Skip to main menu Skip to main content

The Onshore Experience: Through a Boot Camper’s Eyes

January 6, 2016

Onshore Outsourcing is a company that takes great pride in identifying and developing its talented workforce. With this in mind, company creator, Shane Mayes, came up with the Founders Award, an honor that is given annually to the Onshore employee who has made the most of their newfound career opportunity.

This year’s winner out of the Glennville, Georgia Service Center is Chaley Stanfield. Below, the 2015 Founders Award winner details her life-altering journey with Onshore Outsourcing:

I have lived in tiny Glennville, Georgia all my life. I graduated from the local high school and ultimately wanted to attend college. My long-term goal was to become a teacher and to specialize in secondary education. I began working at a daycare to save up enough for college tuition, but the facility suddenly closed soon thereafter. My dream was temporarily derailed.

Then I found Onshore Outsourcing.

Just a week after getting laid off, I discovered Onshore and was excited to learn that it was actually about to start another IT boot camp. At this point, I knew I was only a test away from beginning the type of career I’d always wanted.

I immediately went and took the admittance test, passed and was accepted into Onshore’s boot camp training program. There, I learned the fundamentals of coding and, through various small projects, how to work as part of a team to complete a bigger goal. The boot camp program was no doubt an integral part of my Onshore experience. It taught me—and even those who didn’t get into development—how to be self-sufficient in personal education and development, how to work with others, and how to solve problems. Boot camp provided me with a valuable foundation upon which I could build.

After my initial training was complete, I began work with America’s No. 2 Fast Casual restaurant, specifically operating as a QA Analyst for their new retail app. I did manual QA testing for nearly a year before I was given the opportunity to head up the company’s test automation project. I started by learning Java and creating tests in Selenium WebDriver, but we recently made the switch to Protractor and JavaScript to automate the new retail team’s regression tests.

I credit the boot camp process for really sparking my interest in coding. Even in the midst of a successful, yearlong run on the QA team, I always knew that I eventually wanted to explore my passion for coding. The time I’ve spent in automation has been amazing, as it’s allowed me to take the experience I gained during my time on the QA team and combine it with my interest in development.

Heading up a project has been challenging, but even more rewarding. Getting the opportunity to make my mark on something in a new and meaningful way has been truly wonderful, and influencing the project’s long-term growth and evolution has been equally fascinating.

In the end, Onshore has opened my eyes to a whole new world of jobs and opportunities; IT development isn’t something you hear much about in a small town like Glennville, and it’s certainly something I never would have considered as a possible career. Through it all, Onshore allowed me to discover talents and passions I didn’t know I possessed and led me down a path I never dreamed of taking. For all that, I’m thankful in the present and excited about the future!

Onshore Outsourcing is a domestic IT Outsourcing firm that seeks to revitalize rural America. Welcome to its monthly blog—a space where you can learn more about the company, get to know the special people who make it run, and stay on top of industry news. We appreciate your time and interest. For more information about Onshore and its mission, please visit our website.

Ready to unleash your opportunities?

Stacked shipping containers