2. Anthony Delgado and Joe Pulaski (JP) are recent graduates of the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp Class
of 2017. Upon graduation, Anthony and JP went on to win multiple Hackathons and recently started
their own business, Good, Inc. They shared how the boot camp experience has impacted their
careers and how they’re using their newfound skills in the marketplace.
3. What were you doing before you enrolled in the Rutgers
Coding Bootcamp?
JP: I’ve spent the majority of my career as an entrepreneur in sales and marketing. One
day I woke up and asked myself, “Why am I doing this?” My work felt like an empty
pursuit of money. I was not happy. I wanted to learn something new, and I did that
through technology. I got myself into the tech world, but then realized I needed to
know how to build technologies myself.
Anthony: I started coding about 10 years ago when I left college to pursue
entrepreneurship. Eventually, I became a self-taught coder freelancing for a company
that exploded. This was my first full-time gig as a developer. Later, I interviewed
someone for my tech company who had just graduated from Rutgers Coding
Bootcamp. He showed me all of the cool projects they were working on at RCB, and I
thought, “Wow, I needed to take this class too.”
4. Why did you pick RCB?
JP: The affiliation with Rutgers University was a
huge factor in my decision. I left undergrad to
start my first business, so being a part of the
Rutgers network was something that I wanted.
Also, location: I love Jersey City, so having class
right outside my door was also important.
Anthony: Both of my uncles went to Rutgers, so
the brand was super important to me. The brand
played a big part in it.
5. JP: The first Hackathon was pretty much a disaster, but we learned so much. I was only
in Week 3 of the program and I was so upset because I couldn’t figure out how to get
the application to load properly. I decided I never wanted to feel that way again, so we
doubled-down on our effort and vowed to work twice as hard the next time.
Anthony: Hack-RU was the first Hackathon we won. We went in with a different
mentality and decided if we were going to do these, we had to be all in. We stayed up
for 24 hours and created a project we knew was cool but had no idea if it would be
good enough to win. Come judgment time, we won the main prize. It was a big moment
for us because we gained confidence in ourselves, and in our skills, and realized we
could really do this.
Tell us about your experience with Hackathons and how they have
impacted where you are today.
6. Tell us about Good, Inc.
JP: Our hackathon wins helped us found a
company called Good, Inc. It is a socially driven
corporation. Our motto is “People First,” and we
are building tech solutions for companies so that
everyone wins. We want to make sure that
whatever we build empowers human beings.
7. Anthony: One of the projects we are
working on under Good Inc. is our AT&T
Dev Summit winning app, InterviewIQ. We
are currently in talks with multiple incubators
to receive funding to help bring our app to
market. As exciting as this is, we couldn’t
have done this without the tools and
network we gained from being a part of
RCB. It’s been completely life-changing. I
learned a lot – even from others who just
started coding a week ago. I learned how to
learn, and I also learned how to provide
value to others using my skills. I think that’s
one of the most powerful things for me and
has helped us at every Hackathon and with
the start of Good, Inc.
8. Your favorite part
about RCB?
Anthony: My biggest takeaway throughout
this whole experience has been validation.
Building things are awesome, but when
you’re by yourself, you’re siloed. Being able to
build things with a team–and then have
people around you validate your
experiences–is extremely powerful. The sense
of community and network at RCB are
unparalleled.
JP: We owe it all to the program. RCB
changed the trajectory of my life in ways I
never could have imagined.