The lifeline of a tech job: A Nashville woman goes from homelessness to Google with an IT certification

Jamie McGee
The Tennessean

Last spring, Chelsea Rucker and her two young daughters were living at the Nashville YWCA for three months, unable to secure housing after moving back to the area from Atlanta.

She began working as a Goodwill office manager and tried to make it seem to her daughters, now 2 and 6, that they were on vacation or on some sort of camping trip until their home was ready. 

"It was the most difficult time I have ever had to face," Rucker, 30, said. "I didn't even have a house. I just kept saying, 'We are waiting on a house.'"

In December, Rucker earned a Google IT Support Professional Certificate. She rents a three-bedroom house near Bordeaux and in January began a job as a data center technician at Google's new data center in Clarksville, nearly tripling her previous salary.

"It's amazing. I feel like I can breathe," Rucker said. "I actually had some money left over from my paycheck. I can start saving."

Chelsea Rucker poses for a portrait in Nashville on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019.

Rucker's path to the highly-paid, fast-growing field came from a new IT professional support program funded and led by Google.org and initiated locally by Goodwill  Industries of Middle Tennessee. It offers those with a high school degree or equivalent to pursue an IT certificate tuition-free, and the interactive, online program takes participants from beginner to entry-level skills within eight to 12 months. Google is working with other major employers, including Bank of America and Walmart, to connect participants to jobs.

The Google initiative seeks to cultivate opportunities for those not in traditional tech training programs, as well as help build a much-needed pipeline of talented tech workers nationally.

Tech jobs booming in Nashville

Chloe Rucker, 6, helps her mom, Chelsea Rucker, clean their home in Nashville on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019.

Tech jobs in Nashville have grown by 30 percent since 2012, double the city's overall job growth, according to a recent Nashville Technology Council study. With several large companies, including Amazon and EY, moving to Nashville, the demand for tech skills is expected to accelerate.

Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee secured $325,000 in grant funds from Google.org. The local program, launched in 2018, includes 27 participants and three graduates. The grant also includes funding for digital literacy and awareness training at varying levels. Google has said the program will provide scholarships to 10,000 participants nationwide. 

Becky Currier, Goodwill training and certification programs manager, pursued the grants, seeing the program as aligning with Goodwill's mission of changing lives through education, training and employment, she said.

To be enrolled, participants must demonstrate interest, basic computer skills and be proficient in English, and must complete a survey, an assessment and an interview before they are accepted. Through Goodwill, participants have access to support services for the program, such as transportation, clothing for job interviews or job placement assistance. 

"The majority of these students would not have thought it possible without the scholarship," Currier said.

Chelsea Rucker runs errands with her daughter Chloe Rucker, 6, in Nashville on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. Rucker had faced financial insecurity, including a three-month stay at a YWCA shelter, but has recently started a job at the new Google Data Center in Clarksville.

Rucker, who has a GED diploma, said without tuition support, she would not have been able to pursue a certification. "It was one less barrier to go through," she said.

The course requires eight to 10 hours a week, making it possible to complete while maintaining a full-time job. For Rucker, that meant completing courses at night or in the early morning before her daughters woke.

"I joined what I call the 4 a.m. club," Rucker said. 

Helping her family

Rucker tracks her interest in tech skills to 2012, when her husband was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison just as she was expecting her first child. His conviction was reversed in 2015 and he is awaiting re-trial, but at the time, she was a single parent. Her income at the time was inadequate.

"I had to figure out what I was going to do to take care of me and my little girls," she said. "I don’t have a degree. I needed to change over to a career I could make a sustainable living off of."

She became a claims agent at Asurion and overheard data technicians discussing a raise that dwarfed her earnings of about $9.50 an hour, she said. Both the problem-solving work and the income level piqued her interest. 

"(I realized) there is opportunity and I can make a living in the industry," she said. "I had never heard of anybody making 40 bucks an hour."

Rucker learned about the Google IT training program last year while working at Goodwill. She was grateful for the job, but at about $10 an hour, it was still a struggle to make ends meet, she said. The IT program offered a chance to earn more and find work that really interested her. 

Rucker connected with the Google data center when she attended an IT tech talk at Goodwill featuring a Google data center manager. He encouraged her to send him her resume, and after four intensive interviews she was hired and flown to California for orientation in January.

"I am not used to being treated that way," she said, laughing.

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Chelsea Rucker runs errands with her daughter Chloe Rucker, 6, in Nashville on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019.

Cookies and ice cream to celebrate

When Rucker was hired by Google, she and her girls first danced around and then celebrated with homemade cookies and ice cream -- with sprinkles. Her oldest daughter is especially excited about her new job, she said. 

"She's like, 'Mom, maybe we can go on vacation this year?'" Rucker said.

As a data center technician, Rucker makes sure the hardware and server are running effectively. The commute to Clarksville is long, but she is reluctant to complain.

"I have never had a place where I felt I could come and ask any question and I wouldn't be judged," she said. "It's all about learning and making sure that we are all going to be here to do good work together."

Rucker reflects on the last year with gratitude and amazement, with an optimistic view of her and her daughters' future. 

"I didn’t really see it panning out this way, that I would have the opportunity to be here and go through that training and get a job at Google," she said.  

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Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter at @JamieMcGee_.

Find out more

To learn more about the Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee scholarship program with Google, email training@givegw.org or call 1(800) 545-9231.

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