Breaking into Tech Jobs Testimonials!

My Career Life Testimony with Professor Temi -
My name is Tutu and I graduated from Coppin State University with Biology & concentration in Health Education. My initial goal was with my 1st degree was to land a career in STEM programs and go into the Nursing Field advance learning. I graduated around the time of a huge recession in the U.S., and I wasn’t able to get any high income job offers, also, I wasn’t able to do anything meaningful with my degree. The only job I finally was offered was the same jobs I was doing before which is not enough for a college graduate in debt. Unfortunately, life didn’t go as planned for me, so I graduated from college and later on attended graduate school at University of Maryland College Park. I graduated from UMCP with a Master of Public Health Practice and Policy.  And once again as a struggling Millennial, life didn’t go as planned as I had accrued so much debt in student loans from both undergraduate and graduate degrees with extra loans, and I wasn’t lucky to find any jobs in Public Health.

Fast forward, I was on social media being nosy in comments and I saw someone post Professor Temi’s Top Group Technologies training courses and I clicked on it and saved the picture. At this moment, I had already known and heard people saying you don’t have to be technical or have a technical degree or background in Computer Science or IT to make a career transition into the Tech & Software industry. I was skeptical because nothing in this world is guaranteed to be successful especially when you’re getting services in an unconventional route.

Prior to meeting with Mrs. Temi Akinwunmi, I met some people at my brother’s graduation who told me the same thing about transitioning into the Tech industry and provided me another training instructor’s contact. I contacted the instructor for the Cyber Security training but he wanted to charge me thousands of dollars without paying in installments for just 1 course; or even without mentoring or reviewing student resumes. My instinct told me to just find someone else.  At this time, I was working as a contractor for a pharmaceutical company and I was miserable because of the politics and pressure of working as the underdog contractor where patient services is their only business mission, and the contractor are just there and easily disposed. I was always worried at any moment, my desk will be cleared and I will get that bad news call from my agency.

I unfortunately, repeated the same mistakes the 3rd time without any proper guidance or mentoring by applying to UMUC, now UMGC for a Master’s Certificate in Cybersecurity assuming this will be my 1st class ticket into a successful career in Technology. I should’ve just listened to my first instinct before accruing more student loans and took a chance with Prof. Temi. All I had to do was trust her and just sign up for her class, but I was afraid. Then suddenly, I decided to drop out because the courses just weren’t for me and the online structure wasn’t straight forward or the Professor just wasn’t helpful or available at times.

I finally decided to take a leap of faith instead of accruing endless amounts of student loans with interests that I didn’t need just to advance a career without experience. I decided to take the smart shortcut and would rather pay a credible Instructor at Top Group Technologies instead. What I love about Professor Temi and her training is that she is HIGHLY patient, soft spoken, very reliable with every student no matter who you are or how much money, or how often you pay for her training. She treats everyone like her own child.  I will never forget my first day at her class and she offered me fruits and refreshments to get my mind working after a very stressful day working at the call center.  She told us to help ourselves and made us feel at home in her office suite. She basically treats her students like family. I signed up for her training courses at Top Group Technologies. She offered these cyber security training in Certified Authorization Professional course which is the equivalent of Risk Management Framework DoD 8570 IAM Level II & CompTIA Security+ CE 8570 IAT Level II for entry & mid level Cyber Security Training & Certifications. I promise and honest to God, before completing my CompTIA Security+ course without even having the exam certifications, I was offered my first job as an ISSE IV paying $60 per hour. A year later, I was offered a position with sponsorship of a security  clearance and later offered another position few months later that December as an Information Security Engineer II paying $105K annual full-time with benefits. All of these offers were within my 1 year of completing these training. I will forever be grateful to Professor Temi for enlightening me, saving my life from economic depression and anxiety. Most of all, I appreciate her for encouraging me to continue uploading my CV for applications, to participate in phone interviews to build my confidence and just overall mentoring me. Even as I have changed my career, she’s still mentoring me as a professional and will continue to be at my service, and I will con to support her and take her advance training courses. You can never stop learning and advancing your skills in any field. She is truly God Sent in our diverse community.  With my incredible testimonial stories, I was able to successfully refer many students to her training center. Thank you and God bless you 

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Here is my testimonial on how you pave the way for my career transition.

Access to resources is one of the most challenging after graduating from college or even completing a certification. All of these things are doable but the issue is, most schools do not provide hands on resources, networking professionals currently in the field that can assist upcoming professionals. This is what Ms Temi provided to me. It’s one thing to know it exist but it’s another thing to tackle it. Half of the time, when you think of Cybersecurity, you think technical, codes etc. Not realizing that there are so many avenues in the field. Ms Temi provided not only real resources, but she provided guidance, emotional support. Sometimes I wonder where she finds the time to mentor 100 plus students and still have her own life. But then you think about it, this is her life, her passion, her drive to see people of color or black indigenous people climb the ladder in IT as a hold. I am happy I got to meet someone like her because it has giving me access and a platform to network with others.
Thanks - Rita

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It was a bumpy road, I would say. I applied to so many places and had couples of interviews last year, I had interviews with Intel, MCKESSON, Deloitte and many others big companies, but was not so lucky due to inexperience, but the moment we entered into 2021,more jobs offers and interviews were coming in more than last year, I had couple of interviews too, Raytheon Missiles that offers 140k, but the position was closed. 2021 was so dramatic, more jobs interviews, sometimes, I have interviews twice in a week, but eventually few weeks back, God smiled on me, I got two jobs offers, one was to take me around the United States with projects in Fortune 500 companies, but remuneration was not so fantastic and just a week after, another job came along with better salary, so I decided to pick the latter!

I have this to say as well, the jobs are coming in more than ever before, don't relent pray daily to your God, read books and materials and work on your hands-on skills, work on communication skills, work on how to tackle interviews and leave the rest to God. This word of Professor Temi always resonates on my head, if you are really good on your Cybersecurity Engineering skills( hands on) you eat for the rest of your lifetime! - Ade

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