Alumni Stories: Jaime Bishara

We love seeing where our grads take their skills once they’ve left a HackerYou class, and Jaime Bishara’s story is one worth telling. Jaime is a graduate of our part-time Web Development class. Before learning HTML5, CSS3 and responsive design, she was working in marketing at The Globe and Mail. She began learning code through some Ladies Learning Code workshops to alleviate some strain on her development team at work, but was also drawn to code out of her own interest. “I immediately saw the value in learning to code and wanted to keep at it, which led me to HackerYou.” Like many of our part-time grads, she balanced a full-time job while taking a part-time class.

After completing her class, Jaime decided to take the leap and make a change in her career. She’s now freelancing with a focus in marketing and web development and travelling with a program called Remote Year. Remote Year facilitates remote work by providing a workspace with reliable WiFi, accomodatiton, travel and logistics in each country. She’s travelling with 70 people from around the world that work in a variety of fields.

Before taking off on her international journey, Jaime wanted to level up her skills to prepare her for a year of freelancing. “When I decided to join Remote Year, I had a short window to prepare and knew I needed to step my game up if I wanted to be able to freelance. The HackerYou staff were instrumental in setting me up. I was paired with Steph, a full-time grad who went above and beyond bringing me up to speed in advanced WordPress. I was looped into the HackerYou freelance community which offered up a ton of wise advice and practical tips.”

One great thing is that we still get to hear from Jaime, even though she’s on the other side of the world. She chimes in on our Slack channels and seeks help there when she has questions. “I’ve been able to reach out to alumni directly for help when I need a second opinion to look over projects or proposals.” Remote Year is currently located in Istanbul, Turkey and Jaime was able to meet up with her HackerYou mentor, Jess Duarte (another freelance developer from our community)!

Remote Year is now accepting applications for their 2016 program. Let Jaime know if you want to chat about her experience.

Like so many people, Jaime got her start in our part-time Web Development class. Our next class starts September 14 and there are just a few spots left. Learn more here.