She had the knowledge — but she couldn’t land a job.
Simcha Yedid studied computer programming after high school and graduated in 2013. But every job lead petered out.
Eventually, she took a job as a bookkeeper. “I stayed there for seven years,” she says, “but the salary was low, and the work boring. I desperately wanted to get back into programming.”
In 2020, she was expecting her second and decided to take active steps to make her dream come true.
“I started teaching myself computer coding. It was back to the basics since I hadn’t created a single line of code in years.”
While on maternity leave, Simcha attended a three-month bootcamp and learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, React, and Node GS. She completed a big React project but still felt she could use more experience.
She networked with friends and, to her dismay, discovered that the languages she had learned weren’t the ones being used in some high-tech offices.
“Go to Tech Up,” several friends advised. “There, you’ll get both up-to-date knowledge and crucial experience.”
Simcha joined the Tech Up internship program three years ago. It was the third cohort of women working on projects for BUsoft, a software development company, getting hands-on experience and intensive training.
“The learning was interactive and self-directed,” Simcha explains. “We’d have class once a week, and every topic came with a project; we immediately implemented whatever we learned. That gave us so many skills.
“There was also a great atmosphere — we’d consult with each other, and there was always an expert available to guide you if you got stuck.
Once girls were in the program, they became far more valuable as prospective employees.
“Some girls found jobs just a few weeks after starting the program,” Simcha relates. “It took me a little longer; they’d already started a new cohort, but I kept coming to Temech, and three months later, I landed an excellent government job.
“In my new job, I do full-stack coding using React. It’s more interesting, has better conditions and brings in a higher salary than my bookkeeping job.
“I would never have applied for my current job — and they never would have considered me — if it wasn’t for the level of experience I obtained from Temech. The program gave me solid foundational skills and a sense of confidence. And that made all the difference.”
