Military Service
U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant
Experience
20 years served
Future
Seeking a career in information technology
Location
Stafford, VA
About Ruben
My name is Ruben Rivera. I retired from the Marines in 2017. My last rank was Gunnery Sergeant and my last billet was Personnel Chief out of Tanks Battalion San Diego Ca. After retirement I pursued my goal to be a software developer.
My interest in coding started after publishing some websites using WordPress; I wanted to change things in the layout and I did but very minimal changes after watching YouTube videos and other instructions. I decided I would pursue web development once I retired. I finally started once I left the Marines. I have moved a few times in the few years years so it's been hard to focus on my goal; however, in the last couple of years I have been able to finally receive focused training on Software development.
I started attending ECPI university out of Virginia and back in December 2020 I finished a coding boot camp with General Assembly out Washington DC. We learned the basics from how to use the CLI, how to use GitHub, all the way to building a full stack application and deployed it live. I was recently approved to use the VA program VetTech which focuses on training vets on High demand Tech jobs through vetted schools. I am currently attending Intellectual Point for a 3 month DevOps course, and once done this summer I will be certified on CompTIA Security+, CEH and Splunk Certified user.
Finally I was approved for the Stems Rogers scholarship which extends my post 9/11 GI Bill benefits so I can finish my degree in Software Development / Security hopefully in the spring of 2023.