Zaynah's story

Tell us a bit about yourself, Zaynah.

My name is Zaynah Ahmed, I am 23 years old and grew up in, and am currently living in, Birmingham. I got my degree in Psychology at the University of Aston, and I am now a Software Engineering Full-Stack Professional at BT Group.

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What do you do at BT Group??

I am based in Networks, the part of the business responsible for designing, building, and running the networks and technology platforms at BT Group, as a full stack engineer. ?My job is essentially to do front and back-end coding for contact call software.

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Can you tell us a little bit about your journey to a career in tech??

My first intro to tech was when I did a Computing GCSE at school. At the time, in 2016, the GCSE was quite new to the curriculum, and it was a tiny class. I think the general feeling was that most of us weren’t too sure what we could do with it. I felt that I had to be a natural or a “Whiz Kid” to consider a career in tech, and, though I enjoyed it, I ended up leaning more towards humanities and eventually decided to do my degree in psychology.

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So, you very nearly ended up leaving tech behind, what happened to change your mind?

I found that throughout my degree I was really enjoying the problem-solving part it. I like finding problems and figuring out solutions, and in my final year I got interested in the tech side of psychology when I got to shadow a PhD student who was combining Virtual Reality with Psychology. I also really enjoyed a module which explored visual perception and how our understanding of human vision could be applied to technology. From there, I started researching free coding courses, which is where I came across Code First Girls.

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How did Code First Girls end up bringing you to BT Group??

?I joined BT Group through the Code First Girls program. I applied through the Code First Girls website. There was lots of choice in terms of placements at partner companies, but I was most interested in the teams providing software roles. The aim of the placement was to rotate us every six months to a different team at BT Group to develop our coding skills. This would help us gain the confidence to apply for permanent roles. In my first placement, we had the opportunity to work on a project that taught us a lot of skills, but equally we were given the space to ask questions and encouraged us to build our skills from the ground up. In both placements I had a great buddies assigned to me who guided me through the technical tasks and taught me a lot. I eventually managed to find a permanent role at BT Group, which is where I am now!

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What was it like starting at BT Group?

It was great to have so many people around that supported me when I first joined. When I first started my placement with Code First Girls, we were assigned a buddy, which was great, but everyone in the squad was supportive and happy to help. The BT Code First Girls community also runs a monthly collab with the Re-Engage community, which organises networking and talks from inspiring speakers monthly. Additionally, the Code First Girls cohort, who started the year before mine, and my amazing CFG nanodegree teacher supported and helped me so much and I would not be where I am now without them. They run an Instagram, @inclusive.code which aims to get more women into tech, and having those women mentor me through the process was really useful. ?

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What does a typical day in your role look like??

The role I have now is a bit busier than my placement but in a good way, because it is my first permanent software engineering position. Mainly, I deal with tickets. On a typical day, we have stand-ups where we discuss our tickets and any outstanding issues. Our manager is good at guiding us through tickets that might initially seem daunting.?She can see our potential and pushes us but, equally, makes sure we are not left to do it alone, without support. She is really inspiring, and I love working for someone who I look up to immensely.

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Also, I have just started learning new coding languages, so I usually set aside an hour or so for learning these languages online through Code Academy or YouTube. The languages I'm learning are C#, SQL, HTML, CSS, SQL, and JavaScript.

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When you were at university, where did technology sit in terms of considering careers???

Doing my degree in Psychology offered a lot of transferrable skills, for instance, my dissertation revolved around problem solving. Understanding the underlying issue causing a problem or the error, is my current every-day job. I had not really considered tech until I did the Code First Girls course, but I was surprised that things were not as black and white as I thought – there is a lot of cross over in terms of thinking between what I was doing at university, and now.

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How important would you say opportunities like Code First Girls working with BT Group are???

It’s genuinely life changing and especially because it’s completely free as they fully funded by the company you apply through. Courses and experiences like these can help people consider and navigate routes that they hadn’t ever considered, and once you have your foot in the door, it opens lots more different options for you.

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Thank you, Zaynah!?