Microsoft's community skilling programme that partners with local community colleges and vocational schools to train people for entry-level datacenter and digital-infrastructure jobs. The five parts are aligned curriculum, a hands-on datacenter lab, mentoring from Microsoft datacenter staff, work experience at a Microsoft datacenter, and scholarships or financial grants. It runs in cohorts through named partner schools rather than as an online course you sign up for.
Why I recommend it: The honest version: this page is the program overview, not an application. The training is delivered by a local partner school, so start at the locations list and go to the school nearest you for dates, entry requirements and what the school itself charges — Microsoft's scholarships cover tuition, fees and certification exams only for students who qualify, so ask the school in writing what you would owe if you don't get one. Microsoft says more than 12,500 people have enrolled since 2018 across at least 14 countries; treat any jobs or salary figures the program quotes as its own marketing, not a promise of a Microsoft job.
Free one-to-one mentorship for students with mentors from companies like Microsoft, Atlassian, Amazon and Riot, plus a Discord community. Over 13,000 students and 17,000+ sessions booked.
Why I recommend it: Free to book a mentor session. Small mentor roster (about 60), so pick your question carefully and come prepared — you will get more out of one focused conversation than a general chat.
A free community of 50,000+ women from university through early career in tech. Membership gives you a peer network, mentorship, events, and access to partner companies that recruit from the community. Open to everyone, centered on women in tech.
Why I recommend it: Free to join. Strongest if you are a university student or in your first few years of work — the value is the people and the recruiting pipeline, not the content library.
A long-running technology news publication with careful, technical reporting on computing, science, policy and security — deeper than most tech headlines and clear about what is known versus claimed.
From the site: News and reviews, covering IT, AI, science, space, health, gaming, cybersecurity, tech policy, computers, mobile devices, and operating systems.
Why I recommend it: One of the few tech outlets that reads a filing or a paper before writing about it. Free to read, with an optional paid subscription that removes ads.
An application form to present your work to The Shortlist's hiring network — for candidates who want to be seen by employers, and for companies who want to hire from the same pool.
From the site: Made with Tally, the simplest way to create forms.
Why I recommend it: A short form, so it costs you ten minutes. Write the answers as if a hiring manager reads only those — no CV attached to hide behind.
Free public documentation explaining how an autonomous AI software engineer plans, runs and reviews coding work, including its limits and where human review is required.
From the site: Devin is the AI software engineer, built to help ambitious engineering teams crush their backlogs.
Why I recommend it: The product costs money but the docs are free — read them to understand what "AI engineer" tools actually do and do not do before anyone tells you your job is gone.
A free self-assessment that maps your current Linux, cloud and automation skills against Red Hat's role paths and points you to the training and certifications that close the gaps.
Why I recommend it: Take this before you pay for any cloud certification — it tells you where you actually stand and what to study first.
The official home of Rust, with the free online book, guided tutorials, standard library docs and installer for a memory-safe systems language used across infrastructure and AI tooling.
Why I recommend it: Everything you need to learn Rust is free here — start with "The Book," it is one of the best free programming texts online.
HashiCorp's free documentation, hands-on tutorials and sandbox for Terraform, the infrastructure-as-code tool used to build and version cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Docker.
Why I recommend it: Free, official, step-by-step tutorials — one of the fastest ways to get a real cloud skill on your resume without paying for a course.
Apache 2.0 open-source search infrastructure for AI applications, supporting vector, full-text, regex and metadata search, free to run locally with optional hosted cloud.
Why I recommend it: The free local version is enough to build and demo an AI project of your own — a portfolio piece that shows you can work with retrieval, not just prompts.
The open-source Python library for static, animated and interactive charts, with free plot-type galleries, tutorials, cheat sheets and a full API reference.
Why I recommend it: If you are learning data work, start here: the example gallery lets you copy a chart that already looks like what you need and adapt it.
Site and writing of security researcher Marcus Hutchins, known for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack — malware analysis, security explainers and reflections from an unconventional path into cybersecurity.
Why I recommend it: A strong example of a self-taught technical career — worth following if you are breaking into security without a degree.
Free Salesforce Trailhead unit on user management habits for admins — creating and deactivating users, permissions and licenses. Counts toward Trailhead badges you can list on a resume or LinkedIn profile.
Why I recommend it: Salesforce admin badges are one of the quickest credible additions to a resume with no degree requirement.
Free interactive SQL lessons that run in the browser — short explanations paired with hands-on exercises, from simple SELECT queries through joins and table creation. Good for anyone adding data skills to a resume.
Why I recommend it: Work through the first ten lessons before an analytics interview — it is the fastest way to sound fluent in SQL.
A media platform covering Black professionals in technology, with news, career content, and conference programming.
Why I recommend it: One of the clearest places to see who is building and hiring in tech beyond the usual coverage. The career section is more useful than most tech media.
A practical blog series from Bian Jiang documenting real workflows for integrating generative AI into daily work, from writing to research to automation.
Why I recommend it: I keep pointing clients to concrete "here is how I actually use it" examples rather than hype. This series is calm, tactical, and honest about what works.
Free, senior-taught software engineering courses built for career acceleration, with pathways in web, mobile, cybersecurity, data, and AI-native applied engineering.
Why I recommend it: I often recommend CodePath to clients breaking into tech or leveling up their engineering skills without taking on bootcamp debt. The courses are rigorous, free, and taught by engineers who actually hire.
Founder and Executive Director of Latinas in Tech, the global nonprofit connecting Latina technologists, who also engages directly with lawmakers on tech-sector policy.
Founder of Black Girls Code (2011), no longer involved with the organization; now leads Black Innovation Lab / Ascend Ventures Tech and hosts the "Inner Garden" podcast.
