandemic situation. And it was kind of hard to like seek work because you can only have but so many men on a job site. And it's like even though COVID was over, it was kind of like still hard to find work after that. And even though being a union member, I'm entitled to unemployment, it wasn't equal enough to how much I would get actually being on a union job site. So, I started driving for myself full-time as a medical carrier. And it was working out good for a minute, but I was on the road like a lot. Like on average, I would be driving like 12 from time 13 hours a day. I think the longest I've drove or one day is like 16 hours straight back and forth between Philly, Jersey, Delaware, Baltimore, Hershey, New York. Very, very long drives. You know, trying to hit my quota anywhere from like $200 to $300 a day. Trying to, you know, pretty much make the same that I was making from the Carpenters Union. That started slowing up when you started bringing up more people and they started doing more jobs closer to where they were. So, they wouldn't, you know, pretty much trying to keep everybody local. And it was easier on the company because they wouldn't have to pay as much for the long drives. And on top of that, you know, school year started. So, I had to take my son to school. So, I couldn't stay committed to the same schedule because I would have to pick him up at a certain time. So, I would have to be back in Philly by a certain time. I came across course careers. I was watching YouTube and anybody who knows about Anthony O'Neill. I'm trying to remember the fellow's name that he interviewed, but he ended up making a podcast called Black as New Tech. He was on Anthony O'Neill. He said he had went through course careers and he went through the sales course. And originally, when I signed up for course careers, I had went through sales as well. And some weird way I ended up clicking on the button and I seen that there was an IT course. So, I ended up switching over to the IT course and it was like significantly shorter course like with the sales courses like 144 steps and with IT course, it was like 44 steps. And because I have like somewhat knowledge of computers, not IT exactly, but like just computers in general, you know, having a computer, owning a computer, I was pretty much able to get through the course quickly, completed the course in like a week and a half. And then it took me like two weeks after that to land a job. Got it. And you said that your wife had a computer, but she was kind of busy using it for, I believe her job. And so you basically decided to just kind of like go through the course using your iPad, right? Yeah, yeah. My wife's computer is a work computer and it's like sometimes her computer would be laggy, it would be slow. And then on top of that, she was using it for her school work. So, I didn't want to like pretty much bombard her computer with what I was doing. So, I said, you know what, let me try the iPad. And I remember going into the Discord group the first time and I was like, hey, is it possible to do this course with an iPad? And I think Josh was like, I mean, we should be able to, as long as you got a keyboard, you know, to make it a little easier on you and like some type of way where you can remote into the cloud. You know, the whole pretty much all of the labs like Microsoft Azure. So little research came across RD client, which allows me to remote into Azure and didn't give me no problems at all. I was able to complete the whole course on on an iPad and not even like a pro or nothing like that. Like just the regular, I think like Apple's like budget friendly iPad like the $300 iPad, 9th gen, like it wasn't even a pro or nothing like that. Just the budget friendly one. That's awesome. So that's like extremely resourceful that you were you use the remote to get into that. That's that's freaking awesome, man. So tell me about the course itself. How was your experience going through the IT course? I enjoyed it because the course to me was straight to the point. It was very, very applicable to everything I'm doing today. Like right now we had an OS ticker system. You know, you learn how to set up OS ticket. You learn about active directory. Like you had to reset a password, use an active directory. I'm actually doing it. So it was like everything that's in the course is everything that you actually will be doing connected to a VPN or just understanding the VPN. I actually connect to a VPN user for the client every day. I help other people connect to a VPN. You know, there's been times where I had to reset a person's password, but they weren't connected to the network. So I had to use active directory, you know, go into the system, reset their password, learning remote. You know, I actually remote into people's computers every day have to remote into their computer as an admin to get them into the network from my network. If they're not working at American site where they're already on the network, something that I learned through course careers. Everything that I've learned thus far and course careers was actually readily available and applicable to a job site. You know, even down to the resume, you know, learning how to fix up your resume to the point where it is legible when it's readable, you know, by humans and by the automated systems that read resumes, the interview skills being prep know like what kind of questions you're going to be asked. Everything is just straight to the point, you know, setting up GitHub, showing your work being able to showcase the skills that you've learned. Everything is, like I said, is right out the gate, you learn all the necessary skills. Yeah, and that's kind of what like I've I've found, you know, employers at the end of the day, they almost never care that you have like some kind of college degree