He thought about it for a year, then quit his four-year job to learn to code

A screw in a very big machine

Nixon graduated in actuarial science and spent more than four years at Accenture, working on the Google account as a platform experience moderator. On paper it was stable and comfortable — a big firm, a big-name client, a clear scope.

But the work was repetitive. "My previous company is so big, and the client is Google — sounds very big, right? But I'm more like a screw in part of this big machine. You keep rotating on the same rotations." Living through Malaysia's MCO during university had also shown him the value of skills you can use from anywhere with a computer. Coding, he decided, was a skill that could change his life.

One year of thinking

The decision took a year. Leaving a four-year job meant dragging himself out of his comfort zone, giving up his income, and squeezing his savings to cover both the course fee and living expenses. He tried online courses first, but self-study didn't stick. "I'm sure someone in the world can make it, but definitely not me."

Researching bootcamps, he found only a handful in Malaysia, and two things about Sigmaschool convinced him. The refund guarantee meant that if he didn't get a job, he'd at least get the money back — critical for someone about to have no income. And it ran physical classes with a teacher in the room, which he knew he needed after struggling alone. He was 26 when he committed.

“Today will always be earlier than tomorrow. If I don't move now, it's going to be more difficult to move tomorrow. If I want to do something, I'd better do it before it's too late.”

A new topic every day

He missed the first week of his batch, but some basic coding from school helped him catch up. The pace was intense — a new topic almost every day — and he felt the contradiction of a three-month course: short enough to get job hunting quickly, but relentless while you're in it.

What he valued most was how practical it was. "They don't really focus on those conceptual things. They focus on the real-life tools, skills and frameworks you need to know." React was the module he struggled with most — and the skill that later got him interviews and, eventually, his job. For his capstone he built a web page with a booking system.

One month of real applications

He graduated in April and had a job within three months — but by his own account he only searched seriously in the last month of that. Technical interviews scared him at first. "I've never gone through something like this."

Without a computer science degree, projects were his proof. Sigmaschool's project requirements lined up with what companies asked about, and the school ran mock technical interviews with feedback. Its job board of partners got him his first-ever interview — through a Sigmaschool client.

When the offer came from Property213, the relief was immediate. "Finally, I don't need to go through those technical interviews again." Having one offer in hand changed everything — he walked into the remaining interviews feeling safe and confident.

The gap between practice and production

The first weeks as a software engineer were hard. "The gap between a real-life project and your personal project is way too different. The requirements from clients are very complicated, and the real-world data is very huge." He leaned heavily on what he'd learned — including the AI coding tools Sigmaschool taught at the end of the course — until he found his rhythm and could write more of the code himself.

Three months in, things are more familiar, though something new lands every day. The biggest shift from his old job is ownership. "Previously, the manager tells you what to do and you do it perfectly. As a programmer you need to think a lot — will your code affect other people's code, will the database become fragile?"

Take the course seriously

His advice is blunt: don't do what he did. After four years of work he treated the bootcamp partly as a chance to rest, studying half the day. "I kind of regret it now. The teacher is there, the course material is there — but you still need to put more effort in yourself. It will make landing your first job easier."

He also thinks the switch suits a particular kind of person: someone who likes to think, and wants something new daily rather than the same rotation. As for what's next, he sees the bootcamp as the fundamentals — "you get a licence, you can drive the car, but if you want to be an F1 racer you need something more" — and is eyeing DevOps and system infrastructure. "They opened a door for me. Now I'm stepping into the new world."