Saffron Wildbore
~ 4min read
~ 4min read
Emily worked in hospitality before deciding to join mthree’s Women in Tech/Aspire programme on the recommendation of her brother.
She’s now working in technology at an investment bank where she uses both her technical and creative skills. Have a read of her story below to find out more about her journey.
Emily initially applied for the mixed gender mthree programme, but she then heard about Aspire, the all-women cohort. “It sounded really good to be honest. I was really interested in working with women in such a male-dominated industry. It was a no brainer. We’d all had different experiences and struggled to enter the industry so could really relate and understand one another.
"I'd been rejected for so many jobs before joining and so I was really interested in being able to advocate for women and be around other women. I really enjoyed being in that environment."
Emily now works as a Software Engineer at an investment bank, a career that she has fought a long time for. “I really wanted to get into tech as it’s such a booming industry with so many opportunities and pathways to go down. You’re learning so much everyday. In my role, I’m in identity management. There’s some cyber security elements. It’s really important that people are able to access applications and have their identities recognised.
We have a team meeting every morning where we discuss what we were working on the day before. Then I’ll spend a couple of hours coding, fixing bugs or collaborating on a new design. The afternoon is always varied, whether that’s a meeting or more coding, or revision if I’ve got an exam.
My biggest achievement so far is getting this job. I really struggled to get a job before I joined mthree. I’d really dreamed about landing my first role and being part of a team. The success of getting through the interviews, getting hired and moving out of home to Bournemouth for my role is just amazing. Especially now that it’s coming up to a year, it's quite a poignant time.
I’m currently in a front-end position and I’d love to keep pursuing that. I'm really interested in the UI/UX side of coding and that will be my focus when it comes to continuing learning.
I use JavaScript now which is slightly different from what I learned at mthree, which was Java, a more back-end coding language. The skills are transferable though, if you know one language it’s not too dissimilar to learning another one. I really like the creativity of it. Being in a bank is not the most typically creative industry, but I can still execute those skills in lots of different ways. I like being able to immediately see the results of my work. ”
Emily has no qualms about working in what may be considered a male-dominated industry. “I love it, I think where I work is actually female-dominated in a way. I’ve got a lot of mentors that are female, so I don’t ever feel inadequate in any way, I think there’s nothing that women can’t do. I feel empowered.
All the women I work with are so great, they’re my role models. They’ve achieved so much and I find it really impressive. Just being around that mentality is amazing. The women in my team are so knowledgeable and willing to help. It’s a great balance between being clearly expertised in their area, but also wanting to bring others up. It’s not competitive, they want to see me excel too.
Being around such a supportive team of women and seeing how far they’ve come makes me believe it’s possible for me to get there too. We can understand the struggles and the different ways that we interact with the world. We have a monthly women’s meeting with the broader team where we can chat about anything. I’ve heard of stories where women have gone into a new job and they’ve been the only woman in a team of about 50 people and I can imagine that’s quite isolating. That’s why I think it’s important to have those role models around that are in your peer group and also working higher up in the company.”
Emily is also really passionate about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “It’s absolutely necessary because it brings the collaboration of different perspectives that can elevate a project. Everyone is different, so being able to work together can bring about some really fantastic results.
I don’t feel like I’ve ever been treated differently by anyone because of my gender in the role I’m in now, which is amazing because I’m sure there are women out there who can’t say the same. I feel very fortunate.”
“Get as much out of it as possible. mthree is such a cool programme. Although you have to do a lot of work, it's all structured for you. You’ll get an instructor that’s really knowledgeable too. So put in the work and get as much out of it as you can.
I think I’ve said it before that I didn’t think I’d be where I am now. I’m so glad I am and that I’ve got a job. I think if I hadn’t been open minded maybe things would be very different to the way that they are now, I’m so glad that I was given the chance and I took it. I’ve got such a great team.”
If you want to follow in Emily’s footsteps, discover our current roles today.
Saffron Wildbore is a Senior Marketing Executive at mthree. She has worked in marketing, specialising in creating content for over 5 years. Saffron focuses on writing tips for graduates, Alumni interviews and more!
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