Viseth Sen

City Colleges of Chicago has been there for Viseth Sen for almost every step of his adult life.

Truman College was his neighborhood school growing up. It’s also where he took free classes to prepare for his GED. Then, Wright College became his neighborhood college. There, he graduated with an associate in applied science.  When he decided on a career change, he once again turned to City Colleges. This time, he attended Malcolm X College for a cybersecurity boot camp.

During the six-month course, students met two times a week to learn about the latest cybersecurity threats, techniques, and responses from cybersecurity professionals. Once students completed the boot camp, they were prepared to take the CompTIA Security+ Certification, which certifies they are prepared for an IT security career.

Viseth particularly remembers the support and dedication of his boot camp instructor Cicero Chimbanda.

“He had a huge impact on my career,” Viseth said. “Without a doubt, I feel like my courses and instructors at City Colleges helped me prepare for my career.”

The course and the certification were not only validation for Viseth’s future employers that he could do the work, but they gave him confidence, too. They helped make him a front runner for IT jobs.

“Before the course, it was so difficult for me to be considered or even get an interview for an IT job,” Viseth said. “But when I showed employers I went to City Colleges, that I took this course and I got a CompTIA Security+ Certification, that was pretty well respected.”

Now, Viseth is the lead DevOps engineer for an IT company called On Location that sells tickets to the Superbowl and the Olympics. Eventually, he may want to open a business of his own, but right now, he’s just enjoying the fruits of his labor – going from minimum wage jobs to feeling financially secure for one of the first times in his life.

“I don’t think I’d be where I am without the City Colleges of Chicago,” he said. “I’m more successful than I ever thought I would be.”