Meet Ahmad: It's never too late to change careers

Ahmad's Journey from Pharmacy to Computer Science
Two years after receiving a degree to become a pharmacist in Syria, Ahmad realized he lacked the passion to continue pursuing a job in that field. He had always wanted to work in computer science, but the external pressures around him made it difficult to chase that dream when he was younger. Though he decided that he wanted to start studying computer science again, he wasn’t sure how. He had the desire, the motivation and the drive, so he tried to teach himself with open-source books and videos online. However, he quickly got lost in all of the information available on the internet. Each resource would link him to other sites, and a never ending stream of information.‍‍

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‍Discovering Kiron & Community Engagement
While scrolling through social media one day, he came across a post about Kiron. After researching it more, he applied and was happy to be accepted. Intro courses gave him an idea of what he wanted to focus on, web developing. He really appreciated the easy to follow road map that Kiron designed in the pre-defined curriculum. Because he was following his passion, Ahmad found a lot of intrinsic motivation to study. He started to complete the courses quickly, focusing on courses related to web development, his main interest. While studying with Kiron, Ahmad enjoyed working with other students. In his study groups, he could have meetings with other students in a video call, “like a normal class”. They could chat, get to know each other, and discuss challenges they were facing. He also enjoyed using the Kiron community space where students could ask questions and help each other out.‍

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Advancing with University of the People
Later on Ahmad joined the University of the People to get a degree in computer science. He credits Kiron for his high grades in the first semester due to the background knowledge that the courses gave him. While studying there, he also took on freelance jobs.

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‍Becoming Job Ready and Building a Professional Presence
After a year, Ahmad felt job ready. Today, he uses the certifications from Kiron and puts them on his LinkedIn and also on his own website CV which he developed on his own. When applying to jobs, he refers them to his own website. From there, he was able to find many freelance jobs and small jobs, which kept him busy and also helped him to build up to a full time job.

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You can follow up with Ahmad’s journey and read more via his blog!