Lucas | Australia
Seeking the Right Path
Lucas had always been searching. He’d started five different university degrees, drawn to the STEM fields but hadn’t settled on which path to take.
Growing up LGBTQIA+, he’d often felt like an outsider. That uncertainty followed him into adulthood, coloring how he saw his own possibilities. “I never believed anyone was going to be on my side,” Lucas reflects on that period.
After his father passed away from cancer, Lucas decided to abandon his university education altogether and found work at a hotel near his hometown of Newcastle, Australia. It wasn’t what he’d planned, but he was good at it. Over several years, he worked his way up through seven different hotels, developing an intuitive ability to read people and connect with guests from around the world. But his focus remained narrow—day-to-day, week-to-week survival.
Then Covid hit. The hospitality industry ground to a halt, and with it, Lucas’s sense of forward momentum. “It was a very hard time,” he remembers. “There were no longer further opportunities, and I was like, this is not the path I want to go anymore.”
Discovering a New Direction
During Covid, Lucas returned to his interest in STEM and began teaching himself to code, working through online courses and tutorials. He could understand the logic, see the patterns. He was well on his way to understanding the world of code, but wasn’t sure how to translate it into a career.
The turning point came when Lucas’s partner decided to apply to Generation Australia’s Web Developer program. Lucas was a bit skeptical. There were so many bootcamps out there, and he wasn’t sure which ones really delivered on the promise of a career.
But his partner got into Generation, completed the program, and got a job at Deloitte.
“I was like, okay, this is real, I could do that,” Lucas recalls.
When Lucas joined Generation’s program in mid-2023, he discovered an essential ingredient to his success: a sense of belonging. It was not just technical training, but a group of people all trying to change their lives, all supporting one another through the hard times.
“What I got from Generation was the community aspect,” he says. “When we’re constantly cheering each other on saying, ‘you can do it,’ then we can start hearing that voice in our own head. That was it. That’s what I needed. Just having other people.”
Clean Energy, Bright Future
Today, Lucas works as a full-stack developer for a clean energy certificates company in Melbourne. He’s at the center of Australia’s complex renewable energy schemes, writing code that helps solar panel installations and energy efficiency upgrades generate carbon credits.
“I get to be in the middle of the renewable energy scheme, which is pretty cool,” he says.
The transformation goes far beyond the job title. “My life’s completely changed from where it was five years ago, and it often shocks me. Sometimes I look back at those old times and I could not have believed I would be here. I really wanted to, but I didn’t think it would happen.”
The financial security has been a game-changer—with more money coming in, savings growing each month, a lovely apartment in Melbourne’s city center has become feasible.
He is starting to think ahead, seeing a bright future for himself. “Now I’m thinking about the next five years, next ten years.”
For Lucas, the most important lesson wasn’t just technical—though Generation’s rigorous curriculum gave him the solid foundation he needed. It was learning that he didn’t have to navigate change alone.
“Generation gave me permission to believe in myself, and now I do,” he says. “It’s definitely given me more agency in my life. It’s given me the base I needed.”
