In Matt Upham's world, success is very much attainable. It is that belief that inspired his decision to help others get interested in tech by offering free resources and tips via social media. My goal has always been to expose people to interesting technologies, and show them what opportunities might be out there.

Matt ventured into tech after becoming fascinated with the idea of creating something valuable, this was despite his degree in Industrial Engineering. In finding fulfillment of this desire, he took up online courses learning about JavaScript and that ultimately began his tech journey. He joined a bootcamp after exploring options on how he could climb the tech ladder faster. I explored a lot of options, and found that a coding bootcamp was a way to break into the tech industry without needing to go back to college. So, I buckled down and studied for the next 3 months to get into a bootcamp. In November 2017, I moved to San Francisco after enrolling in a bootcamp. I lived in a hacker house? with 16 people, 4 people crammed into a tiny room. For 3 months I spent up to 80 hours a week learning web development.

Matt executed on the plan to land a lucrative job as soon as possible, 2 weeks after the bootcamp ended, he landed his first tech job. This didn't happen by chance because right in the middle of the training, Matt was steadily sending out job applications and had sent over 150 applications before the first offer came through.

Later that year, Matt got another offer from a startup in Silicon Valley and being just 6 months into his tech journey, Matt would be amongst a few with such accomplishment. His move to San Francisco stirred the entrepreneurship side of him and he started making videos talking about his journey and get more people into the tech space.

Combining doing these and his full-time job was no mean feat as he had to sacrifice a lot of things in order to meet his targets. Building a social media brand while working a full-time job. I've had to sacrifice spending time with friends, had to drop Netflix/video games, and spend most of my evenings and weekends working on this. Had to force myself to improve time management? he said when asked how he was able to stay focused.

This eventually paid off after almost two years of consistency and dedication; one of his videos went viral over the internet with a few videos receiving over 10 million views each, and deals from brands started flocking in.

One of Matt's life philosophies towards facing challenges is - Grit / perseverance matter more than pure intelligence when focusing on success; this has helped him to stay dedicated being someone with no prior background now he is climbing the tech ladder.