Mark Freedkin
Coder School General Manager
The Coder School
Irvine, CA USA
Milestones
My road in life has taken me all over.
As a 4 year old I wanted to reconstruct a toy just by looking at it. Eventually my parents allowed me to destroy the $30 toy at that time. And I was able to rebuild it, which amazed everyone.
Early in my career, I joined a vocal assembly group and was a web communicator for their website. I worked with this singular website for over 22 years.
In 2009 I had surgery for cancer. I was able to get better just after a few months. Now the cancer is very low, which I'm thankful for.
In 2015 I started studying for a private pilot license. In May, I was able to fly my first plane. It was an incredible feeling. Although I still needed to study more, I was on my way.
When I graduated college, I had a double major and I was able to obtain two degrees—one for industrial engineering and another one for computer science.
Throughout my life, I have had many jobs and all of them had something to do with computers. It took me a while to find a job that I would work on for the rest of my career.
Once finding the coder school after retiring, I continued working at this job. I'm happy with my job, and to this day I still work at this job.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Coder School General Manager
I work with kids age 7-18 to help them develop software development skills. This includes html, java script, and C+.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Technology
Engineering
Teaching / Mentoring
Day to Day
I develop skills for many teens and young adults—skills that a person will need depending what their future career would be. I work at a school for computer software development. This is similar to just trying to do a course online using code academy, however, we actually help you whenever you don’t understand. We demonstrate to the teens how they got something wrong in their code, which can help them learn their mistake and learn how to avoid that same problem.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for high school students
Take Computer Science P AP to see if you would like to continue this career because you shouldn't jump into a career that wouldn't make you feel happy. If you continue following the computer science career path, I recommend going to a college that has good computer science courses.
Recommended Education
My career is not related to what I studied. I'd recommend this path instead:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Family:
"You need to earn tons of money from your career."
Challenges I Overcame
Financial
Q&A
How did you deal with your mental health during school, and what did you do to improve it?
Asked by Osvaldo at Roadtrip NationHe said throughout high school and college he never really have to deal with his mental health. However, once he needed to find a job, his family made him think that money is the only thing that mattered. Which affected his happiness and his career.
What is success to you, and do you ever feel like you aren't successful?
Asked by Osvaldo at Roadtrip NationFor him, success deals with the idea of not giving up. Even though he wasn't very happy, he continued to work his hardest. The days he felt like he wasn't successful were because of his happiness. He felt like he wasn't doing this for himself.
Did people ever tell you that you aren't good enough, if yes how did you deal with this?
Asked by Osvaldo at Roadtrip NationHis family was the people who made him believe that money was his number one priority. So, that's what he did. He started earning tons of money throughout his careers. Yet, he never felt happy with it. What he learned was that happiness is important.
Interviewed By
Osvaldo
at Roadtrip Nation
