We’ve all fantasised about landing our dream job.
You nail it in the interview, you walk in on your first day feeling prepared and confident, and you hit the ground running straight away. Nothing could be any better as you sail off into the sunset of successful employment.
Now, this might sound like a mere flight of fancy. But sometimes things really do just fall into place – just like they did for TechSwitch graduate Cara.
We sat down with Cara and talked about her experiences of starting again in a new industry, and how working with TechSwitch helped her to land a job just a week after finishing the course.
After getting her master’s degree in chemical engineering, Cara started her career as a process engineer in the food industry – sandwiched by a year of teaching English in Colombia. However, it soon became clear that this wasn’t the line of work for her:
"I didn’t really see myself staying in my job. Because for quite a lot of the projects you just get taken wherever you’re needed at the time. So there’s a lot of moving about, often to the middle of nowhere, as well as a lot of anti-social hours and night shifts. So I decided to quit my job.”
After making the brave decision to start all over again – and a lot of soul-searching to try and work out what her next step would be – Cara started to consider moving into another form of engineering:
“My partner was already a programmer and I had a lot of friends who were working as programmers, and being an engineer isn’t too conceptually different in terms of the skills required. So I started dabbling with Java and some edX tutorials on programming and data science and I decided I wanted to pursue software.”
That’s when she found TechSwitch.
Cara applied to TechSwitch and started the course in August 2021, and instantly started benefiting from what the bootcamp had to offer:
"The really good thing about TechSwitch is it actually trains you for the job; it’s not just teaching you how to code which is honestly quite easy to teach yourself online. The bootcamp teaches you the stuff that you can’t do by yourself, which is the day-to-day work. They teach you version history, how to work in a team, work on other people’s code, and work on legacy code. It massively fills in all of the gaps that would be really hard to do by yourself.”
With flexibility in mind, TechSwitch allows companies who are taking on a TechSwitcher to evaluate their performance and fit before committing to the hire. Meaning that each hire is made with careful consideration.
"As an incentive for companies to hire people who have come from a completely different field, you start by being contracted out through TechSwitch. Then if they like you they take you on as a permanent hire. It all depends on the fit. They don’t just say everyone applies for this position unless that company just needs the workers. They want to make their partner companies happy with a tailor-fit hire that fits what they need.”
And this is exactly what happened for Cara:
"TechSwitch found me a great job. I was in interviews before I’d even finished the bootcamp and had a job offer a week after I’d finished the course. I was contracted out for three months, then they offered me the job.”
After just three months in her placement, Cara was offered a permanent role - highlighting the impact that a TechSwitcher can have on a business from day one. Cara is now working as a junior software engineer for Novata, a new technology platform and public benefit corporation that provides private markets with a cutting-edge ESG solution:
I’m now an official hire for Novata. There were no big shocks and I felt ready to start right away. It’s probably the best thing about the TechSwitch bootcamp; I felt like I could crack on with stuff right from the start. They didn’t spoon-feed me, but they just showed me what was possible.”
With the help of TechSwitch, Cara was able to successfully switch careers and get back into the job market. Plus, her company got a fantastic new hire that was ready and raring to go from the start.
"For me personally, it was a really good way of feeling confident and getting back into the job market when I had a huge gap in my CV. TechSwitch gives you the opportunity to completely change what you’re doing - and it worked for me.”
Just another day in the life of TechSwitch.