Encouragement, Structure, and Guidance: Something for Everyone at Outco
Interview with Outco Graduate Ryan T. Novak
Outco is proud of all the students who have graduated from our program. Today, we catch up with graduate Ryan T. Novak to learn how he’s doing since he went through the program.
Outco: What is your current company and role?
Ryan: I’m a software engineer at Microsoft.
Outco: What was your job search experience before Outco?
Ryan: I had several phone interviews and one or two on-site interviews that did not pan out. I struggled quite a bit answering the technical questions.
Outco: What was your job experience like during and after Outco?
Ryan: After two and a half weeks with Outco I had my interview with Microsoft and I literally aced it. The skills, tips, and training provided by Outco were exactly what I needed.
Outco: What was your biggest takeaway from the Outco experience?
Ryan: Well, my vanity wants me to say “getting to tell people I work for Microsoft,” but I think the one thing I am really loving about my new role is how much opportunity for growth there is. I have been here about three months and have already learned a ton.
Outco: Was the program worth the cost?
Ryan: Abso-friggin-lutely. Thanks to Outco teaching me how to negotiate, I was able to get way more compensation than initially offered (and the initial offer was awesome already). That extra money more than paid for Outco’s cost.
Outco: What’s one piece of advice for engineers on the market?
Ryan: Practice, practice, practice. Solve as many technical questions as possible. Sadly, interviewers love weird and tricky programming questions so the more exposure you have before going in, the better.
Outco: What was your top technical takeaway?
Ryan: Everything, haha! Recursion was a big one for me — both because I badly needed a refresher and also because it factored into my interviews. I was able to really impress my interviewers by being able to confidently use recursion in a solution while also explaining the pitfalls.
Outco: What was your top non-technical takeaway?
Ryan: Reverse recruiting. Josh taught us a lot — and I mean a lot — about the softer side of interviewing and job seeking, but the biggest takeaway for me was reverse recruiting. That and negotiating my compensation.
Outco: Any additional thoughts?
Ryan: Outco, for me, was the motivation to do a lot of the things I already should have been doing. I paid for encouragement, structure, and guidance — and I received all of that and more. Outco also taught me things I did not know I needed — like reverse recruiting — so there is something for everyone.
About Outco:
Outco accelerates career transitions for software engineers by 1–3 months, and increases the compensation of software engineers by up to 50%. Through onsite and remote classes, coaches focus on building emotional intelligence, communication skills, self-awareness, as well as relevant technical skills such as system design & scaling, object oriented design, algorithms, and data structures. To date, Outco has served over 450+ software engineers who have received offers from top companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, and a bunch of YC startups. To learn more, sign up for a free info session, or email us at team@outco.io
