If you weren’t deemed an “essential worker,” you may have found yourself sitting in your flat wondering how exactly you’re going to be able to pay all of your bills during this quarantine or if you’ll even be able to remain in Prague! But there’s hope. And that hope might just be in an online course that could potentially put you in an even better financial position when things get back to normal or… whatever the new normal turns out to be.

So what are we talking about here? We’re talking about the Green Fox Academy. Green Fox is a school that will teach you the in’s and out’s of a career in IT. They offer online sessions, small study groups with two dedicated mentors, one-on-one mentoring sessions (in local languages), and even recorded, re-watchable sessions. All of that is well and good, but here’s the kicker… they guarantee job placement when you’ve completed the course.

If you haven’t noticed, this is as close as you could come to having job security these days. You can even arrange to begin paying your tuition after you have finished the program and have a job! Still thinking it’s a risk? How about this: Green Fox is so confident in their courses that if you are unable to find a job in IT within 6 months of successfully graduating the course, they’ll refund you the full amount of your tuition (or forfeit it if you chose post-payment). That’s just… crazy!

Now you’re wondering, how much can someone in IT make in Prague? The base salary of a fresh junior developer starts from 35,000 crowns per month. There are any number of companies in Prague that are always looking for IT personnel but the most popular employers are Amazon, Novartis, and Accenture. IBM recently placed an ad for a Senior IT Architect at a whopping 84,000 crowns a month. At this point, even though everyone starts out at the Junior level, even I’m thinking of diving in at Green Fox!

Image courtesy of @wocintechchat.com
via Unsplash.com

Courses

Green Fox offers full and part-time courses. The full-time course is five months and will require 40 hours a week (plus homework time) while the part-time course lasts ten and a half months at twenty hours a week. 

What You’ll Learn

The course is divided into three modules focused on object-oriented language Java. After the first module, you can decide if you want to specialize in front-end, back-end, or full-stack.

Just as a primer, here’s what that means:

Java. Java is a programming language and computing platform that is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to data centers, game consoles to massive supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere and forms one of the foundations of our connected world.

Front-end. This refers to the part of a program or interface that customers directly interact with, so… think of Amazon. Everything you see on the site as a consumer is considered Front-end. 

Back-end. This refers to the parts of a computer application or a program’s code that allow it to operate and that cannot be accessed by an outside user. This is all the stuff the consumer doesn’t see like databases and internal architecture. Think of it like your favorite brick-and-mortar shop; There’s the front part of the store… the part you browse when you go shopping, and the back end of the store (hence the name) where shipments come in and are sorted for the sales rack.

Finally, we have Full stack. This refers to an entire computer system or application from front-end, back end (the “behind-the-scenes” technology such as databases and internal architecture) and the software code that connects the two.

So what do you think? Got some quarantine time on your hands? Looking to make a career change? Green Fox may be exactly what you’re looking for.

The next course starts on May 18th and the application deadline is on May 3rd. You can find more information by visiting their site here: https://www.greenfoxacademy.cz/en/online-courses.

Shaun O'Banion

Shaun O'Banion

Shaun O'Banion is a Gotham Award-winning independent film producer, writer, and teacher who has been living and working in Prague since 2015.
Shaun O'Banion

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