The following is the script and recording from 6.2 Fellow Suzette Islam’s speech at her Gong Ceremony, a Pursuit tradition when graduated Fellows celebrate landing a full-time tech job with their families, friends, colleagues, and our community cheering them on. Watch Suzette deliver her speech and ring the gong in the video below. This is her transformation story, in her words.
I’m extremely happy to say that after 150+ applications submitted I have accepted my first tech role as a Quality Assurance Engineer for Audible’s summer internship.
My story starts in Harlem. I had a teacher who was teaching us to build static websites. In the 6th grade, I never thought much about how web pages were built. I was amazed — I can be creative on a computer? That experience, even though it was brief, was so impactful on the decisions I would make later on in life.
Fast forward to college at SUNY Binghamton. As an Educational Opportunity Program student, I started my college career early in effort to get me to the same starting point as the other incoming students starting in September. During my first year, I was mostly taking remedial courses which put me back a year or two, so by the time I was really considering the path I wanted to take, it was unfortunately too late--I would’ve needed two more years to complete all the major requirements. I ended up obtaining a degree in Human Development. I figured, why not give a career in social work a shot, I had a lot of experience working with others so it shouldn’t be impossible. But if it didn't work out, I knew I would need to find an alternative route into tech.
I started my first job as a medical care coordinator in the Bronx, ensuring care for 40 women who were HIV-positive. I was working with so many medical stakeholders and grew frustrated as I had to frequently update each doctor about my clients’ medical situations. I was constantly thinking “if there was a software that would hold information for all doctors on one platform, my work and clients’ lives would be so much easier.” I decided to go find or develop the solution as opposed to continuing to be part of the problem. I then enrolled in Tech Connect classes at the NYPL to get a refresher on HTML, CSS, and learn some Javascript. That’s when I started to get some momentum. As I got more excited, I started looking for boot camps and other ways to learn to code. That’s when I found Pursuit.
The first time I applied, life intervened and a health challenge kept me from continuing my candidacy. Once applications re-opened, I applied again, this time for 6.0. I made it my personal duty to submit the application as soon as possible. When we had the two-day Javascript workshop and were given a take-home assignment to plan out an app we would want to build, that’s when I was really amazed: I control what I want to build? That’s when I knew Pursuit was for me.
I was so excited and pretty active in the first months at Pursuit. I was also getting tired as I was working at the charter school at the same time. While working, my day started at 6 AM and ended at 11 PM after Pursuit. This schedule was taking a toll on me. I ended up quitting my job to solely focus on what I knew would be a brighter future. I took a chance on myself.
With the time I gained, I was able to focus more on the material we were learning, go to Pursuit early and attend office hours, connect with more people and actually get the full experience I wanted. I feel so bad for my Instructor Alejo. I would break everything, see so many errors, and panic and the first person I would ask for help was him. He always helped me when I was overwhelmed. Through our 1:1 technical training, I realized I was a visual learner. Alejo would help me see what was happening under the hood by literally drawing pictures on a whiteboard for each line of code.
Once I completed Pursuit core, I began aggressively applying to jobs. I was meeting with several recruiters and kept revisiting my job search approach. After switching tactics 4 times I began to feel the burnout. Reaching the end of the interviewing process for about 6 companies and only getting rejection, I began doubting myself again. Then the Audible opportunity was introduced to me. In preparation for this opportunity, I was doing leetcode and hackerrank problems for 3 hours a day and doing mock interviews at least once a week. I made sure that I tried my hardest so I wouldn’t have any doubt in my abilities when the interviews came around. Lucky for me, all the work paid off!
I just want to shout out the Audible recruiter who worked closely with us, Jeremy Bradshaw. I did not pass for the SWE Internship, but Jeremy looked at the feedback from my technical interview and decided to refer me for the QA internship. I was bummed when I got that first rejection, but then I got that second chance. Jeremy gave me another opportunity at Audible when I thought the door had completely closed. By my last interview with the hiring manager, I was sold. I knew that this was a place I could grow and learn as an individual and in the industry. I want to give a huge thank you to my support system!
To my 6.2 class… Thank you all for being patient with me and teaching me things I did not know. You all believed in me when I was doubting myself.
Maliq, Kadijah, Briany, Giselle, thank you for being my Pursuit gang, clocking in coding problems as bonding time and always being a message away to help with an annoying bug.
Thank you to my mentors who taught me how to think critically and ask all the questions. Finally, a huge thank you to the pursuit staff that gave me another opportunity to explore my interest in tech, and actually have a career in the industry as my new reality. With all that being said, time to ring the gong!
