Meet the Automotive Tech Exploring New Careers with Coursera Plus

Corey O’Brien began thinking more seriously about the importance of work-life balance when his daughter was born. He’d been in the automotive industry for over a decade, working his way up from porter to lead technician, but the hours didn’t afford him much family time. Workdays tended to be long and O’Brien lived at least 30 minutes from the dealership…on a good traffic day. 

Motivated to spend more time with his daughter without sacrificing job security, he turned to Coursera to research options. That’s when he came across the Microsoft IT Support Specialist Professional Certificate. In high school, O’Brien spent two years interning at a local computer repair shop. He enjoyed interacting with the machines, but he wrote off any career possibility, figuring it required a college degree. And that wasn’t going to happen. “I hated school,” O’Brien says. “With tests and everything, my anxiety was through the roof. That’s why I never pursued it.” 

But the drive that eventually led him to work with cars—a deep interest in understanding how they worked and diagnosing technical issues—awoke a similar curiosity about computers. “I like taking things apart to see how it works,” O’Brien says. “In the software field, you’re not taking things apart in the same way. You’re using a keyboard instead of a wrench.” 

From IT support to full-stack development

Once he completed IT Support, O’Brien decided to keep going—and keep growing—thanks to his Coursera Plus subscription. Rather than pay for each program individually, the subscription provides access to more than 7,000 courses from leading industry and university partners. O’Brien chose the IBM Full Stack Developer Professional Certificate next. He didn’t have any hard or fast reason; instead, his curiosity drove him to keep investigating related career paths. “I did IBM’s Full Stack because it gave you a rundown of everything,” he says.

“It’s been fulfilling but very difficult,” he says about learning full-stack development. “I know my way around a computer, but the language—understanding where the language goes and how you’re supposed to fill it out—I had to reach out a few times on one of my final projects.” Even as the material grew difficult, O’Brien felt more confident about learning on Coursera than he did in high school. 

For starters, Coursera is self-paced, which mimics a lot of the automotive technical training and professional development O’Brien has completed over the years. There’s also the opportunity to try again if something doesn’t go well initially. “If I fail it, I can retake it,” he says. “Maybe I can look at it a little differently. In high school, I wish they had something like this. It would’ve made my life a lot easier.” It also helps that O’Brien is interested in the subject matter—a detail that's kept him motivated. “I think it’s because I really want to pursue this.”  

Using Coursera Plus to try different things

But what “this” is still hasn’t become clear. And that’s ok. For now, O’Brien is more interested in using Coursera Plus to explore his options when it comes to a career in computers, whether that’s IT, software development, or something else. “I wouldn’t be as open to trying it if I was paying for it by the program,” he says. “For me, I can try this and I can try that and see where I land and what I like about it.” 

That access means he can expand what he’s learning, either broadening his abilities across a range of roles or strengthening one specific area if he finds a strong fit there. Knowing how important programming languages are to developer roles, he’s eyeing a similar full-stack program that features a different one. “I was thinking of doing Microsoft’s full-stack program because that gives you a different language, C+,” he says. 

Learn more: Front-End vs. Back-End Developer: Understanding the Differences

Looking beyond full-stack development, O’Brien has a few other programs in mind. “Maybe I go and do Google Cybersecurity—or Salesforce Sales Operations because that seems to be a big thing nowadays. I’ve seen a lot of jobs online requiring Salesforce experience.” There is it again: O’Brien’s natural curiosity to understand how things work—one program at a time. 

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