How Poornima is Breaking into Tech After 10 Years
Poornima holds a degree in Computer Science and was looking to get back in the workforce after a 10 year hiatus. While she knew she wanted to get back into tech, she struggled with the question of what to learn and where to start.
Hi Poornima! Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m from India, living in Germany for eight years, with a bachelor’s in computer science. I did work in the tech industry, but I was doing more project management, no actual programming or anything like that. I had to take a break due to childbirth and some other personal stuff.
What made you want to get back into the tech industry?
I come from a technical background, but after I took a break, I was in a comfortable place, but stagnant, not exploring new things. In tech, you are constantly learning – it never ends, there’s always new technologies. Instead of finding a job where I am doing the same exact thing again and again for years, learning new things and facing new challenges everyday was appealing to me.
Want to learn more about the Orientation course? Click here.
What was stopping you from getting back into tech?
There was a friend of mine who started a career in data analytics. She was halfway done with a bootcamp program she started, and still didn’t find it interesting and felt she wasn’t good at it – just wasn’t good at analyzing information.
After hearing her story, I decided I can’t commit to something that I have zero knowledge of. I need to have at least a basic understanding of whatever field I go into. What’s it like to work in this field and what are the challenges you face? And what are the risks involved in it?
So, how did you end up deciding what field to get into?
Before I joined a full-time months-long study program, I wanted to be sure about the path I chose. When I came across the Masterschool Orientation course, I thought okay, this may be the right choice because it’s one month long, and after that I can see if it helps me understand my career goals.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your thoughts while you were debating what to study?
My thinking was, “tech” is only coding. My assumption was that all tech fields involve a lot of programming.
During the course, I got some clarity: in Data Analytics, you’ll do some coding, but it’s not 100% of the work. Because of my lack of confidence, I would have never signed up for a program that involves coding at all, but here, I’m not giving up on that and at the same time, I’m making use of my professional experience. I am actually doing what I was afraid of and along with that, I’m learning to do even more.
Want to get into tech. Learn more about the Orientation course here.
Let’s talk about your time during the Orientation course. Tell us what you liked about it and what was challenging for you.
The Orientation course was quite challenging in the beginning for me–going from sort of vacation mode, to being busy in front of the computer every day, joining live sessions and doing the exercises.
I found it difficult in the beginning stages but I learned how to plan a day in advance considering the online sessions I have the next day. It helps you with time management and how to structure your day.
It was interesting learning something different, with different people. It was interesting even just to learn with and get to know more people, their backgrounds and professional experience, their struggles, and how they are similar and different to me.
It was planned and very structured in a way, with weekly tasks to complete and you enough time to do it.
How did the course impact your career?
I got a better sense of what life will be like after, after I get a job. It helped get rid of confusion or any sort of lack of knowledge that I had.
Would you recommend the Orientation course to a friend?
Without a doubt, it’s a good course.
It helps to understand what really is going on in the tech industry, and understand more about yourself: what are your abilities? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Just finding out your strengths and weaknesses is a critical part of all of this, knowing what you can do well and what you can’t.
This phase is actually really important for people like me, who took a long break from working, and now they want to enter the job market again.
What about people who don’t have any tech experience?
People who come from a tech background and those who don’t – we are both in the same situation, learning new things together. Even if you are from a tech background, it’s not like you’re doing something that you learned 10 or 15 years ago.
If you are interested in a field, and open to learning new things, then go for it. You’ll need motivation, of course, and I think that comes when you’re good at what you’re doing, and equally interested in it.
When you come out of the Orientation course, you know what you’re capable of. That’s the important thing.
The tech industry is growing like crazy. It’s a good place to be.
