As the child of Army servicemembers, Desmond West will tell you he’s from “everywhere”. Upon earning a Bachelor’s in English Literature, he sought to enlist into a very narrow field of interest: Cryptologic Linguistics. Once he landed his dream military occupational specialty, he headed to the renowned Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.

Following his training as a cryptologic linguist, Desmond was bemused to be assigned to a base in El Paso. Needless to say, his expertise in intelligence gathering and Arabic wasn’t specifically useful in the region. He adapted and served in every capacity that the station called for, from driving trucks to processing paperwork.

While Desmond served, he had time to plot his next chapter. College and the Defense Language Institute evidenced his ability to learn quickly, so he decided to pivot into tech. As his service career wound down, he applied for Apprenti and eventually landed a spot with TLG Learning’s IT Pre-Apprenticeship as a Network Development Engineer.

Desmond took advantage of the remote/synchronous delivery of the program necessitated by the pandemic and carried out all the requirements from his El Paso location. He presented his capstone, graduated, and out-processed within the same week!

During the last few weeks of the program, we began introducing Desmond and his cohort-mates to employers, among which included Oracle. We warned everyone of a possibly slower hiring process during the holiday season—especially with the complications of the pandemic. Desmond still enjoyed plenty of calls, informational, and remote interview loops, and, as if on cue, Oracle greeted him in the first week of 2021 with an offer.

Now he is moving from Texas to the Pacific Northwest to join Oracle’s Seattle team. When the restrictions eventually lift, we look forward to meeting Desmond as our new neighbor and sharing a hometown with this fine veteran professional. Lucky Oracle and lucky Seattle for the new addition!