Graduating Into a Closed Market

Lalo earned his engineering degree at one of the hardest possible times to be looking for work —  at the height of the pandemic.  An already tough job market had become especially grueling for new graduates, and as he shared with us, the automotive and robotics companies he’d hoped to join had all but stopped hiring recent graduates. For roughly six months, he searched with little to show for it.

The rejections were many, and each one landed the same way: employers wanted three or more years of experience, and he was only just starting out. “I felt like I wasn’t enough, like everything I’d studied wasn’t useful,” he says. “You leave school and hit this hard reality that none of it seems to matter.” Rather than keep waiting for a market that wasn’t embracing him, Lalo made a decision: he’d pivot to software, where the tech industry was quickly growing and more willing to bet on new talent.

Job-Ready, with Some Help

A university email pointed him to Generation Mexico’s Java/Fullstack Developer program, and he enrolled. What set the program apart was how it prepared him for the job-hunting process, an area in which he needed more support as a new graduate. Coaches who’d worked as interviewers ran mock interviews and drilled the cohort on communication. “A lot of engineers are introverts — we don’t speak up much,” Lalo says. “Those sessions really helped us communicate better and speak up in an interview.”

After months of applying alone, amid the isolation of the post-pandemic transition, he became part of something. He built a project with a team, grew close to his mentors, and made friends across the cohort. “What I valued most was the human side — having people who support you,” he says.

Launching a Career in Tech

When Lalo’s bootcamp wrapped up with a closing ceremony, he was chosen to speak on behalf of his cohort. That put him in front of Generation’s employer partners — companies that recruit directly from its graduates — and one of them, the retailer Coppel, hired him as a Java Developer. Just weeks after finishing, he was working in tech.

Today he’s a Cloud Developer building on AWS at the consulting firm Orion Innovation, with clients that include BBVA, one of Mexico’s largest banks. The role comes with a comfortable salary, benefits like free certifications, and the flexibility to work from home. And he’s still climbing: “I’m a cloud developer with room to keep growing — I can move to new clients, even in the US, and build my career from here. Generation really helped me polish my skills and find a job in express time.”