Eduarda began her career in the film and television industry, but struggled with the lack of work-life balance. Having graduated with a bachelors in English Literature and Creative Writing, she made the decision to change careers and take a leap of faith into the world of tech. She completed tech bootcamps before joining mthree’s Alumni programme; a programme built to support individuals to start a career in tech without the Computer Science degree.
From here, she began her career in tech, read on to find out more about her career journey.
> Making the decision to change careers
“I was in film and television, and wanted a better work-life balance moving into a sector where there is stability, where you’re office based, Monday through Friday. The tech sector can get intense but it’s within certain bounds, film and television can take over your life completely. I needed to have a place in the world and I found that in tech. mthree is great, because they took on someone like me who moved around a lot and done a bunch of things, and that’s not always valued. But here, that actually counts for something.
Continuing why she made the decision to have a career in tech Eduarda mentioned “it's growing, and everything's involves tech, I need a job and a career that is also going to keep me safe. But I also do feel like from the chats that I have with people, a lot of people are in that situation where they also do not have a lot of support and instability in other areas of life. And then you make your career into something that is exciting. There's personal development that goes into it. It can also offer me some sort of security.”
> On her entry into tech
Before joining the mthree Alumni programme Eduarda completed a bootcamp with HyperionDev, where she learnt about mthree. The bootcamp was “very well formatted. I trained in Python with them and I wouldn't say I'm a Python wizard, but I think I walked out of there with a really good base. From a programming point of view, I learnt a lot because I had to program in another language, so they offered an extra month for free in Elixir so I could then take on the internship and code in Elixir, which I did. From a learning perspective HyperionDev was amazing.
“Every larger corporation I was applying to, I don’t even think I got past the ATS. I feel like a lot of us do get excluded even though we do have what it takes. That’s why I like mthree, I feel there’s a human element to it. A human looked at my CV, and said go and take this test to make sure that you’re at a certain level.
I believe some of the other Hire Train Deploy companies that sometimes offer tests that are a bit beyond what you would expect from someone trying to get hired to be trained. mthree was the right amount of challenge for someone who is expecting to get trained for a particular role, so I feel really grateful for the initiative that mthree has.
It feels like a small company because I got to meet a lot of the people that work for mthree personally, when there’s a call the cameras are on. There were a lot of in-person meetings too. The experience has been very positive, I probably would’ve given up by now if it wasn’t for this programme.”
> Joining the Alumni Programme
Our non-degree programme is designed by mthree and one of our global investment bank clients because we understand that not everyone has had access to traditional education pathways. Through our robust support system and hands-on training, we equip those without a technical background with the skills needed to succeed in high impact tech roles.
As part of this programme Eduarda joined the cybersecurity and project management pathway and is currently a tech business analyst within a cybersecurity setting. The training on this programme starts before deployment and continues throughout the programme, “I'm still learning, I'm still having impact and I believe in the training that I have had from mthree.
I'm still training on client site, and they want me to continue training in cybersecurity. My line manager actually suggested that I applied for a certification in cybersecurity, which I did. So now I have my first certificate in cybersecurity”
On continuous learning Eduarda shares “my line manager encourages me to go ahead and continue studying. I'm in a cybersecurity setting, a setting where project management and business analysis is needed. I am constantly upskilling with the materials I'm given by mthree and the client because I feel like it will make a difference in the future.”
> On her day to day
“I'm two months into my deployment, I have a daily call with the team. I get to listen in to what the issues are within the team and how they are solving those issues.”
Being new to the role Eduarda is learning by shadowing her team, hoping to have her own tasks soon. “The positive is that I get to see the workflows within my team and the workflows that the end users have to go through in order to make requests to our team.”
Following the training Eduarda will start receiving tickets from an end user “to either onboard applications into the tech ecosystem of the bank or to resolve issues that they are facing while trying to do that. This is the cybersecurity process because as a team when onboarding we give access rights. It's all about who can see what and how much of what they can see. It is a very practical side of cybersecurity, I need to make sure that those access rights are onboarded according to certain rules that have been set, and I get to also challenge some of those rules to make it more secure if I think something isn't so slowly getting there”
An example Eduarda shared with us was a “template that I'm working on that had such an impact on the team straight away. And I think what made me proud about that is like. My line manager trusted me with the task and then mastered the information that I needed in order to complete that and go above and beyond because I was told to do one thing and I did five things because I think I had a vision of how I could help beyond what I was being asked to do.”
This task was one of her proudest moments to date “from a lot of listening in the beginning of the job and a lot of shadowing and where it is still a mystery because it can be so much to take on, but then at one point my brain clicked and I was like, oh, this connects to that, which connects to that. And then if I do this, I can actually help my team be more efficient and less stressed. My line manager was really happy with that, that was a proud moment.”
> On the culture
“I feel very safe. I feel safe enough to ask questions, no matter how silly they may seem. I feel very supported by my line manager. Everyone is just really nice, which shouldn't come as a surprise, but sometimes it is a bit of a surprise, especially for such a large corporation and people being so busy. But everyone takes the time and everyone is very understanding of the limitations the new joiner has of their knowledge.”
“I think it's a very strong culture around safety and around work-life balance, this is something that is super well respected, there is also a strong culture of efficiency and accountability. I don't know how they managed to balance all those things, but it seems to work. It’s a very good environment to be in.”
> Advice on the application process
Eduarda shared her tips on being successful for the hiring manager interview.
“Learn how to answer puzzles. And by puzzles I mean brain teasers. I got that in almost every interview I had and I had four interviews for this role.
I spent a lot of time practicing my answers to “Why do you want to be in tech? Why this client? Why this role?” but it’s actually more helpful to focus on studying and researching the technical aspects of the role and practising brain teasers.”
> On the future
At a global investment bank and on this programme there are many opportunities. “Eventually, I think I would want to be a product owner. That wouldn't be in three to five years, it would be further down the line. I would see my role progressing into anything that gets me there, like project management or business analysis. Having said that, I'm more and more interested in cyber security because of my role.”
> On mthree
“The experience has been very positive from being able to request funding for certification to funding for several things, perks box, the opportunity to get health insurance if I want.”
Eduarda continued that “as a career changer, because of my age, I probably wouldn't have gotten into such a big corporation, especially not in the tech sector, if it wasn't for the opportunities that mthree offers.”
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