Courtney grew up in a family of hard workers who pushed him and his sister to seek out opportunities. He initially set out to pursue a career in mechanical engineering. While still in college, he interviewed for a job as a CAD designer at an architectural firm, and because he had a background in construction and experience managing people, the firm hired Courtney as a project manager instead.  “My plan was to be a CAD designer, because I have the skills and knew the craft, and then just finish up my degree part time. Well, they ended up hiring me to be a project manager, because on the side, I was doing a lot of construction work and I had people working for me. I didn’t know what a project manager was, but I was basically doing project management work.”

Courtney thought this job would launch his career but the 2008 housing crash hit the industry and he was laid off. He continued to work in construction through his own construction company and then moved to  California, where he made a career shift into IT. In his current job, as Client Services Manager, he is responsible for project planning, troubleshooting, writing API scripts, and producing highly technical project implementation guides.

Courtney says his project management skills facilitated his transition between fields. “I had that strong project management background, and I was able to demonstrate, through my work, a lot of soft skills that were highly desirable, especially dealing with customers. . . Being able to translate technical information into layman’s terminology, a natural curiosity,  and things of that nature that are desirable, regardless of industry.” To complement these important transferable skills, he went through a formal training program to build additional IT skills. In the future he hopes to get a project management certificate and continue to grow his technical skill set.