Career change to IT: an inspiring story

The interview

I studied preventive medicine at university, but after graduating I decided to expand my programming skills by attending a bootcamp. This decision eventually led to an invitation for an interview at esveo.. At that time, Andreas described to me what esveo expects from its employees: curiosity, inquisitiveness, and creativity. Not programming robots who only know what they are doing but not why. You can imagine that a company made up of such employees is full of energy and creativity.

First day

From my first day, I felt the dynamism and friendly atmosphere of an up-and-coming technology company. Elisa greeted me at the door and took me to my workstation. On the table was a T-shirt, sweets, and a cute little note. Colleagues were freely discussing, chatting, and sharing ideas, and the cheerful laughter let me know that I had made the right choice.

Integration

To be honest, I felt a bit of pressure at the beginning because I didn't study IT, I'm a foreigner, and I'm a woman. Although my German is at C1 level, it's still a long way from my mother tongue. But Esveo far exceeded my expectations and showed me its open side. Esveo provided me with Jonathan as a mentor to guide my work. At the beginning, I really had a lot of questions—simple, difficult, and even stupid—and he answered them all patiently. The other colleagues also didn't take it for granted that only Jonathan should help me. I could ask any colleague freely. During the lunch break, everyone sat together and chatted, and the Friday lunch was a great opportunity to exchange ideas. From IT to space, from our office dog Bear to the "Iceland in Iceland" initiative, from crafts to sports, any interesting discussion was possible. We often laughed until we dropped.

Learning

The first two months were an explosion of knowledge. I soaked up all the knowledge like a sponge and felt the kindness of everyone. At the beginning, I only knew Next.js, and my code was only able to implement the user interface and functionality. The colleagues at esveo strive for more. They taught me how to structure the code better, how to make it more readable, how to make APIs simpler, and how to make connections smoother. During this process, I also learned C# and Blazor. Paul even put together a list of C# exercises for me. All that was missing was him guiding my hand.

Growth

Then I had my first practice project and learned how to communicate with clients, hold meetings, take a broader view of a project, and make better suggestions so that clients get results above their expectations. My colleagues also reviewed my code, gave suggestions for improvement, and explained to me why changes were necessary. Even when they had to spend more time explaining because of my German language skills, they didn't give up. I understood the words that Andreas said at the beginning: esveo employees are not programming robots who only know what they are doing but not why. It is precisely because you know all aspects of programming and understand what you are doing that you can write high-quality code and provide users with a better experience.

Conclusion

A Chinese proverb says, "Birds of a feather flock together." Precisely because the colleagues at esveo have similar characteristics and mindsets, they have come together and worked harmoniously on high-quality projects. And I am very happy that I am now a part of it and can do things that I love in an environment that I like.