or something like that. What they really care about is you have the skills that they're looking for. So really what you want to do is first you want to identify what skills they're looking for. And then the second thing is you want to learn those skills. And then the third thing is, and this is the part that a lot of people skip is you want to be able to basically have a portfolio that showcases in a extremely straightforward way that you have those skills. You want to make the barrier to entry for them looking at your portfolio and being able to immediately tell that you have those skills as low as possible. You know, you want to basically like they look at your resume, they click on your portfolio, boom, they know you have the skills just like right off the bat, like within 10 seconds, 30 seconds, something like that. And that's the secret. That's how you just you send out resumes and you just get job offers and then just like that almost like clockwork. Most employers, especially in the tech industry and especially in high demand careers, which are the ones that I typically talk about on my channel, do not care about your college degree. They do not care about certifications. That stuff can help. It can be nice in certain circumstances, but a lot of the time these employers simply do not care about that stuff. As long as you can showcase that you actually have the skills right off the bat just very quickly and easily. So you went through the course. And how long was it from the time that you started the IT course to the time you got your first job offer. So, like from the gate, as soon as I graduated, I just started like putting in applications, like a madman, like just as much as I possibly can, you know, I'm a full time father, full time husband, they'll still have stuff to do at home. I made it a goal to at least do about like five to six, you know, a day, you know, if I could just get as many out as I possibly could. So I say I within the week I got my first interview. It was Lucas IT staff and agency that actually reached out to me first. And they're pretty much is in the name of their staff and agency. So they actually look for people that's in tech and they get them working with companies and the work will be like contract work. So I might be like a contract for like three or six months or something like that if the company likes you potentially be a direct higher position. And they like my resume is just that I was looking for something remote at the time, or you like something that could possibly like fit my hours to where I can like drop my son off and, you know, work. And I was really, really, really looking for something remote. And they didn't have that remote at the time but they did have remote work coming up. So they reached out to me. I got an interview from Robert have that that's another IT staff agency that reached out to me I spoke to one of their recruiters. And then that was the first week. No, the first week was Lucas IT staff and then the second week I came across Robert have and then Marrake, which is who I'm currently working for now. And that's the job offer that I got it. And so it was it was approximately two weeks. And you ended up getting a job offer from from the time you started the course and it took you about a week and a half or so to get through the entire course. Yes. Got it. Wow. That is that's incredible. That's amazing. So if you don't mind me asking I know everybody's going to be wondering this. What were the job offers like approximately you can kind of like maybe give a range. Because you did get three job offers. One of them was remote. So that's kind of the one you went with because you wanted more of like a flexible lifestyle. But you did get three offers and what were kind of the range of the salaries that you were offered. Okay, so I'm right now in Philadelphia entry level it the range is anywhere from like 20 to 24 or $25 range. You know, as far as like entry level it help us and Marrake right now and I have no problem putting this out because I'm just starting coming from absolutely no experience whatsoever it started out with 2226. Gotcha. Gotcha. So the ranges were somewhere around like 45 to 50,000 a year job offer somewhere around. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty much. Some people might say like a that's low balling you know that's some of yourself short so many people make so much intent but the way I look at it it's like a huge return on my investment because only paid like $500 for the course and within literally one month. I landed a job making like anywhere from like 40 to $50,000 a year, you know remote learning skills and it's like people are going into debt. You know what I'm making people are spending going to college and by the time you graduate with your four year degree, you're going in entry level, but already have like four years experience. So I was like, yeah, I'm making $22 an hour right now, which is fine, you know, entry level, we all got to start from somewhere. But within a year from now, it'll increase, you know, two years from now and three years from now. I'll definitely be like, if not, at least very very close to that six figure mark. So I have no problem. By the way, course careers, I will put that down in the description as well as the pen comment below they have a free training, which will kind of tell you how the entire course works how it's structured, what the different career paths you can go down are and all those types of questions that you will probably have about it. All of that will be available down in the description as well as the pen comment below if you want the full course I do have a coupon code you can use which is Shane 50 I'll put that down there as well. I do want to ask just generally speaking, how is the lifestyle changed for you