Location: Wroclaw, Poland Age: 36 Job Title: Senior Java developer & solution architect Jacek Kaczmarek knew he wanted to brush up on his skills, broaden his experience, and become a better developer Having worked with some older software for a while, he needed to catch up with mainstream Java specs and APIs...
Location: New York City Age: 25 Occupation: Marketing manager Fresh out of Texas A&M University, Alexa Bennett and her now-husband moved to New York in 2012 with big dreams of making it in the big city Today, Alexa has certainly accomplished a great deal, but it’s not what she envisioned when she first...
Age: 28 Location: South Korea James Smith is a cryptologic linguist with the US Army, stationed in South Korea As he prepares to transition back to civilian life, he’s been arming himself with Udemy prep courses for the multiple network security certification exams he plans to take once back in the States...
Location: Oak Harbor, Wash (on Whidbey Island), USA Age: 58 It’s hard to fathom how far Sooz Konopik has come in just two years In December 2013, Sooz was suffering through treatment for breast cancer The disease took a toll on her auto-immune system, and when her body tried to combat the tumor, it affected...
Location: Haskell, Oklahoma, USA Age: 51 Back in 1975, a young Cliff Chism read about the first personal computer in Popular Electronics magazine This early exposure to computing would have a lasting influence on his life and work He also made some job moves that had nothing to do with computing whatsoever, which...
Location: Warburg, Alberta, Canada Naomi DeBruyn is no stranger to online learning, but that doesn’t mean she’s always been a fan Her past experience left her thinking that online courses offered only “the absolute minimum basics, nothing that would strain your brain” So, when she came across a Facebook...
Location: Saint Catharines, Ontario, Canada Age: 43 An unfortunate accident in 2014 may have limited Sean Sullivan’s ability to maintain a full-time schedule, but it didn’t dampen his determination to have a stimulating career anyway At the time of the incident, Sean had worked for 10 years in the...
Location: Dubai, UAE Age: 29 Job title: Web developer, SEO Rimaz Rauf has always been a power learner, especially when it comes to developing his IT skills Growing up and going to school in Sri Lanka, he did his own research, bought books, and watched videos to fill the void in his formal education As he put it,...
Location: Windsor, Ontario, Canada Age: 23 Job title: Web quality assurance professional Without any other strong passions to guide him, Kyle Truong figured he’d default to what his parents wanted and become a doctor Unfortunately, when he graduated from college with a biology degree, his grades weren’t good...
For 23 years, David Doost worked long hours at his printing business in Atlanta Until a couple years ago when his business partner, and best friend had a brain aneurysm and passed away suddenly This inspired David to sell his business and move his family abroad, an idea he had been putting off for a long time David...
Five years ago Joe Marani's mutual fund was bought out and his department was laid off Ten years out of school and without work Marani, of Marshfield, MA, decided to pursue an untapped passion for art and design, and enrolled in a 3D Animation and Interactive Media Certificate Program at Boston University A year...
Hope everyone had a great week We’ve got a few awesome Udemy-related articles this week along with the usual news and ideas It’s also Father’s Day weekend, and we’ll be sharing more on that topic a little later today 4 leadership lessons every CEO can learn from Steve Kerr Last night was rough for the...
