From Tutorial Hoarder to AI Engineer-in-progress

Here at ZTM, we teach you the most in-demand tech skills so that you get hired ASAP. However, because of that, most of our success stories are about people who just got hired.

Not a bad thing as such, but it got me thinking...

Because a lot of people haven’t even started to learn to code yet, it can feel like its a goal that's really far away. And for some of them, they get worried about what the experience is like, so they never get started and that sucks.

So I figured I would change that! I reached out to some of our students who have just started out and ask them to share their experiences with you.

Today’s student is a little unique because he’s one of a new generation of AI Assisted coders who started out by playing with the tools first, and then came to us to flesh out his core skills. (Which is always a good idea!).

This is his story…

Meet Marx

Hi, my name is Marx G and I'm an indie builder and solo founder from the Philippines, but I’m currently based in Ukraine, where I ship AI-powered products. 

I don't have a traditional tech background as such. I actually build with AI coding assistants like Claude Code and Cursor, and I'm now learning to read and write code properly through ZTM. 

How long have you been doing this? 

Only about a year of serious building. Before that, I spent nearly 5 years in customer support at a crypto trading SaaS, where I started building internal tools on the side, that's what sparked everything. 

I wasn't hired to build, but I just kept automating things because I saw problems that needed fixing: 

• Tampermonkey scripts

• Custom GPTs

• RAG copilot for the team 

• Etc

Eventually I realized that I loved building more than supporting, and I left to go independent. 

What was the goal or outcome you were hoping for from ZTM? Did you achieve it? 

When I started building full-stack apps, I realized I couldn't always read what I was shipping. I could prompt, iterate, and deploy, but if something broke, I was stuck, as there was a clear gap between "I can build" and "I understand what I built". 

This is what drove me to joining ZTM. 

I wanted to transition from a person who uses AI tools to a person who understands what those tools create. I want to be the one who can debug, refactor, and make architectural decisions, not just prompt. 

So my initial goal was to learn to read and write Python, so I could understand the code that my AI assistants generated. It’s still a work in progress, but I'm already understanding code at a level I couldn't before. 

What were the biggest hesitations and doubts you had before deciding to join ZTM? 

I was already building and shipping and there was so much free information out there, that paying for courses felt redundant when I could just keep prompting AI tools, so I held off for a while.

However, I soon realized that this approach has a ceiling, because you can't scale what you don't understand. I'd bounce between topics, lose momentum, and never build a foundation. ZTM gave me structured paths instead of random YouTube rabbit holes!

After you joined, were there any difficulties? 

Balancing learning with building, and just staying focused. Mainly because I have products that I want to ship and the temptation is always to skip fundamentals and just prompt my way through.

But I've stuck with it because the long-term payoff is real. 

What was your learning experience like? 

The courses stack really well, and the project-based approach means you're building from day one, not just watching someone code.

I'm currently taking the AI Engineering Career Roadmap.

 I've completed the following courses from that so far.

Prompt Engineering Bootcamp. This one changed how I think about working with LLMs.

Beginner

Prompt Engineering Bootcamp (Working With AI & LLMs): Zero to Mastery

32 Hours •290 Lessons

Stop memorizing random prompts. Instead, learn how Large Language Models (LLMs) actually work and how to use them effectively. This course will take you from being a complete beginner to the forefront of the AI world.

Scott Kerr

Complete Python Developer. This one gave me a real coding foundation.

Beginner

Complete Python Developer in 2026: Zero to Mastery

32 Hours •346 Lessons

Learn Python from scratch, get hired, and have fun along the way with the most up-to-date Python course on the web. Python is the entryway into the world of A.I., Cybersecurity, and many other high demand fields!

Andrei Neagoie

AI Engineering: RAG for LLMs showed me how to turn models into actual products.

Intermediate

AI Engineering: RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) for LLMs

20 Hours •185 Lessons

Learn to make smarter AI systems by combining LLMs with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Learn with real-world projects like chatbots, financial analysis tools, and more using OpenAI APIs.

Diogo Resende

Build AI Agents with n8n taught me agentic workflows.

Beginner

Build AI Agents with n8n

3 Hours •28 Lessons

Launch AI automations fast with n8n. Learn no-code workflows, triggers, and nodes, plus integrations with OpenAI, Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Reddit, Telegram, and more. Build AI agent systems - no coding required!

Andrei Dumitrescu

What do you think differentiates ZTM from other resources you used? 

The structure and how up to date it all is. Other platforms either dump a thousand courses on you with no roadmap, or their content is two years out of date. ZTM has a clear pathway and keeps the AI content current. 

The community matters too because learning alone with AI tools gets lonely. 

Now that you’re learning these skills, how do you feel? 

Like I'm leveling up from "user" to "builder". Although I've shipped real products, now I'm understanding the code behind them.

I definitely feel a lot more confident!

What advice would you give other students who may have been in your position and are now considering joining the ZTM Academy? 

If you're already building with AI tools but can't read the code you're generating, you've hit the exact moment to learn properly. ZTM gives you the structure to do that without the overwhelm. 

Don't wait until you "need" it.

The best time to understand what you're building is while you're building it.  I get the hesitation to start, but you'll pick it all up so much faster.