From Movie Theater Manager to Business Intelligence Engineer

How a Data Science Bootcamp Changed This Student’s Life

Maren Beckman, like many other college graduates, completed a Bachelor’s degree with intentions of pursuing a graduate degree. Maren decided against graduate school because it was too expensive, especially since she wasn’t sure if that was the career path she truly wanted. After graduation, she kept her college job at a movie theater where she was promoted to a management position. 

“I spent the next decade traveling the country and looking for different opportunities, but I was mostly becoming complacent. After I had kids, I realized I needed to make a change. I needed to find something fulfilling.”

Choosing a career path:

Maren knew she was ready to try a new career path, but she wasn’t sure what career path to take. After spending a lot of time searching for ideas online and coming up empty-handed, she decided to take both of her brothers’ advice and pursue the tech field. 

She started taking web development classes at a local non-profit. While Maren enjoyed learning some aspects of web-dev, she didn’t love it enough to jump off the deep end. Maren stuck around the non-profit to work on projects and took on project manager roles while continuing to explore her options.

After being inspired by a meetup for women in tech, she brainstormed what she enjoyed doing in her current job and what she would like to pursue further. This led her to enrolling in Thinkful’s Data Science program.

“After researching different education options, I chose Thinkful because of the flexibility and personalized attention of the mentor model. I needed a program that I could coordinate with my unusual work schedule and family commitments.”

Maren had the confidence that she could finish the program but she was nervous about the job search afterwards. Thinkful’s job guarantee provided her with a sense of security to move forward. 

She started the job search before completing the curriculum. Thinkful includes education from career services from early-on in the program and she repeatedly updated her resume to reflect what she had learned. 

“I started the application process for my current position before I completed the Thinkful curriculum and was offered the job just a couple of weeks after presenting my final project.”

How her life was impacted:

After completing Thinkful’s Data Science program, Maren had a completely different lifestyle. She went from a demanding, but undervalued field with ridiculous hours and frustrating responsibilities to a regular work week with flexible hours in a field that is intellectually rewarding and has a lot of development potential. 

With the knowledge she learned from Thinkful and the skills she’s developed in her current and previous roles, Maren shared some great advice for others looking to make a career change through a bootcamp:

“The time-frame of a bootcamp will never be sufficient to make you an expert, just accept that going in. It’s a jumping off point, but it will never be the end of your education. I think it’s more important to get a good base and try to connect the new with whatever you did before. You never know where the right opportunity will come.”

Interested in pursuing a career in tech? Thinkful offers fast paced, job-ready programs in web development, data science, and design. Students learn cutting-edge industry standards, 1-on-1 with a mentor who is a professional in their field. With career services, hiring partners, and job placement assistance – students will get a job in tech or get their tuition back.