My direction led me to a career in classical music management, which I pursued until I decided that I needed a change. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy my job, which involved managing a number of soloists and ensembles, but I was increasingly finding that I was getting more enjoyment from the work I was doing as a hobbyist developer in my free time – so I pressed the reset button!
After completing some initial study with the Open University I secured freelance work with a non-profit organization which led to a junior developer role at a small consultancy. It was actually through Google that I found the full time web development role at my current company Transversal. The job spec came up during an online search and it was exactly what I had been looking for.
Having been a web developer at Transversal for just over a year now I have found myself exploring a wide range of new skills and activities. I am responsible for ensuring that the user interface behind Transversal’s online self-service offering – which is currently used by clients including John Lewis, the BBC and Barclaycard to manage their FAQs and customer enquiries – is modern and intuitive. My daily routine includes fixing bugs, prototyping, adding and improving features to aid usability – basically anything that will contribute to the ongoing drive to make the product as good as it can be. I recently redesigned the user interface for our administration console – it was something I felt strongly about improving and I was allowed to pursue it – despite the console going through a fairly new redesign.
WHAT YOU LOVE
HAPPY BUT
POOR
WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT
#WIN
RICH BUT BORED
WHAT PAYS WELL
My level of responsibility has also increased recently. As part of the product development process I am now required to visit clients and conduct user observation sessions. I use this time to gather valuable data which can then be fed back into the product development process. For me, seeing our product being put to good use is what it’s all about. I really enjoy working closely with clients to improve the experience for the end user.
People often ask why I chose to study music at university and the honest answer is that at that time in my life music was the right choice for me. As soon as that was no longer the case I did something about it. After all, on average we spend over 2,000 hours at work each year so why shouldn’t we be doing something we enjoy?
With tuitions fees at most universities having almost trebled in the past two years it is more important than ever to select the correct course for you, but just remember your career is not 100% destined by your degree choice – I am proof of this. If you decide after graduating that your chosen course is not where your passion lies there is no reason you too can’t change your career path.
Find out more:
www.transversal.com/company/ careers
JUST A DREAM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72