Press
Below are some highlights and mentions in the press:
March 13, 2019, Latino Founder Hour: David Molina Geeking Out with Operation Code — David Molina (ret. Captain U.S. Army) is Founder of Operation Code and self-taught writing the first line of code to petition Congress to expand the New GI Bill to include coding schools, a benefit he couldn’t use after exiting after 12 years in uniform. An entrepreneur, David has built numerous startups, has testified before members of Congress to expand technical education for veterans and spouses, and as a former captain in the Army was recipient of the Lt. Rowan Award, Meritorious Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal.
January 15, 2019, Operation Code Interviews with Vets in Tech: David Molina — Ep. 002 - David Molina is the founder of Operation Code. In this interview, he describes his Army career, how he found his way into the tech industry with no prior training, and how he started Operation Code to help veterans like him learn software and code the future.
January 17, 2018, Hacking Entrepreneurship — An Interview with David Molina of Operation Code — When you hear the word entrepreneurship, it is natural to think of venture capitalists, unicorn companies, and startup founders driven to make a profit above all else. With that in mind, you might call Operation Code an unconventional tech startup and David Molina an unconventional entrepreneur. But he and his company’s impact is reaching as far as any of the tech companies turning out billions. And their purpose is far greater as well.
November 17, 2017, Oregon Veterans News Magazine: Code Warriors [PDF Download] — “Coding is the new literacy of the 21st century,” Molina says. “The blue collar jobs used to be laying pipe and wire and building the infrastructure of the country; now, it’s connecting the wires and plumbing of the internet.”
July 3, 2017, Operation Code: Connecting Veterans with Code Skills — Operation Code started when its founder, former Army Captain David Molina, realized he couldn’t apply his New GI Bill to go to a code school. Though military veterans can use their GI bills for college and vocational schools, it’s very difficult to apply this funding to code schools. Molina was troubled to find that technical education was so difficult for veterans to access, and that they weren’t pursuing technical skills due to a combination of limited exposure, lack of funds, and misconceptions about what credentials are needed. So he started working on a way to change that.
June 16, 2017, Sabio Stories — Operation Code Founder and Sabio friend and partner Dave Molina talks to us about transitioning into coding from Army life, the work he’s done to create more opportunities for veterans to code, and why he loves working with Sabio.
June 7, 2017, The Denver Post — A national effort to help veterans switch from military service to the entrepreneurial world has made its start in Denver. Veterans and family members, pursuing a variety of ventures, have begun gathering in a community office space near Union Station. An Air Force veteran is running a shoe company in which she sells sandals made of recycled tires, while a Marine runs a consulting agency to get veterans into the programming and coding industry.
May 30, 2017, USA Today: — The nation’s best jobs boast salaries that average $100,000 and up, offer generous company benefits, and promise to have recruiting suitors fighting for your hand. But they are highly technical roles carrying job descriptions like DevOps engineer and analytics manager that demand an alphabet soup of computer skills as well as incessant on-the-job learning. So do you have to be a math genius with a spare PhD in physics to get one of these great gigs? What we found might surprise you.
May 3, 2017, Backchannel: Thousands of Veterans Want to Learn to Code — But Can’t — David Molina was stationed at Dover Air Force Base, 100 miles outside Baltimore, when he started trying to become a coder. After 12 years of service, his time in the Army was almost up, and he needed a new career.
April 24, 2017, Opensource.com: How Operation Code helps veterans learn programming skills - After leaving the military, Army Captain David Molina knew he wanted to go into software development. As Molina did research on the field, he found himself overwhelmed by the vast amount of information and choices. For example: What coding language is the right one to learn?
April 3, 2017, Fast Company: Why More Tech Companies Are Hiring People Without Degrees - Silicon Valley is starting to realize that the huge talent pool of nontraditional candidates may be the answer to its pipeline problem.
August 29, 2016, The Seattle Times: Seattle coding-school tuition to be covered by GI Bill - When David Molina retired from the U.S. Army in 2013, he wanted to use federal education benefits offered through the GI Bill to attend a software-coding school. No luck. Though the GI Bill applies to public universities and some for-profit colleges, he couldn’t get approval to use funds for intensive coding schools, often called boot camps.
August 18, 2016, Skagit Talks at KSVR 91.7 FM: Vet Coding - A discussion with Dave Molina Founder and Executive Director of Operation Code. A Veteran-founded non-profit to get active military, citizen-soldiers, veterans and their families coding and building software.
August 1, 2016, Veteran on the Move: Get coding now with Operation Code Army veteran and founder David Molina - After a decade of service in uniform, David founded Operation Code when he couldn’t use his New GI Bill to go to code school to become a software developer and build his dream web app.
June 7, 2016, Mentoring Developers: How to pick a programming language to learn for new developers – Part 2 - When you are new to software development, there is always the challenge of determining which of the many software or framework programs you should learn first. Everyone has a different perspective. Some say you should learn what they learned. Some say there are specific programs that all beginners should start with.