working for a technology company in an IT position versus working as a carpenter, or working as a medical courier. Well, I will say working remote because the fact that I have the option to work remote the pandemic like kind of like open my eyes to like a lot because of like anything were to happen. At least I can work from home and then on top of that job security. That's another thing for me, you know, like it's been times where on the union jobs like having worked for like six months, you know, yeah, I have unemployment and I've also had my savings but work was just that scarce at the moment. So it was like, okay, you know, now I'm picking up jobs, I'm doing handyman jobs or, you know, I'm going through different, you know, staff and agencies as a bill to maintenance technician, you know, like just stuff like that, because the union is not picking up right now, or being a carrier, you know, one, one day it might be like a real real good day where I might make like 200 or $300 and like four or five hours because I've got like good runs back to back. And then you have some days where it's like completely slow. So you don't know exactly is what you're getting, unless you're running routes. But like even if you are running routes, accidents happen. Whether you know, things of that nature, you can get a flat tire. That's happened to me on my transmission active funny that happened to me, my battery died. So okay, now I didn't work that day. If the weather's too bad, I didn't work that day. I schedule, you know, being a carrier. Sometimes I've drove, I've made my Korean eight hours. Sometimes it took them 12 hours. You know, depending on the drives that I've had, I've drove up to 16 hours straight one one one day before. And I've actually done that on like maybe like two or three occasions. And it does take a total when you're driving that much. So working remote, I'm home, I'm in the house, I have a set schedule, and I have job security. That's awesome. Yeah. Did you have to get any certificates or certifications besides the certificate that course careers gives you of course? None at all. The only experience I have is course careers. And that was enough to land me a entry level job. I ain't need nothing else. I'm working on certificates now like I'm going to get my content a plus now I'm working on that. And after that, I'm kind of like trying to find out exactly where's is I want to be, you know, dove, and like security, and then that work I'm thinking to lean towards more like network inside of things. Yeah, that's another thing that's great about tech is like so many people will start off at help desk. And then you can kind of see like, Oh, you know, you work with this department that department and you kind of see like, Yeah, that I kind of like their job they seem like they do stuff that I would enjoy. So you can start, you know, getting certifications for that. And then a lot of the time the company will literally just let you move into those other departments and those other positions. And if they don't, then you can just go with another company. So yeah, a lot of people will start off at help desk. I've seen situations where people start off at help desk and then they move into cybersecurity, then they move into logistics, then they move into software development, then they move into tech sales. Right. I interviewed one guy Antoine on my channel I believe that was his exact career progression. So what would you say to somebody who's kind of on the fence about going into it using course careers, anything like that like they're watching this maybe they're a little skeptical about it. What would you say to that person. I would say, do it, you know, absolutely do it. Like I said, the training, everything is applicable to what you're actually going to be doing at it, you know, from the lab to the, you know, VPN, understanding, you know, protocols, understanding cloud, which is we use Microsoft Azure, active directory, business system labs, everything that you're doing in course careers is going to set you up for an actual entry level IT job. Is there any other like pro tips or just knowledge or any other things that you think somebody watching this interview might find extremely valuable that you'd like to share. I would say just stick to it. Take notes. Make yourself comfortable with it. Like I don't want anybody to listen to my story and think okay well, I'm going to get a job in the month. You know, if I do it to or I'm going to do it that fast, I'm going to get a job in two weeks. You know, it was like, don't get discouraged. Like I've probably put in like within the short span of time, but I did get my interviews only put in like between like 40 or 50 applications, and I've gotten a lot of news just to get the three interviews that I've got. So, you know, don't get discouraged. If you don't understand something, ask for help. When you join course careers. There's a discord group. Great energy. Everybody is helpful. Everybody is resourceful. Everybody speak and offer everybody's energy. James, thank you so much for coming on the channel. Thank you for inspiring so many people. I think a lot of people are going to watch this and just be incredibly inspired by your story. The fact that you were able to get a job using an iPad that's just like funny and awesome at the same time. So, I didn't know how big of a dude that was until Josh broke it down like you don't understand, man. You did a course on an iPad. I guess it is a big deal. You're just really resourceful. So it's not a big deal to you. But yeah, when other people hear that they're just like, what? That's awesome. But yeah, hey, man. Thank you so much for coming on the channel and taking a little bit of time off in your evening for this. I really appreciate it. Appreciate you for having me. Thank you.