How Can Merit America Help Me Find a Job?

Are you a working adult looking for a part-time program to help improve your career prospects and, more importantly, increase your annual salary? Merit America might just be the answer to your needs.

Merit America offers online programs in IT Support, Java Development, and Data Analytics, providing adult learners with a clear path to high-demand and skilled careers, with no bachelor’s degree required. The programs are fast, flexible, and designed to turn students into skilled workers.

And because it’s a nonprofit bootcamp, it serves students by delivering the most value, not making money. As a nonprofit,  Merit America has more access to public funding, philanthropic resources, and corporate partnerships. All cost reduction savings are automatically passed to its students.

For example, Merit America offers its students a flexible payment plan to start making zero-percent-interest payments for the program only after they land a job that pays at least $40,000 annually. This incredible opportunity opens the doors to tech careers for people who typically do not have the time and resources to attend a for-profit bootcamp.

With Merit America, working adults can get an industry-recognized certification and find their way toward a new, more financially rewarding career.

Career-Building Courses at Merit America

Merit America currently offers three courses that lead to in-demand careers:

• IT Support. This 14-week course teaches IT skills that employers want. Students will learn vital IT support skills, such as technical support and troubleshooting, computer networking, and systems administration.
• Java Development. This is a six-month course that covers all the fundamental skills needed to be an entry-level Java developer. Students will learn Java, data structures, SQL, HTML, CSS, Agile development technologies, and AWS deployment.
• Data Analytics. Learn data types and structures, data analysis, R programming, and data visualization in this program. After 16 weeks, students are qualified for an entry-level job in Data Analytics.

These courses all have the same goal: to ensure that graduates gain the technical skills needed to transform their careers. To top it off, they’re also made more affordable with Merit America’s Success Sharing Program. 

What Is Merit America’s Success Sharing Program?

Merit America’s Success Sharing Program is a flexible payment plan exclusively available to its students. As the name suggests, Merit America invests in its student’s success from their first day in the program. Learners can begin attending programs without paying a single dollar up front.

Students begin making zero-interest payments only after landing a job that pays at least $40,000 per year. Fees are divided into 24 monthly payments of $163, and the total bootcamp cost is capped at $3,900.

The Success Sharing Program doesn’t start immediately and is divided into three parts. After a learner applies and is accepted into a course, the student begins the Foundations stage of the program. This is a four-week trial period to see if Merit America is right for the student. Students do not sign up for the Success Sharing Program during this time.

After this, the 10-week Immersion stage follows and is where most of the course content is taught. During this time, the student signs the Success Sharing Agreement. 

The Placement stage comes next, and the student works with a coach to develop their job search and begin interviewing with Merit America employer partners. 

One month before the end of the Placement stage, the student will receive their first payment reminder. Within 30 days, the student must make a payment if they are working in a new job with a salary equal to or above the income threshold of $40,000 per year. If students cannot make the payment, they must verify their income, and Merit America will defer payment for three months.

Certain conditions exempt graduates from making monthly payments. Graduates do not need to pay if they:

• Become unemployed or are unable to work
• Work in a job that pays below the income threshold
• Take time off to further their education 

The agreement ends after four years, even if a graduate was never able to make a single payment. The flexibility of the Success Sharing Program allows students to quickly get started on a new tech career without the stress and financial burdens of federal student loans. 

Merit America combines this easy payment plan with a flexible and fully-remote program that specifically caters to adult learners looking to start second careers. 

If a Merit America graduate is financially stable enough to pay off their remaining Success Sharing Cap within 24 months, they receive a 20 percent discount. If a graduate signs up for recurring monthly payments, they receive a 10 percent discount on the monthly payment.

This path is especially important for adult learners who may not have the time or resources to gain career-transforming training through other means. Aside from its immersive courses and enticing financial benefits, Merit America also offers a suite of career services to help students land a job after the bootcamp. 

Merit America’s Career Services

Merit America’s career services fully support its learners from their first day in the program until they land their first tech job.

Students pair with a placement coach who helps and supports them through every stage of the job search. Learners are guided throughout the process, from identifying job opportunities, writing resumes, and participating in interview prep sessions to developing the mindset an applicant needs during the job search.

Learners also meet one-on-one with a professional career coach and learn how to apply for jobs with Merit America hiring partners. During the coaching period, students are encouraged to apply for different jobs each week.

Students are fully supported by the Merit America placement team throughout the program until they start a new career. To help the job search process, the placement team also connects students with local employer partners, widening the pool of companies where Merit America graduates can successfully land a job.

If a graduate needs help changing jobs or with salary negotiation years after graduation, they can always come back and ask for help. As the bootcamp says, “Once you’re a Merit America alum, you’re an alum for life.”

Merit America Hiring Partners

Merit America takes pride in partnering with global companies to create job opportunities for its students. For example, Google is Merit America’s curriculum partner, and the organization is a Google partner of choice. Nearly all of its courses are built around Google’s world-class curriculum. The courses come with an industry-recognized certificate, which over a hundred colleges and universities across the US also accept as class credit.

Amazon is another global company working closely with Merit America. The top-tier tech company works with over 400 learning providers to upskill workers. Top companies JP Morgan Chase and Infosys are also Merit America hiring partners. Graduates have worked as software engineers at JP Morgan Chase and landed tech support associate positions at Infosys.

By working directly with Merit America, employers enjoy a reduced time-to-hire for in-demand roles and increase their talent pool’s diversity. It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved. Graduates start exciting new careers, employers have access to highly-trained workers who are ready to work immediately, and Merit America succeeds in its mission of providing adult learners with a path toward a skilled career.

Will I Find a Job After Merit America?

Hundreds of learners have started on new tech career paths, thanks to the technical and professional development training received during their time in the program.

According to Merit America, 82 percent of its learners complete their training and earn an industry-recognized certification. Within 12 months of graduation, 74 percent of job-seeking graduates are in new roles. More significantly, Merit America graduates also experience an average $20,000 annual wage gain when they land new jobs.

Sandra’s story is one example of how Merit America transforms lives. Previously, she was a Food Service General Manager in several Washington DC-area chains. She studied Android development online independently, but the lack of in-person support and networking made her career path difficult.

Instead of continuing with self-study, she found Merit America, gaining in-demand technical skills and improving her professional skills with her career coach. By the time she completed her program, Sandra had landed an IT Consultant position at Intact Technology, an IT operations firm.

Sandra is one of the hundreds of Merit America graduates who have transformed their careers. Graduates have held various IT positions, such as technical support technician, technology software engineer associate, and technology solutions coordinator, to name a few.

Merit America’s mission is to provide its students with the tools they need to start new tech careers and experience a significant wage gain one of the main goals of the nonprofit bootcamp.

Career services and employer partners work closely with students to help them find gainful employment after completing their Merit America course. The strong partnerships that the bootcamp nurtures with both employers and its students help guarantee that graduates will find a fulfilling tech job.

If this fits into your plan of starting a new tech career and you would like to join the ranks of successful Merit America graduates, take a look at a summary of one of their programs here.