To mark the Women in Technology World Series, we recently caught up with Lucy Arnold, who graduated from our Professional Software Development course earlier in the year, to discuss her experience with CodeClan.
Tell us a bit about your career before studying at CodeClan.
I started out as an ecologist, ornithologist to be exact, working on a species recovery program amongst other things for a UK based charity. From there I made a side step into GIS (geographic information systems) and data management. The latter part of my career was working in consultancy mainly dealing with renewable developments (so still trying to save the environment as best I could).
How did you find out about the course and what were your motivations for applying?
I went to a coding day at the Inverness CodeClan campus, I saw it advertised on EventBrite. I had for some time felt that the missing string to my career bow was not knowing enough about the programming and development side. I had done a little ad-hoc within my work but knew deep down I was only scratching the surface and really needed to up my game on learning this.
What are you working on right now and how are you finding it?
I’ve just started a new job which is more based towards the GIS side but I am hoping to develop things over towards software development as well. The two do go side by side.
How did you find job hunting and what tips would you give?
LinkedIn is your friend (well the CodeClan Careers team are you best friends, obviously), keep your profile fresh; use their resources; use hashtags in a targeted way (I cannot believe the number of views I got for my post about the course project, I can only put that down to the hashtags); keep abreast of the news on linked in; grow your connections.
What advice would you give to other women thinking about starting a career in technology?
Do it! Women are known for being both detail orientated and people orientated (sweeping generalisation of course) that is precisely the sort of people that excel in the tech industry!
