Veteran success stories

The depth and breadth of the ServiceNow platform’s functionality makes it an ideal platform for IT trainees to dig into.

- Randy Kaasalainen

Meet Randy

Randy is a married father of two who served for 25 years in the 30th Field Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment in Ottawa before being medically released in 2012 as a Warrant Officer.

Upon leaving the military, with the assistance of Veteran’s Affairs Canada, he enrolled in a vocational rehabilitation program where he received funding and support to complete a three-year Advanced Diploma at Algonquin College’s Electrical Engineering Technology program.

Randy's journey

While wrapping up his second year of study, Randy received a call from WithYouWithMe, introducing him to their veteran program.

“Technology has always held my interest and while I’m most comfortable working in the electrical field, modern electronics rely heavily on programming.”

Although he was interested in pursuing a role in tech, Randy chose to continue his studies and after graduation, began looking for a new career. Unfortunately, his graduation occurred during the pandemic when Canada’s job market was difficult to break into.

“It was disheartening sending my resume to many employers and not hearing back; it was at this time I decided to take the WithYouWithMe platform more seriously.”

Randy set up his profile and completed the psychometric testing which determined he was a strong match for a career in cyber security. With that in mind, he entered the Cyber Pathway and began using WithYouWithMe's Discord channel to connect with trainers and other students.

Shifting focus to ServiceNow

While Randy was training in cyber, an opportunity arose for him to secure employment through a partnership between WithYouWithMe and global technology solutions provider, ServiceNow. Randy was part of a cohort who would be trained in the ServiceNow platform and deployed on large-scale projects as needed.

“I completed a two-week onboarding and the ServiceNow fundamentals course before taking a deeper dive into the training required to become a Software Tester/Developer. The depth and breadth of the ServiceNow platform’s functionality makes it an ideal platform for IT trainees to dig into.”

ServiceNow is a leading global technology company that helps organisations automate and optimise processes, connect data and remove silos. In partnership with WithYouWithMe, ServiceNow offers individuals free training to build in-demand skills on their Now platform.

Preparing for the future

As part of his training, Randy and another colleague developed a Capstone project to demonstrate their knowledge of the platform and provide a mechanism others could replicate to show their skills.

“Our Capstone presentation was a success and was well-received by WithYouWithMe's trainers. It was even used as a demonstration for the Canadian Government’s CWEP Job Accelerator to show the skills we'd gained throughout our training programs.”

Randy is continuing his training on the ServiceNow platform, expanding his skillset in between projects to ensure he is prepared for future requirements.

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