Follow Jordan’s journey from being a classical music student to a budding accessibility expert in tech.
Tech always means different things to different people.
For some, it’s a calling. A passion that turns into the chance to create something meaningful. For others, it’s a discovery. A previously unknown entity that suddenly becomes a tangible course of action.
For classical music student Jordan, you could say that tech was an uncompleted symphony. Always playing in the background, but never quite finished.
Join us as we learn more about Jordan’s journey from music student in New Zealand to tech whizz in the UK.
The coronavirus conundrum
After securing a visa to come to the UK, Jordan travelled over from New Zealand aiming for a fresh start. As they began to find their feet in a new country, Jordan began nannying to pay their way until they could figure out what the next step was. But as most people in early 2020 found out, things were about to change:
“I was in the UK when the pandemic hit. I was with my husband, who came across from New Zealand with me. He’s a software engineer, so I’d been learning how to do some coding because I wanted to understand when he talked about his work. So I started learning a little bit here and there, but then I realised – this is kind of cool.”
Having come from a musical background, Jordan had a creative itch that needed to be scratched. Whether it was making music, or making the instruments themselves, Jordan knew that a creative career was a priority:
“I love making stuff. And after learning more about coding, I found out that it falls nicely into this creative but analytical crossover that I have with music. And also, the tech job market is great. A lot better than music. So I started properly teaching myself the basics of coding during the pandemic.”
While learning more about the ins and outs of coding, Jordan started to take a look at internships – and that’s when they found TechSwitch:
“I was Googling and looking around to see if there were any internships or opportunities when TechSwitch came up, so I applied and I was accepted!”
From front-end wins to back-end struggles
Thanks to Jordan’s previous coding knowledge, the first few weeks were a lot less stressful and daunting than some people find on their first foray into tech. And with TechSwitch’s fast-paced bootcamp, this knowledge came in handy:
“Luckily we started the course with the front end. So for the first few weeks, I knew what I was doing. It was actually really good for me because it meant I could help out a lot with other people for whom front-end coding was completely new. I always find that teaching people really solidifies your knowledge down to very key core concepts, because if you can’t explain something easily and simply to someone, you probably don’t actually know it that well.”
But while the first half of the course was a relative breeze, that all turned around when the course started to focus on the back end.
“A lot of [back-end coding] was very new to me and that’s where I really felt like, oh my gosh, this is getting difficult. It was also in a language that I hadn’t used before, so I really had to work hard to start to figure it all out.”
But thanks to Jordan’s determination and the support that TechSwitch offers, the challenge was met head-on:
“Overall, while that was challenging, I do quite like a challenge. So for me, it was just a really enjoyable time. Even though it was learning a ton of new things, it was great fun. I like just piling into big things, where this is the only thing we’re thinking about and focusing on.”
Jordan also found the teamwork aspect of the course a great learning experience, and something that their degree really came in handy for:
“I think working together as a team to create something was super valuable. I had only been working by myself to create something, so I found working with other people helped keep me on track and actually finish some projects, which was great. It also helped to be able to flex some of the muscles I had from my music degree where I would lead an ensemble.”
Accessing the world of tech
Thanks to the confidence and knowledge Jordan gained from the TechSwitch course, they interviewed with Novata, a technology platform and public benefit corporation that provides private markets with a cutting-edge ESG solution. The preliminary interviews took place in the first few weeks of the course, and when the bootcamp finally ended, Jordan was offered a placement:
“For me, it was a very quick turnaround. I technically started a month after I finished TechSwitch, so the first few weeks were me thinking I have no idea where anything is in the code base.”
But luckily, Jordan could tap into what they learned during the course to help smooth the journey:
“The process of picking something up and finding out where it is and getting stuck into it was what we were doing at TechSwitch. So it was only a couple of weeks of not knowing what was going on before I settled.”
Once Jordan settled in and gained some confidence, they found that they were particularly interested in accessibility:
“It’s something I’ve already always been really keen on. I have ADHD, and I’ve always found that a lot of web pages are visually very loud, which started me down this accessibility track.”
And that passion for accessibility only grew after a discussion with their manager:
“My manager was really keen to get me involved in chairing a guild. So I started up the accessibility guild at my company. We ended up improving our accessibility score by around 10 points or so. It went from around 80 to 90, give or take – and that’s out of 100 throughout the platform, so it was very cool.”
The future looks bright
With a passion for accessibility, Jordan is now looking forward to their new role working closely with the Design team:
“There was an opportunity to be moved to our Design System team to work on our component library, focus on accessibility, and act as that bridge between design and the engineering team to come together to create accessible components. I'm going to be moving to that role soon, which is very cool and I’m very excited.”
But while things are looking great for Jordan’s future, they still haven’t forgotten where they started and are always keen to help point people in the right direction:
“I’m always keen to give actionable advice for people looking to get into tech. I always say: ‘Here’s what I did, here’s a list of resources that you can work your way through, and here's my LinkedIn. Come reach out to me, give me a shout.’ I’m always keen to not just help people get into tech, but improve the diversity of tech. It's something I’m very passionate about.”
And of course, Jordan is thankful for their experience with TechSwitch:
“The opportunity TechSwitch provided in taking you through the interview process and doing mock interviews, mock technical challenges, and stuff like that was super beneficial. Of course, it depends on how people’s brains learn, but I would 100% recommend the course if I thought it was the right fit for them.”
