As a new software developer, making a career change after a 15-year career in pharmacy, I have felt welcome by the whole team at Pecometer. Over the previous five years, I completed a part-time degree with the long-term goal of making a career change in software development. Alongside this, I also did some self-learning courses increasing my knowledge of different areas of development.
Although completing my degree was a massive achievement alongside full-time work, a growing family, and the disruption of coronavirus, I feel that the extra courses I completed better prepared me for this new career. I created a few smaller side projects and worked on a larger project for my final year project, to create a golf society application. After completing my degree, I continued working on this and felt it put me in an excellent place to apply for junior developer roles. I would thoroughly advise anyone looking to get into a career in software development to look at the vast array of online courses, which can be free or relatively cheap, but ensure the course you choose is up to date.
Since I took up my new role here at Pecometer, it has been a steep learning curve. Some of the challenges I have had so far are:
Working on code which I have not seen before - sometimes I have struggled to understand how certain things are accomplished. In the early days, I spent too much time going around in circles before asking for advice (probably stubbornness on my part). I have become better at accepting when I am stuck and seeking help, or sometimes moving onto another task and coming back later with a fresh set of eyes.
My previous frontend experience has been mainly with React, so I have been totally new to Angular and have sometimes struggled to create what I want. But on a positive note, I have increased my knowledge of following code and understanding it.
The biggest difference I have found now that I am working on larger-scale production projects, compared to working on my own, is the need for more thorough testing and creating better user experiences. When working on projects just used by myself or a few friends, I didn’t worry too much about the user interface. If something didn’t work, I would just return and fix it. I started implementing some TDD (test-driven development) into some of my projects. However, working on projects which are potentially being used by tens of thousands of users, the user’s experience must be excellent.
Overall, I am thrilled that I made such a drastic career change. My job satisfaction has improved dramatically, and my wife is happy that I get my developing fix during work hours rather than in the evenings! Some days are challenging, and I feel like I haven’t accomplished much, but I continue to learn from the errors that I make.
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