Celebrating International Women’s Day
Hey, my name is Asia. I work as an IT consultant at Test Driven Solutions. The job doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it turned my life around (again).
My story is a story of many. I come from a small village in Poland. After high school, I rushed into University. I wanted to be a student so badly, that back then it didn’t really matter what was my subject of study.
Biotechnology seemed like a natural choice, after all, I had been wearing a lab coat since secondary school. But that didn't work out, so I decided to take some time and I took a gap year.
I left my family home, followed my cousin and moved to England. Job opportunities were limited for a stuttering English foreign high school graduate.
I took a job as an operative at one of the factories in Norfolk. I had to wake up at 5AM and pedal on a borrowed bike through the whole city to get there on time and then work long hours.
But I was grateful, it was the first time in my life where I earned enough money to take care of myself. But the repeatable job got me eventually. I was comfortable with money but I felt like I wasn't progressing. It was the time for me to come back to University.
My interest in Informational Technologies began with my attendance at a data visualisation course during my studies. After classes, I continued my education using available courses on platforms such as Data Camp and Pluralsight.
Demanding studies in the technology field and my engineering experience gave me confidence that I can learn anything I put effort into, so when I felt stuck at my current job I decided to end my endless internship at the material laboratory and move on.
That was a scary thing to do because I was planning to throw away 5 years of knowledge and it was pretty reckless too as there couldn’t be a worse time to change profession as Covid hit.
But I was determined to do so, so... I swallowed my pride and knocked at my parents' door to ask for shelter when I studied, and I was prepared to stay unemployed for however long because I wanted to become an IT developer. It didn't take long when my post graduation depression faded away and I found myself talking with Sam about working for TDS.
My main motivation was to try my hand in the IT industry, improving my programming skills in order to challenge my analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
A stable and supporting environment that allows for constant improvement and where the appreciation of the employee is proportional to their skill level is the most important thing for me and I got all this and more at TDS.
TDS has an impressive list of clients from fintech to government and Sam made sure to find a great fit for me. It's so great how the company is committed to a 50/50 workforce, empowering more females in technology.
We have regular internal development sessions to improve our skills and the time I was given to raise my qualifications was simply the default for the company. Sam surrounded me with experienced developers willing to help me with my struggles.
The company was very supportive during my transition from Poland to the UK, which wasn’t easy like packing my bags, Brexit and the Covid combination made travelling extra challenging.... but I happily arrived and I’m so grateful for my TDS family!
