Hello everyone! 👋
I’m Deric, the founder of Sigma School. Before helping people to transition to a tech career, I didn’t know how to code.
I was excited. The tech industry is changing every industry.
I was scared. I didn’t know if I can code.
I was inspired. Stories of people getting high paying tech jobs, without degrees, is crazy!
But where do I start? As a complete newbie, I had no idea which to focus on.
Therefore, I’m going to walk you through my story and what made me realise that something was fundamentally wrong with the traditional approach to getting a tech job with a degree.
Why this is different 🙌
I’m going to be sharing with you are strategies on how you can take your career to a whole different level.
The reason why it’s different is because my co-founders and I are actually practitioners doing it, along with our staffs, students & community members.
I know that there’s many people out there teaching code but they’re not really practitioners.
I know many universities who have lecturers who aren’t practitioners themselves. It’s good what they’re doing and i’m sure they serve a big purpose in research and theory.
But that’s not what’s going to land you 90% of the jobs out there.
- This is not theory. It is stuff that I actually do day-to-day in my business as a direct result of working with and getting paid by my clients, startup projects, investors.
- Real world. The strategies that I’m about to reveal to you are strategies that are unique that I actually do as a direct result of:
- Bootstrapping a 7-figure tech company & software projects
- Winning multiple government grants from Singapore & Malaysia
- Working with a team of 20 working on multiple software startups in Edutech Apps, F&B Analytics Dashboards, Streetwear-bidding Marketplaces, Logisticstech and many more.
I think it’s safe to say that not many people out there have actually done that, and whether or not you like what you see here, it’s all real numbers, real events and real situations that happened for me and what I learned from them.
What’s in it for you? 🤝
- My goal for this session is to show you that the unique way of exponentially grow your income or diversify your income streams through mastering software development, and
- The best way to be good at software development, is by understanding what the PROVEN way is on how to do it and to just get started.
Who is this for? 👫
This webinar is for those of you who are currently looking into tech right now or looking to change your life for whatever reason.
Some of you are here because of jobs
- Maybe you’re unemployed now because you spent 4 years in a degree only to realise that you weren’t interested in that field after all (trust me this is more common than you think).
- Maybe you have a job and it requires you to always physically be present at the workplace for the rest of your career, for the next 20–30 years, and you want to have a skillset that allows you to work remotely.
Some of you are here because of entrepreneurial opportunities
- This is also for the more risk-loving, entrepreneur-style people who want to build a software product that allows you to just build it once and scale to impact millions of lives with no additional cost.
- Or maybe you want to build your own software agency to make money from building software from customers at your own terms?
Some of you are here because you’re unsure of the future
- Maybe you want to simply upskill yourself to bring yourself to the next level to be a more value-adding individual wherever you go.
- Or maybe you’re still on the fence. Like myself back in the days. I kept asking myself questions like: What if the startup doesnt work right? What if i dont get paid for my work?
Well. All I can say is we never know what the ultimate outcome is when it comes to tech startups. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.
And if you did try and if it really doesn’t work out, no worries. At the very least you now have an in-demand skillset that can get you hired easily, wherever you are in the world.
My starting point 😔
I come from a background in finance, graduated from a university in UK and worked in the Venture Capital industry.
Although I’ve been exploring the venture capital industry in the UK and Malaysia, I met a lot of really great entrepreneurs and I realized that tech was the only way to build and scale a business that could impact millions of lives.
Growing up, I was taught to work hard and study hard, but I never really thought about what I was passionate about. I went with the flow and studied finance in university, even though I knew it wasn’t for me.
After graduation, I asked myself what skillset would allow me to build once and scale to impact millions or even billions of lives, and I realized that tech was the answer.
So I quit my job.
Locked myself at home and spent every day coding, practicing, and spamming projects for a year. It was one of the lowest points in my life, as I had no income, couldn’t go out for expensive meals with my friends, and had to exempt myself from all social life.
