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Brian Bonus: Video Editor to Software Engineer

profile_croppedMeet Brian Bonus, a Udacity student who is an inspiring example for others who are interested in learning new technical skills and discovering new career paths! Brian Bonus graduated from UCLA Film School and since graduation has worked as a video editor. After 6 years in the business, he knew it was time for a change.

Brian sampled our CS101 course and was blown away by the experience. Prior to finding Udacity, Brian had taken a Java class but did not find it interesting. This time around, taking a journey with Dave Evans to build his own search engine was “the gateway drug that lead to my self-directed learning of Java, HTML/CSS, and Javascript.” — Udacity courses “got me to see how fun and stimulating programming is.”

Based on his new found passion and knowledge of programming, Brian created InstaMemory and as a result was invited to participate in his first ever hackathon, sponsored by YouTube and GoogleTV.  In this 3 day hackathon, Brian and his team came up with an ed tech tool allowing instructors to build lessons using the YouTube and GoogleTV API, and won an award for best teamwork.  Just wait, it gets even better! By the end of the weekend, Brian was selected as the winner for the Coding for GOOD challenge and was offered a job at GOOD Worldwide. In February, he started as a software engineer and is learning more about programming every day.  We’re excited that Brian has discovered a new passion for programming and developed new skills to move into a new career path. We’re very proud to have Brian as a member of our community and are thrilled to see what he does next!If it’s time for a change, check out our course catalog to browse your future. You may be a class away from discovering your newest passion.