” I felt they were working really hard and I felt I needed to work hard as well, otherwise I couldn’t catch up.”

Derek is our latest success story here at Industry Connect!

He was working as a salesman when he joined us, and then we helped him find a job as a software engineer!

Before he started his new career, we caught up with him to ask about his time with us and if he would recommend our programme to others.

Congratulations Derek! Tell us, what was your background before you joined Industry Connect?

I was working as a shop assistant at PB Tech, also providing technical support and service support. I also used to be a computer science teacher, just very basic programming languages and graphic design to all levels.

How did you feel about your internship experience with us?

Actually, everyone is very motivated – they keep moving forward and when I see their status I felt they were working really hard and I felt I needed to work hard as well, otherwise I couldn’t catch up the latest technology. I felt I would fall behind because everyone was just so motivated.

Which part of your internship did you enjoy the most?

The Question Hub is really an important source since every time I met my obstacles, first thing is just browse the Question hub.

90% of the time my question would be solved by just browsing Question Hub – everyone had asked similar questions before – and the other 10% might just be a unique computer configuration or a server installation that I just needed to search online to solve.

Apart from Question Hub, I also asked some people using Slack. That’s where we shared our experience and talked about the steps. Those private meetings were really helpful.

What would you suggest to people who want to get into the industry?

I would like to say a lot of people feel very stressful because they’ve only got direction but no solution. They are very stressful and they are very unhappy but my advice is to try to be comfortable with the direction because the direction makes you motivated to do the tasks.

If we give the solution to you directly you will be really lazy. You will stop thinking and just start copy and pasting. It’s not working – you need to think by yourself and learn how to find a solution. I think that’s the most important thing. From the beginning I was very stressed because I could only give direction and I didn’t know what to do.

But after I calmed down, I just divided that big task into small tasks and finish one by one. You will find the solution, yeah that’s my advice.

Well thank you Derek, and we’re so happy we could help you find a job as a software engineer!

If you have any questions about joining Industry Connect, then please don’t hesitate to contact us today!