March 21, 2016, Humans of Tech: Operation Code - “I’d just gone to an AngelHack hackathon and was determined to build my dream app when I found out about learning Ruby on Rails on Skillshare. I signed up for “One Month Rails,” and the community immediately removed my anxiety, because everyone was there to learn and share. I learned about Ruby, AWS, Heroku, navigating the command line and debugging code by Googling it.
March 20, 2016, Software Engineering Daily: More and more veterans who leave the army are becoming coders, and the mission of Operation Code is to help veterans make that transition - Military veterans have the right set of skills to become programmers. Technical expertise, emotional resilience, psychological persistence, and teamwork–these are the qualities of the US Army and they are the qualities of the best programmers. More and more veterans who leave the Army are becoming coders.
January 7, 2016, GeekWire: When the call of duty is technology, veterans rally to support each other through Operation Code - Software and technology rank among the top jobs in the country, but military veteran David Molina fears that the country’s military veterans aren’t getting the support they need to successfully land tech positions when transitioning into the workforce. There are employment opportunities as defense contractors or working in security in Afghanistan, Molina said, “but who reaches out to us and says, ‘Do you want to do software or start your own tech company?’”
November 11, 2015, FTechCrunch: Few options for veterans looking to enter tech - When John Hampton was preparing to leave the Army, he was excited about a career in technology. But he was disappointed to learn that the G.I. Bill wouldn’t enable him to attend a code bootcamp — which he saw as his ticket to that tech career. “The Army’s Soldier for Life Program that is intended to help separating soldiers transition into new careers didn’t offer much career-specific guidance on the software developer field. Most information related to computers or technology was centered around network admin or network security,” Hampton said.
November 8, 2015, International Business Times: Coding boot camps go after veterans to take Silicon Valley’s vacant tech jobs - When John Hampton was honorably discharged from the Army this year, he decided to pursue a lifelong interest: coding. That’s why in May Hampton, 34, applied for and started attending Iron Yard Academy, a coding boot camp in Greenville, South Carolina. It was a wise decision and one that paid off after 12 weeks of coursework and more than 800 hours of programming.
July 15, 2015, National Military Examiner: Nonprofit Operation Code announces founding board of directors
April 25, 2015, Más Wired: Operation Code wants veterans to work in tech - Operation Code is a Portland, Oregon-based organization working to enable more veterans to learn to code and work in the tech industry. The organization is the brainchild of veteran David Molina, who is currently getting the word out about the organization, and aiming to raise $7.5 million to fund veteran code school education.
April 15, 2015, KOIN 6 News: GI Bill should cover code school - Under current rules, military veterans can’t use their GI Bill to go to code school, but one Portlander is working to change that. “What motivates me most is my family, my community,” David Molina told KOIN 6 News. Molina, a father of three, is one of more than 500,000 unemployed veterans in the country. He said he’d like to go to code school to become a computer programmer, but the Department of Veteran Affairs has a formula that’s preventing him from achieving his goal.
April 14, 2015, KUNPTV Univision: Oportunidades para veteranos - Operation Code es una organización no lucrativa que busca ayudar a veteranos a estudiar y encontrar trabajos en el desarrollo informático.
April 14, 2015, Portland Business Journal: Portland entrepreneur aims to train military vets for software jobs - Portland entrepreneur David Molina and a growing team of supporters are launching a fundraising campaign this week to raise money and awareness for Operation Code. The new nonprofit, started by Molina, looks to train military veterans for careers in software development by providing scholarships to attend code schools as well as provide mentoring and career services.
April 11, 2015, The Bend Bulletin: Bend veterans connect with Operation Code: new Portland nonprofit wants to help vets get into computer code schools - In 2012, veteran David Molina wanted to go to code school, but his GI Bill would not pay his tuition. He tried to teach himself Ruby on Rails, a Web development program used to build Web applications, but it was just too hard. “I hit a lot of roadblocks,” Molina said. “You shouldn’t have to learn by yourself.” Rather than give up, Molina sought other veterans like him. He found many, including a couple in Central Oregon, and he’s about to launch Operation Code, a Portland-based nonprofit that will give veterans scholarships for code school and help them find jobs in computing.
January 30, 2015, National Military Examiner: Operation Code provides career opportunities for military veterans
November 11, 2014, Switchup: Why veterans will make excellent programmers: when we can use the New GI Bill - Veterans are excellent candidates for becoming coders. Military training teaches soldiers how to be highly disciplined, pay close attention to detail, persevere through difficult circumstances, and work on a team. These learned traits can be great assets for someone working in the web development field. For veterans who are looking for a well-paying and in-demand career, there are few industries as appealing as programming. The government reports there were 722,000 unemployed veterans in 2013 while it projects over one million unfilled programming positions by 2020. The economy’s need for programming talent can be partly filled by retraining veterans who have finished their military service.