Cohort Stories: Meet Alex
vol. 5, no. 8 — guest post by Alex Costa Souza
One of my greatest qualities is that I’m constantly focused on my goals. When I set a goal, I don’t give up until I reach it. I have always had a positive thought that I can achieve everything I desire if I strive for it. I’m currently 33 years old, I’ve been married for 11 years, I have an 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Growing up, I was never one of the best students. In high school, I had an opportunity to have a class with a Portuguese teacher who helped me a lot. This teacher became my mentor, not only in an academic setting, but also with life lessons. She helped to restructure my thoughts around school. I started to focus less on how I wasn’t “smart. Enough” and more on the preparation for my assignments and exams. She would always say to me “Alex, you need to strive to be the best because in life you need to stand out to have good opportunities. If you don’t stand out in a group of 50 students, how can you stand out in a group of 3 hundred people applying for the same job. “ This phrase has always stayed with me.
I began to really stand out, not just in her class, but in all of my classes. With this newly founded mentality, I entered the school of information systems. I continued on the technology path, earning the opportunity to work at major IT companies in Brazil such as: Itau, Campgeni, Avanade, Accenture, QualiCorp, Natura, Sesi / Senai, Recovery, among others.
After about 13 years of working within technology in Brazil, I felt a little bit stuck. This was when I decided to venture into the United States with the aim of improving my English and entering the US IT market.
Unfortunately, I came across legal bureaucracy to work here as an immigrant, but I’m as determined as ever to reach my dreams.
Today, I am studying Computer Science at Bunker Hill Community College in search of getting into a master’s degree program. I’m confident that everything is going to work out as long as I work hard for it. I believe that Hack.Diversity will be a great opportunity to learn more about how to enter the technology market here in the United States. I believe that I will have a lot of help on how to make my way towards my goals, and am looking forward to a potential opportunity with a partner of Hack.Diversity.
