My background

Now that the Outreachy internship is coming to an end, it’s time to set new goals and think about the coming future. Let me remind you of my situation and background. I hold a Bachelor degree in Business Informatics. After working in my profession for a bit, I realized that it’s not what I want to do. So in March 2020, I started taking Java programming courses at Software Engineering Bootcamp. After gaining some experience, I applied for the Outreachy internship in October 2020. According to the terms of the internship, I suspended my bootcamp course so that I could dedicate full time to the project. So one of my plan points is to finish the courses.

However, I am also thinking about my future, first job and other possible internships, so I continue to monitor different opportunities. I live in Canberra, Australia. Although Canberra is the capital, it is quite a small city with few jobs and opportunities. I should also note that Canberra has a very strong government sector, which means most of the job opportunities are concentrated in that sector. Most of the entry level jobs for software engineers require a security clearance as most companies provide some sort of software services to the Australian government. As a recent immigrant, there is no way for me to get a security clearance and hence no way to get even an entry level job in Canberra.

The ordinary internship programs that exist in the major IT companies are closed to me as well. One of the main requirements for applying for such internships is to be a university student or to have a Computer Science degree. However, there is another alternative way for applicants like me. It is called Apprenticeship programs, which are intended for people with non-traditional backgrounds.

Skills

During the previous months, I have been practicing and teaching myself more about software development. I am currently confident in Java, Git, Apache Maven. I know how to work with both SQL and noSQL databases. My project will definitely add a line to my resume about Elasticsearch. Right now my focus is on Hibernate and Spring. After my Outreachy internship, I will try to write a portfolio project using these technologies. Besides my core skills I am pretty familiar with web development. I know HTML, CSS, Bootstrap. I think I need to learn Javascript on a basic level in order to understand how frontend communicates with backend. I also wish to learn another programming language, it’ll probably be Python or Kotlin. In my everyday life I use Ubuntu, so I am familiar with Linux utilities and know how to work in command line.

What’s next?

Putting my background together, it’s easy to see that getting my first job will be quite challenging. So I face it and look at all possible career opportunities. I accept the need to move to bigger cities in Australia with more opportunities.

I also don’t overlook remote internships or jobs. Even if I had doubts about them before, having participated in the Outreachy internship gave me exclusively great experience. I got to know not only new technologies, but also improved my communication skills. Outreachy has only strengthened and reinforced my desire to develop as a software engineer. I had doubts or felt imposter syndrome from time to time previously, but now I’m confident that I’m going in the right direction. I’m kind of nervous and excited at the same time about what comes next, but I hope everything is going to be great.