When I left school at 18, I had no idea what career I wanted to pursue. My chosen subjects were English Literature, English Language and History. I enjoyed studying these subjects, but exams were never my strong point.
I knew I didn't want to continue with the typical form of education, going to university, which was pushed more so by my school rather than making us aware about apprenticeships. However, as some people in my family had done apprenticeships and succeeded highly in their field, I had more knowledge of the process and knew it was the route for me. Even after making this decision, I still wasn’t sure on what apprenticeship to pursue.
During school, I worked multiple jobs in the week, and by the time I finished school, I had several years of work experience, which allowed me to gain professional skills that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
I used these skills to determine what apprenticeships would suit me and landed a HR apprenticeship with a large firm in the city centre. I enjoyed the work and learning about employment law; however, I knew it wasn’t a career I wanted to stay in forever. After a year there, I decided to look for something that interested me, something I hadn’t really taken the time to do when leaving school.
I decided to investigate software development as a career. The sector was one of the safest and fastest growing to start a career in and was a field I had always been curious about
I found paid courses to enhance my learning development but decided to start out using YouTube as a free way to discover if I enjoyed it and wanted to continue pursuing it. First, I had to decide whether I wanted to focus more on backend or frontend development; however, as I enjoy working with designs and UI, I naturally gravitated and enjoyed working on the front end.
This led me to look for an apprenticeship in development. I began by purchasing one of the online courses to build my CV and knowledge, and three months after starting, I landed an apprenticeship with Pecometer. Since completing my apprenticeship, I have continued expanding my knowledge, learning different languages, and creating web and mobile apps with Pecometer. I have also grown to enjoy backend development, which requires more direct learning.
Having over two years of experience (which has flown by), I am confident that I have found my dream job and will continue my career in software development.
Each day is different, and I continue learning as time goes on.
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