I questioned myself all the time, wondering if coding was really for me, even gave up a few times, but I kept going.
My turning point 😀
- Small win #1
Eventually, Approximately 12 months from the day I left my job, people started knowing that I’d been learning to code, and my friend with an IT degree asked me to do a job interview for him.
That’s when I realized that I was onto something. I passed his interviews, he wanted me to mentor him and he was willing to pay me RM100/hour, and that was the very first small win that made me more motivated to continue learning.
- Small win #2
Shortly after that, I landed my first project worth RM10,000, followed by a second worth RM50,000, and the 3rd one worth RM200,000. All in 3 months.
- Small win #3
With 3 projects worth RM250,000+, I quickly realised I couldn’t manage everything so I started looking out to hire software developers. I’ve interviewed over 100+ university fresh grads and job applicants, but >90% of them probably couldn’t even solve basic algorithm questions. Most didn’t even know Github is. 😨
The first guy I hired, I paid him above market rates for a CS fresh grad (because why would a great talent want to work for a small, 2-man team startup right?). He was great, but I remember for the majority of the time we were working together, my co-founder and I had to coach him on the job.
6 months after that, after we completed the project, he got submitted his resignation letter because he received an offer letter from a Singaporean company paying SGD4.5k, while he continue working remotely in Malaysia.
- Small win #4
That’s when I realised that the gap for tech talents is only going to go bigger, and everyone globally are just competing for talents, and the big boys with stronger currencies will always win.
So, instead of hiring from universities, I had to create the supply of talents for myself by offering an alternate path for people who cannot afford university or simply prefer a cheaper, better, and faster alternative to university.
This is where Sigma School was born.
Here’s what people didn’t know 🎈
What many people don’t know is that I was brought up in a very traditional and average Malaysian/Asian upbringing and I was taught to work hard, study hard, and most of this advice came from my parents.
1. Life on autopilot
- Ever since young I was told to strive for the best school results. I did pretty well in school all my life, but I was never asked what it was that i was passionate about.
- And i never questioned it. I was pretty much on autopilot just following the default safe life path.
- I thought finance seemed, cool so I went with it. First semester in I already knew it just wasn’t for me.
- But I just went with it because hey, I never questioned my university. I never questioned my own interests and I never even thought of going against the traditional route to figure out what i truly wanted before committing to it.
- Come to think of it. I probably decided on my degree in less than a month.
- This makes absolutely no sense when I think back now. People go to university fully prepared to take up loans up to RM100,000+ and commit their life plans to that one career after 1–2 month of deciding as an 18 year old.
2. The decision to pivot
- When I decided to pursue the path in tech, that was me. 23 years old. No money. No job. No skills, Everyone enjoying their jobs, their life and no one understood why I was taking this path.
- I didn’t have money to do an IT degree. I didn’t have money to go to bootcamps.
- So what i did was I locked myself at home. This is how my day is set up. 9AM — 12AM, every single day. Coding. More than 12 hours a day.
- It was one of the lowest points in my life. I didn’t have an income, was unemployed, couldn’t even go out for celebratory meals with my friends, I just kind of exempted myself from all social life.
- I questioned myself all the time. Is this really for me? Can i really do this?Maybe coding isn’t for me after all. Gave up multiple times.
So this whole thing, it took me around a year. I couldn’t do it in 3 months like what I’m about to show you how because I didn’t have mentors or guidance.
Every time i saw some advice from random people online i tried it. Every time i googled learn how to code on google i get a billions suggested links. I tried all of them. Javascript, Ruby, Python…
I’ve done a little bit of everything. But none good enough to actually deliver and build anything up from scratch.
It doesn’t have to be this way. What I’m trying to say is — If I can do it, so can you. And I’ll show you how.
But first, let’s understand why you should be doing this.
Here’s my why 🧠
- 2011 — Software is eating the world.
- 2023 — AI is eating the world. Job cuts are coming.
