Personal Blog 1

My interest in technology did not take off until I was in my third year at University. Until I had started my A levels, I didn’t have the slightest clue about the career path I wanted to take, or even what course I wanted to study at university. I had picked Maths, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry as my subjects for A levels mainly because I was quite proficient with maths and enjoyed it and because science was my second best subject at GCSE. It was at this point that I had sparked an interest in Physics. The concepts of how the entire Universe worked really fascinated me; especially when events caused by the largest stars can produce very similar results to that of the tiniest particles. My interest in physics as well as my proficiency in maths made it seem like the perfect subject to study for me.

Although I enjoyed physics, there was another subject that I wasn’t familiar with, but had always wanted to learn more about. I loved technology and computers. Through my years at University, I was taught the fundamentals of programming through the languages R and C. My interest in computers and programming increased in my second year when I attempted to program a robot dog to complete various tasks using the language Arduino. My supervisor suggested that I switch to using Python. Although the project wasn’t a complete success I enjoyed it a lot and started to consider learning more about computers and getting a career in IT. In my third year my dissertation project was based on using R to analyse data produced as a result of a Tidal Disruption Event. The event happens when a black hole starts to slowly swallow a passing star. Although the concept of a tidal disruption event fascinated me, using R wasn’t something I enjoyed. I found that even though I was better at using R than at using Python, I enjoyed using Python more.

After I’d finished University, my passion for technology really spiked. I enjoy playing video games and it’s a well-known fact that PCs are a lot more powerful than consoles and can run games a lot better. For me, this resulted in a lot of time spent researching about computer hardware and the best combinations of hardware to use. I just fell in love with computers. It was around this point that I really wanted to get into the technology industry and started to try and learn how to program. I used Codecademy to learn how to program using Java. Although I got through the exercises on the website, the content seemed to be slightly limited. In any case, I enjoyed it.

Fast forward a couple of months and I received a phone call from QA Consulting. I had a phone interview, after which I was invited to go to Manchester for an assessment day. I seemed to have nerves of steel about the day. Until the actual day when the nerves kicked in. Fortunately though, the assessment day was a lot more relaxed and the people were very friendly. I feel this was a good tactic to get people relaxed and to be themselves. Even though I felt that I had done terribly, I received a call and was offered a traineeship. To say I was excited would be an understatement.