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Finding a New Career Path with a Professional Certificate: Meet Larisa

Finding a New Career Path with a Professional Certificate: Meet Larisa

We’re excited to bring you Larisa’s inspiring story about how W3Cx’s Front-End Web Developer Professional Certificate program helped her embark on a completely new career path and the passion and success she experienced through her newfound skills. This is what she had to say about her experience learning on edX.

What program did you take on edX, and what were your goals in taking it?

I took the Front-End Web Developer Professional Certificate program from W3Cx. When I started the program, my goal was to develop new skills and experiment with taking my career in a new direction.

I graduated from MIT with a degree in physical biology. I started work in sales but wanted to do something different. I remembered the powerfully positive responses I received from the students taking the Supply Chain Management courses through my work at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics and thought that I too could use edX to change my life.

What outcomes have you experienced as a result of your coursework?

I changed jobs and industries!

How have you applied the skills you learned in the program?

The remote format of the program allowed me to learn more about web development without taking time off of my current job. When I completed the certification, I was able to make antiquated websites responsive and significantly decrease loading times for my employer. I moved into a completely different career path!

I am so comfortable with Javascript, HTML, and CSS now and my coworkers can rely on me as a front-end subject matter expert to troubleshoot any front-end problems that arise. Now, I am in a leadership role with a new company.

Even my family has taken an interest in web development after seeing how happy the W3C program has made me.

After acquiring these skills, my job search drastically changed. This program definitely changed my life and I could not be more grateful to edX and the W3C for making this possible. I am so passionate about edX and the flexibility it provides to the students.

What advice would you give new edX students/learners interested in Professional Certificate programs?

I recommend that anyone interested in trying a professional certificate program audit a course. A new educational endeavor can seem intimidating at first, but a quick visit to the course forums reveals that there are others in your situation who are looking forward to the challenge. You have nothing to lose, so try something new and expand your horizon.

Anything else you’d like to share about your experience with edX and how it has helped to advance your studies?

EdX has made it possible for me to learn from world-class educators on my own schedule. The feeling of freedom to learn amongst an international community is incredible.