Code First Girls and Findmypast: Adonelle discusses her experience retraining as a woman in tech

Adonelle, Junior Software Development Engineer, joined us alongside an influx of newly-trained and ambitious engineers from Code First Girls. Here, she talks about why decided to make the switch to a career in tech, and how she’s found working at Findmypast since.

It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve started at Findmypast, and already I have gotten completely stuck in with my role, deploying code, completing a code review, attending meetings and getting used to the software and tooling the engineers use. I thought I would share my journey into coding and my experience achieving this role.

Funnily enough, I decided to move into a career in tech because of social media. I saw so many people who - just like me - came from a non-technical background, and who switching to a career in tech. I thought well, if they could do it, so can I!

But what made me switch? I saw the endless opportunities a career in tech could give me - flexible working, learning new and different skills, an expanding and growing career, as well as a good salary and benefits packages. Through this, I became motivated to look through the different types of jobs in tech and the different paths I could take to get there.

For me, the best way to learn new technical skills alongside my full-time job would be a bootcamp. I knew that it would give me the ability to learn directly from instructors, to hold myself accountable and to stay motivated. I came across Code First Girls through Black Girls in Tech and decided to apply for their Summer Full Stack CFGDegree cohort, mainly because it was suitable for those with a full-time job as the lessons were during the week from 6:30-8:30pm. This was perfect as many of the other bootcamps I had researched were a full 9-5 commitment where I would have to quit my job, or they were very expensive, with no guarantee of employment after the bootcamp and I just couldn’t take that risk. Code First Girls was perfect as it gave me the opportunity to learn alongside my full-time job, as well as having a guaranteed job once successfully completing the bootcamp.

Since then, Findmypast has given me an amazing opportunity and the onboarding process has been so smooth. Everyone that I’ve met so far have been very welcoming and I’ve fit into my team very easily. I was especially impressed with the buddy programme that Findmypast have set up for new recruits which allowed me to connect with people outside of my department and gain new connections, especially through the remote working. It’s great working for a company that is committed to get more women into the tech industry. I believe that it is very important for more tech companies to get involved and to put diversity at the forefront of their recruitment process.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this path takes me!

Adonelle S.

Junior Software Development Engineer