Career changers find success in Newfoundland and Labrador tech industry
CBC
Andrew Reynolds takes the stairs to his basement, where he shares an office with his four-year-old daughter. She paints while Reynolds works as a software developer.
It's a much different scene from the job Reynolds worked less than a year ago — prison guard at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's.
"I never thought I would say I love my job," Reynolds tells CBC News.
He does, though, and it took him a lot of work to get.
He doesn't have a computer science degree or any childhood background as a computer wizard.
But the job at HMP required long hours, the days poured into the weekend, and there was enough stress to make him feel like he was "not the same person anymore."
"We bought a house, we had a kid, and another one on the way. The thought of leaving a stable job was scary. So I stuck it out," he says.
Ultimately, though, desperate for a chance, Reynolds became one of the people who switched careers to join Newfoundland and Labrador's booming tech industry — which TechNL, an industry association, says could create up to 5,000 jobs in the province over the next few years.
It wasn't a smooth ride.
"I was always interested in tech but I couldn't go back and start a new degree at MUN. Not with my current life situation," he says.
Reynolds searched "coding in Newfoundland" online and came across a CBC News article about a programming bootcamp called Get Coding.
He started learning to code in February 2022.
The following months were hectic. He practised his coding skills after work and into the night. At the prison, in the small hours of the night when it was quiet, he would turn on his laptop and code.
He dedicated himself fully with one goal in mind — find a tech job before Christmas so he could spend the holiday with his family after so many years of missing it because of work.
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