In their words

Jake Monson
Design and Build Engineer at GE Digital

I just realized, 8 years ago today I graduated from a pilot program IT program created by a company called Acuitus that partnered with the VA to take 100 U.S. Military Veterans with zero IT experience, and in 5 months, using their Digital Tutor program, made us into IT professionals competitive with professionals of 5 to 7 years.

Prior to Acuitus, I was a high-school drop out, then I turned into Military Veteran, followed up with a “good ole college try” at 25, and finally working as an administrative secretary for USDA-NRCS making $35k/yr while trying (and failing) to turn my Military experience into a HR career with the federal government.

Back then, I thought I was doing alright… I was making more money than my friends working at gas stations and restaurants, and thought I was “progressing normally” from a career standpoint…

I pictured my career and salary would eventually peak around $65k/yr and was certain I would never actually find a “job i love” i just hoped I could find a career I could tolerate day to day…

Acuitus changed everything….

I absolutely love being a Network Engineer.

Over the last 8 years I have become an expert and top performer in my field, where all of my peers have 15-20 years of experience

I have more than doubled my expectation of a $65k/yr salary, and I know I am still moving up with lots of potential everywhere I look.

I know I make important decisions every day that have major impacts across the entire company, even one as large as General Electric.

And the best thing, above all else, I am happy in my life.

It all started with a random email from a VA rep about an opportunity, an amazing boss who knew what I needed better than I did and the push to do it, and Acuitus, where everything I have achieved since graduation is based on the foundations I learned from the Digital Tutor.

For that, I will always be thankful, I will always remember how I got here, and because of Acuitus, I also know where my future is going.

Veronica Kirchoff
Cloud Support Engineer I - Linux Premium Support at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I can vouch that the Acuitus DigitalTutor system is light years beyond any other training system I've ever used, and I've used a lot. I'm in their program now and cramming 10 years of IT training into a 6-month period is no joke.

Hunter Biles
Help Desk Specialist at Layer8 Consulting, Inc.

I got offered my first IT job. It's a helpdesk plus job. It seemed from the description that they expect more than just the regular helpdesk. 20k increase over what I usually make yearly serving tables. It's with a big international company that has it's hand in defense contracts, aerospace, space and transport industries. I'm looking forwards to having some upwards mobility once I get my foot in the door. I'm looking at this job as a stepping stone. I'd like to be a network engineer in a few years.

Before August of 2020, I had zero IT experience. I've always enjoyed video games and computers, but I was never one to take them apart and see how they work. When the pandemic hit, it gave me a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted. I've been ready to move on from serving tables for a long time, but family responsibilities (aka wife and 3 year old identical twin daughters and a 5 year old daughter) among other things made it super difficult. Then the pandemic hit and I was on unemployment with nothing to do. I found this internship with a company called Acuitus that seemed very interesting and decided to give it a shot. Now many people will tell you there are free materials online and you can do it all yourself, and you can, but I needed a little structure. The program was quite intense and I learned a lot. The goal of the program was to graduate interns with the necessary skills and knowledge to be sysadmins. It has only been available to the civilian population for a year now, so it isn't really well known, but I would highly recommend it.

It has been difficult getting interviews at first as Acuitus isn't a recognized name in the industry yet. I really wanted to get my foot in the door somewhere that fit the basic metrics of what I was looking for. This new helpdesk job is only a 15 minute commute, I got good vibes from the interview panel and the starting pay was exactly what I was hoping for as I break into the industry. That's why I decided to go for the helpdesk first, just to get in the industry while I continue to study for a few certs over the next two years. I'm currently studying for my CCNA which is scheduled for May 16th. I start the new job on May 17th and look forward to hitting the ground running.

At the interview, I felt they could see I had a decent background on the technical skills side, but I really played up the soft skills I've developed with over 12 years serving tables and interacting with customers.

Cliche, as everyone seems to say this, but if I can do it, anyone can. If you have any questions about the process and/or the internship that helped get me started, please reach out. Good luck to everyone out there still looking!

Melquis Naveo
System Administrator at IBM

To all the people that I had study halls with... To all my wonderful instructors... To the genius minds that created our labs and lectures... And finally to all the admins and engineers who are giving us a hand on this journey, thank you!

IT Pilot-Program Graduate

If you're here then you're probably looking for information on Acuitus and came across a post of mine from 2013 saying I'd be attending. Here's my story, my experience with Acuitus, and how my career has progressed since then.

Please note that I'm only a former student and have no affiliation with Acuitus. I created this sub because since 2013 I get at least one private message a month asking about the program. I'm hoping for this sub to grow to a point for future and potential students to get their questions answered by former students.

I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2004 and was preparing to leave in 2013. I was looking for a job and was not entirely sure what I was going to do when I got out of the military. My job was in radio communications, so it was kind of IT adjacent, but I had no real hands-on IT experience. As I was applying for jobs I came across a Craigslist ad for the Acuitus IT training program. I submitted an application, but was hesitant due to the lack of information out there. In June of 2013 I was accepted and left shortly after for Palo Alto.

So in 2013 the program was still new. They had used the training to teach Navy ITs with great success. They were able to get funding from the VA and DARPA to expand the training to veterans with no IT experience. Because of this, there was no out of pocket costs for myself or those in the other pilot-program cohorts. We were fully funded for housing and tuition costs.

While at the program I learned the basics of IT up to intermediate networking and systems configuration and troubleshooting. They literally start at the single bit level of explaining binary math. As the weeks advance you learn about troubleshooting standalone IT systems and move on to networking computers together. You learn advanced Active Directory concepts such as building domains from scratch. For networking you start at the single network level and quickly you're building WANs that span multiple routers and routing protocols. When I went there was little in the way of Linux training, but I understand that content has expanded since. There was no training on things like cloud or automation.

Upon graduation I had a job lined up doing desktop support for a federal agency making $27/hour with no benefits. Since it was a contract I left it about 8 months later. Since then my job titles have advanced to Network Admin, Network Engineer, Information Systems Security Officer, to my current job as a Cybersecurity Engineer making about $140k.

When I think back on it, I was taking a big risk for my family so I could attend the program. But it was the best thing I could have done. I don't know if I would have done it if it weren't free for me. I'm glad and grateful for everything Acuitus did and if you're looking for a recommendation, I give them 100% of my support.