„When I was little I wanted to become an astronaut (yes, in the feminine form), to see the whole Earth, float in space, and walk on the Moon, to leave my mark,” Iuliana recalls. Today she's leaving her own personal mark and putting her perseverance to the test in the projects she works on. A lot of curiosity and passion, practical knowledge, a mentor, and a choice brought her into IT. At 23, she's a Web Developer.
Here's how and why she set out on this path. From choosing to enroll at the Informal School of IT to become a PHP programmer to getting a job in the field.
From economics and marketing to IT
1. Why IT?
Since 12th grade I'd wanted to do Web Development. I realized this when I had to build a web page for my exam certificate. For various reasons, I ended up at the Faculty of Economics and worked in marketing. After I finished college, I decided to go in the direction I actually wanted. I enrolled in a Computer Science master's program, hoping to learn how to put theory into practice. Being new to programming and running into professors who weren't very generous with explanations, I gave up after the first semester and decided to teach myself. I started with IT and front-end programming tutorials and tried to apply them by working on a website.
2. Why the Informal School of IT?
Even though, in theory, I had enough knowledge for an internship, I wasn't getting called in for interviews, because I had nothing to prove that knowledge. I found this out after asking someone who worked in HR at an IT company. So I chose to keep developing by taking PHP programming courses at the Informal School of IT, where I also got a diploma certifying what I'd learned.
3. (From the course sessions) What do you especially remember about…
The mentors' passion.
4. What's the most important thing you learned at the Informal School of IT?
To ask questions. Even if they seem silly. Coming straight from a university environment, where you have to learn exactly what your professors tell you and never doubt the quality of the information you're given, at the Informal School of IT I learned to ask questions of people with a lot of experience. I realized that any information you find can be wrong or outdated, and that you need to ask experienced people. I stepped out of my comfort zone when I decided to do PHP programming – Web Development, and learning from mentors wasn't hard at all.
5. What "flavor" does starting a career in IT have right now?
It has a "bittersweet" flavor, because I got where I wanted to be, but also because the challenges are many and big.
6. What was the job interview like?
The interview lasted a little over an hour. It was relaxed, we joked around quite a bit. I was appreciated for having a realistic assessment of myself and my knowledge. My advice for anyone going through a job interview in IT is to know very clearly what they want to do and show that in the interview, and to be confident in themselves and their knowledge.
7. Let's imagine we're in 2025. Where do you see yourself, professionally speaking?
Senior Web Development.
More about you:
What drove your perseverance was: the joy of doing Web Development.
My biggest fear was: that I wouldn't be able to handle the huge amount of information.
The motto you live by: Too fast to live too young to die.
If you had to compare programming to a sport, it would be: Muggle Quidditch.
