“My name is Ally. I used to be a Software Engineer. Now, I’m an Applications Support and Solutions Engineer.”
Ally Engle’s career has spanned the fields of customer service, health information IT, and technical writing. A curious and engaged learner, she has undergraduate certificates in health information IT, accounting, graphic design, and social work.
Most recently, Ally was working as a Software Engineer but knew she wanted to enhance her skills and finish the computer science degree she’d previously started. So, she began looking for bootcamp programs and tech schools that would allow her to level up and transfer her credits to a university program. That’s when she found Kenzie Academy.
Ally thrived in Kenzie’s Software Engineering program, particularly taking to the project-based curriculum.
“Most exciting was all the hands-on projects similar to the graphic design program I went through, so I loved the setup of doing a project from the design phase all the way to implementation and deployment,” Ally said. “Plus, I loved the soft skills training and the emphasis on teamwork.”
Now, Ally is taking the skills she’s gained at Kenzie into her new roles. She’ll be working as a part-time Applications Support Engineer at Comcast and as a full-time Solutions Engineer at Deloitte. Ally, who enjoys working a lot, is excited for the opportunity to gain so much experience between the two roles. Between both positions, her responsibilities will include application support, application development from design to maintenance, mentoring junior developers, leading a team, and speaking with clients.
Ally says that Kenzie’s career development curriculum was especially helpful in preparing her for her new roles.
“Kenzie prepared me through hands-on projects going from design to implementation,” Ally said. “It also taught teamwork and soft skills as well as valuable interview prep, including data structures and algorithms. I was prepared by the end of the 3rd quarter to start the interviewing process in any language. It also taught me an appreciation of innovative and mobile development. They give you skills and accountability to learn and learn quickly with accountability so if you set your mind to it, you can achieve something really awesome.”
When she’s not working, Ally enjoys learning new tech skills and modding for the video game The Sims.
“Outside of Kenzie and work, I mod The Sims 4 with Python and C and 2D/3D asset design within the proprietary Sims 4 Studio for modding,” Allyson said. “I’m also taking Java skills that I’d had before Kenzie and learning Kotlin, Scala, and Swift to do my own augmented reality city-building simulation app!”
Ally shared a few pieces of advice for those considering joining Kenzie’s Software Engineering program.
“My advice is to benefit [from] the mentoring that Kenzie provides,” Ally said. “Don’t ever hesitate to reach out to Coaches, Facilitators, Instructors, and Student Services as they can help you greatly to achieve your goals. Also, use this time to learn everything you can and do some really creative projects as a great portfolio makes all the difference. And prepare for interviews as early as possible and utilize tech interview prep sites to learn everything you can!”
*This alum graduated from a previous, non-credit bearing, version of the software engineering program.