Every time Robin publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox! <br>Enter your email<br><br> By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s <a href="/terms" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Terms of Service</a> and <a href="/privacy-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Privacy Policy</a>. <br>Shiva Jabarnia, 33, spent four years working as an urban designer at the architectural firm <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/dwgaustin/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">DWG</a> making five figures a year. (Jabarnia declined to share exact salary information for her current and past jobs, but Insider has verified her income.)<br>This past spring, she attended a data-science boot camp run by <a href="https://www.thedataincubator.com/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">The Data Incubator</a>. In July, just a few months after graduating from the training, she landed her current job as a data scientist at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/betterview/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Betterview</a>, where she now makes six figures a year.<br>Jabarnia, who lives in Austin, Texas, shared with Insider how taking an online boot camp helped her make a quick career change into a more lucrative role in a matter of months.<br>With a bachelor's in architectural engineering and a master's in architecture and urban design, Jabarnia was content in her role at DWG. But she also had a passion for coding.<br>In 2017, during a career sabbatical, she explored the free online coding programs <a href="https://codingcompetitions.withgoogle.com/codejam" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Code Jam</a> and <a href="https://www.codewars.com/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Codewars</a>. "I see myself as a problem solver, be it a design problem or a code challenge, so it only felt natural to slide back into coding like that," Jabarnia said.<br>When she went back to work, she said she missed using the coding part of her brain. <br>"I was lucky that DWG was a progressive company open to embracing parametric design and analytical anecdotes into the projects I was working on," she said.<br>The pandemic encouraged her to further reconsider her path and goals. "I was fortunate enough that I was able to take another sabbatical, where I looked at different career trajectories, from renovating fixer-uppers to data science — and the latter was the one that stuck," she said.<br>Jabarnia was drawn to the idea of a boot camp because she wanted to gain some formal training in data science but test the waters before deciding whether to go back to school full-time.<br>She said she sifted through the credentials of quite a few tech boot camps, including <a href="https://insightfellows.com/data-science" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Insight</a>, <a href="https://www.springboard.com/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Springboard</a>, <a href="https://www.galvanize.com/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">Galvanize</a>, and <a href="https://generalassemb.ly/" data-track-click="{"click_type":"other","element_name":"body_link","event":"outbound_click"}" rel=" nofollow" target="_blank">General Assembly</a>. To help her visualize the pros and cons of each, she created a table and ranked each program based on what they offered, reviews, cost, and duration. She also searched for boot camp alumni on LinkedIn and kept track of where they landed afterward, then reached out to a few to ask what they thought of the course.<br>"This helped narrow down my list a lot, and after that, sitting in a couple of open houses was very helpful to make a decision for TDI," Jabarnia said. <br>The program she chose ran for eight weeks and cost $10,000.<br>"Right off the bat, I think I was one of the very few in class who did not have a Ph.D. or a background in a STEM field," she said. "The last time I had taken a class where math was involved was 15 years ago." <br>She said the class was fast-paced and required a full-time commitment, so after her sabbatical she left her position at DWG.<br>"We had two to three hours of class every day in the morning and then office hours, events, and group-work sessions planned in the afternoon," Jabarnia said.<br>She worked on her required "capstone" project after hours or on the weekend. "Focusing on the boot camp while working or studying and also applying for jobs required nothing short of exceptional abilities, and I know a couple of classmates were doing all that and taking care of their infant babies at the same time," she said.<br>She added she's grateful she was able to lean on her classmates for help.<br>"This was my first time taking a fully online course, so I was worried about connecting with people — but turned out finding friends in class meant we could suffer through what we didn't understand together and share what we had figured out," Jabarnia said.<br>During the course, the students used Zoom, WhatsApp, and texting to keep in touch.<br>"Maybe in the future we can figure out somewhere to meet. That is what we hope for at least," she said.<br>Jabarnia said she began applying for positions toward the end of the training. <br>"I focused on what mattered for me in a new career — the kind of work I wanted to be doing and the kind of people that I wanted to work with," she said. "With the right team and in the right position, bringing value to a company becomes only natural."<br>She received her first job offer for a data-scientist position while still enrolled at TDI. Though it paid well, she decided it wasn't a great fit and turned it down. <br>"I was very lucky to have found Betterview," Jabarnia said, adding that TDI has a list of hiring partners that it works with and that Betterview was one of them, so she was able to apply for the position through the boot camp. <br>She said her new position is everything that she wanted from a job "and even more."<br>"I was looking for a team that I would fit in well, where I could grow and bring value," Jabarnia said. "I also knew that I wanted to work in a field and for a company that I could be proud of my contribution to. The work environment is also very flexible, my teammates are some of the smartest people I've ever met, and the organization is very forward-thinking."<br>For those looking to follow a similar path, Jabarnia said to make sure you have the right reasons to make a career change. "Doing what you enjoy and are good at is an overlooked luxury that many times a higher salary won't compensate for," she said.<br>Jump to<br><br><a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimAFBVV95cUxOcEN5c2duNXQtZWZzVHp0RFJKbHdGY3B4Y0dXYTdpbWlTZ3VFMFNEZHdYUl92cXJsal9wUXl5Um1DMmw4NUNBWkFlUUNCLXk1VzlmdFJ1eDhIQzVWN1haUkdzU1I1emdRXzUxYjBYcFRlQ05BazQ4RXlyTEVxOGNlMHBuNXBSd1NfNlh0QlFTMUxCU3FLd1A0bA?oc=5">source</a>