- 2033 & beyond — Biotech revolution. Life as we know it will be forever changed.
Software is eating the world. This phrase, coined by technology entrepreneur Marc Andreessen in 2011. Some examples:
Netflix:
- In the early 2000s, Blockbuster was the dominant player in the video rental market. However, Blockbuster failed to adapt to change and ultimately went bankrupt.
- Today, Netflix has over 200 million subscribers worldwide and is one of the most successful entertainment companies in the world.
Uber:
- Traditional taxi companies had a monopoly on the market.
- With the introduction of ride-sharing apps like Uber, the industry has been disrupted.
- Uber has grown to become one of the most valuable private companies in the world, with a market cap of over $70 billion.
Amazon:
- Amazon started as an online bookstore.
- It has expanded to become a massive online retailer that sells everything from electronics to groceries.
- In 2020, Amazon’s net sales amounted to over $386 billion, making it one of the largest companies in the world.
In 2023 and above, the AI revolution will bring about unprecedented changes to life as we know it. You’ve seen GPT4/ChatGPT and how powerful it is. If you haven’t, you should.
And you’ll know that job cuts are coming. Examples:
Customer service:
- With the rise of AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, customer service jobs could become automated. AI can handle customer inquiries without the need for human agents.
Transportation:
- With the development of autonomous vehicles, many jobs in the transportation industry could become automated.
Marketing:
- AI is being used to automate many marketing tasks, such as creating personalized ads and optimizing ad campaigns.
- Persado and Phrasee are using AI to create marketing copy, which could reduce the need for copywriters.
Accounting:
- AI can automate many aspects of accounting, such as data entry, bookkeeping, and tax preparation. This could lead to job cuts for accounting professionals who specialize in these areas.
- Xero and QuickBooks are using AI to automate many accounting tasks, which could reduce the need for human accountants.
Design:
- AI can automate many aspects of design, there are tools out there that literally allows you to screenshot the website that you want, and the design of it will be created immediately to be customised to the user’s needs.
- This could lead to job cuts for designers who specialize in these areas. like Canva and Adobe are using AI to automate many design tasks, which could reduce the need for human designers.
Of course, we may not be there there yet. But with AI and tech’s exponential growth, when it’s here, it’s already too late.
Talents who are able to innovate and upskill themselves will thrive. But those who want to remain on their old ways will be disrupted.
But the real revolution will come in 2033 (I don’t know the exact year, but most biotech/AI specialists are confident it will happen within the next decade) and beyond with the biotech revolution.
Advances in biotechnology will allow us to manipulate the human genome and create new life forms with incredible precision. This technology will bring about significant ethical questions, with humanity being split into different classes based on genetic superiority.
Imagine someone able to think 10x faster than you, speak 10x more persuasive than you, run 10x faster and further than you, learn new information 10x better than you.
Best part — what if they can live 10x longer than you, 10x less immune to illness, diseases, cancer than you?
Wouldn’t that be scary? It may sound like science fiction now but when it comes, it’s too late.
It’s not about improving yourself anymore. It’s about survival.
The implications of these revolutions are enormous. On the one hand, they offer tremendous opportunities to improve the quality of life and push the boundaries of what is possible. On the other hand, they also bring about significant risks and challenges, from the possibility of AI-powered weapons to the creation of new viruses and diseases.
For individuals like me, who are passionate about technology and entrepreneurship, these revolutions present tremendous opportunities to create meaningful change and make a positive impact on the world.
By harnessing the power of software, AI, and biotechnology, we can build businesses that solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, from climate change to healthcare inequality.
Get into tech now. And let’s navigate this vast world of technology, together.
What’s the worst you can lose, a few months of your life with the upside of getting a skillset that allows you to have all the benefit above?
It’s a no-brainer to me.
Thanks for reading my story. I hope it added some value to you.
Connect with me!
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dericyeejiyong/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dericjyyee/
