Meet Juan Chaves. He is a lifelong techie, a veteran that has served our country for over five years, and a GitKraken user.

While serving in the military, Juan developed strong management and leadership skills. He is now turning his lifelong passion for technology—and more recently acquired leadership skills—into a tech career; he’s currently working towards his Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Leadership.

When our veterans transition from military life into civilian life, the loss of the military support network is a profound and often difficult adjustment. Navigating a new career path post-military provides additional challenges.

Enter Operation Code, an organization dedicated to supporting military veterans and their families in launching careers in the technology sector. Operation Code fills the void with a valuable community and career services.

Juan learned about Operation Code while he was enrolled in coding boot camp and continues to be active with the organization as a graduate student. They offer 1:1 mentorship, a supportive online community, and employment services as our veterans and their families transition into their next chapter.

On Friday, November 10th, Operation Code is hosting a Benefit Dinner and Auction. This event aims to raise funds the non-profit organization needs to help their community of over 3,000 military service members, guard and reserve troops, veterans, and their spouses and families, with services like the Software Mentor Program, tech conference scholarships, career support, networking and other resources.

Juan finds Operation Code’s online community particularly helpful. Anytime an Operation Code member wants to talk out a technical problem and discuss approaches towards solutions, an international, around-the-clock, online community is available as a sounding board.

Juan loves using the Git GUI client GitKraken for his coding projects, and shared,

It [GitKraken] really helped me grok what the Git process is like and what the commands mean [in the terminal].

– Juan Chavez

Juan’s advice to fellow veterans: “Don’t be afraid to pursue tech; it’s going to be rough, but you got through boot camp. If you’re interested in this transition, immerse yourself in technology for a year, and don’t tell yourself that you can’t do it.”

We’re proud to support Operation Code through sponsorship and by providing our Git GUI client as a resource for making learning Git a little more intuitive.