Searching for Direction Led Michael Moura to LaGuardia Community College and a Career in Global Search Technology

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY (March 2, 2026) — For much of his early adulthood, Michael Moura was searching—searching for a path that made sense and ultimately searching for a career that matched his interests. Today, that search has brought the 37‑year‑old Rio de Janeiro native from a GED classroom at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY to his role as a Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer at SerpApi, a global search-engine-scraping‑technology company based in Austin, Texas.

Michael’s search for direction began at 21, when he moved to the United States to learn English and pursue an education. After arriving in Queens, he studied English and later enrolled in a GED course at LaGuardia.

“I didn’t have any ambition of going to college back then,” he said. “But after getting my GED at LaGuardia, I learned I could enroll there as a regular student and pay in‑state tuition (having earned his GED in the U.S.). I started college a little bit by accident.”

He enrolled as a Computer Science major—an extension of his lifelong interest in technology.

“Ever since I was a kid, I loved technology,” Michael said. “I used to install Atari emulators in my friends’ computers, made animations using Power Point, and created games using RPG Maker.”

At LaGuardia, Michael found more than classes—he found a community that helped him transform searching into direction. He became a President’s Society Ambassador, Phi Theta Kappa member, and Dean’s List student.

“The President’s Society helped me develop confidence and taught me extremely important soft skills that most people would take for granted, such as how to write a professional email,” Michael said. “Skills like that seem basic for most people, but a lot of people don’t learn these important skills growing up. Me included!”

As he continued searching for opportunities to gain professional experience, Michael joined the CUNY Startups Accelerator, where he attended workshops with tech entrepreneurs, and pitched a product idea to investors. His invention—a mobile game about ninjas—earned him the top prize.

He also took an internship course with Professor Marie Hanlon (Business and Technology), who matched students with startups from ERA (Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator) where he was placed with a startup Negotiatus (now Order.co). “That’s where I worked with the programming framework called ‘Ruby on Rails’ for the first time, which is the technology I use until today at SerpApi and what really started my career as a programmer,” said Michael.

“Ruby on Rails” is a web application framework written in the Ruby programming language upon which SerpApi is built. It is the framework that SerpApi uses internally to power its data-scraping API. Scraping refers to the automated collection and parsing of information from multiple web pages—including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, Baidu, Yandex, Walmart, and YouTube—by running full browser sessions, using proxy servers, solving CAPTCHAs, collecting, parsing and serving that information in a format that is easy for other platforms to use.

“A key turning point in my story came when I got an internship at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) through a collaboration with the President’s Society, which led to a full-time job at MoMA as a programmer after I graduated,” said Michael. “Guess what technology I had to know for that job? ‘Ruby on Rails’!”

Michael credits LaGuardia with support that aided his progress.

“Professors care about their students and put their hearts into their classes,” he said. “Whenever I had any challenge at LaGuardia, there was always someone happy to help me. LaGuardia supported me to the very end—including helping me apply to Queens College, where I was accepted into the Transfer Honors Program with a full scholarship. I’m sure that was only possible because of all the support I had to grow at LaGuardia Community College.”

After graduating from LaGuardia in 2017 with an A.S. in Computer Science and a 3.97 GPA, he enrolled at Queens College in its Accelerated Master’s Degree in Computer Science. The program allows qualified students to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degrees consecutively. He became a Provost Scholar at Queens College, where he graduated in 2020 with his B.S./M.S., with a 3.56 GPA. 

Advice for Students Still Searching: Relationships, Fundamentals, and Visibility

“Read the material and really put effort into understanding the foundation of the career you’re pursuing; reading the books makes a huge difference and will help you stand out,” Michael said. “Build friendships with classmates who care about succeeding so you can study together and take classes together. Strong friendships go a long way. I had friends at LaGuardia who transferred to Queens College with me—we studied together throughout all my college years, and now we take yearly trips together! (Shout out to Rodrigo Guarachi and Adil Abuwani!).”

A major part of his advice focuses on building a public professional presence. “Create a LinkedIn profile and start posting about what you learn,” he said. “Post your project demos. Let people know you exist and start developing professional relationships along the way. People want to know what you think! I promise!”

He shares how this strategy helped shape his own career. “One of the things that helped me land my job at SerpApi was consistently publishing content online, especially on LinkedIn,” Michael explained.

To build visibility, Michael created a series of Ruby on Rails tutorials and launched Minute Tech Article, an Instagram project where he broke down technical articles into one‑minute humor-infused summaries. “I posted those videos everywhere—Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube,” he said. All of this work is collected on his Linktree hub. “I was unemployed for almost a year, and those projects are what got SerpApi’s attention.”

Michael also encourages students to embrace opportunities as they arise. “Participate in everything you can, even when it feels like too much. It will make a difference, and all the sacrifice will pay off.” And he urges students to keep advancing their education: “Don’t let LaGuardia be the end of your journey—transfer, keep going.”

In the end, Michael traces his journey from Rio to LaGuardia to a career in global search technology back to one guiding principle: “Keep searching for your passion!”

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LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), a Hispanic-Serving Institution, located in Long Island City, Queens offers more than 50 associate degrees and academic certificates, and more than 65 continuing education programs to prepare New Yorkers for transfer to senior colleges and rewarding jobs and careers. An institution of the City University of New York (CUNY), the College reflects the legacy of our namesake, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the former NYC mayor beloved for his advocacy of the underserved. Since 1971, LaGuardia’s academic programs and support services have advanced the socioeconomic mobility of students from Queens, NYC and beyond.

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