Tech
Taking the unusual route into a career in tech | Computer Weekly
For years, the traditional entry route into the tech sector was to obtain a degree in computer science, engineering or another related field and join the profession as a graduate.
But things are undoubtedly changing now as less conventional approaches, such as apprenticeships, T-level qualifications and coding bootcamps, become more widespread. They are also increasingly popular among new entrants and employers alike.
One professional who followed a decidedly squiggly career pathway before doing a six-month bootcamp in 2020 is Lucy Ironmonger, a tech lead at fintech Zuto, who studied English with creative writing at the University of Birmingham 13 years earlier.
While there, she found a bar job and, due to her love of music, seized the opportunity to run the establishment’s music night every Tuesday. On leaving, Ironmonger moved to Manchester to pursue her music dreams, undertaking a diploma in electronic music production and commercial sound engineering at the School of Electronic Music (SEM).
After writing the school’s first blog, SEM subsequently hired her, and she rose through the ranks over the next nine years to become operations director. One of her earlier jobs was as course supervisor, where she discovered a widespread fear of tech, particularly among girls.
“Part of my job was to convince them they’d enjoy it and to nurture them while they were there,” Ironmonger says. “The course changed lives, and I found that if you nurture people in the right way, they often become passionate and great at their job.”
As a result, she now takes her role as a people manager very seriously and makes time to prepare before one-to-ones with any member of her team.
“It’s about coaching people, so you want to maximise the time and help direct them in ways they want to go,” she says. “People need guidance, and it gives me the most satisfaction in my role to see people go from x to y to z.”
The growing need for soft skills
She also believes the need for all tech professionals to develop effective ‘soft skills’ will only continue to grow.
“It’s about how you communicate, how you problem-solve as tech is always changing, and how you learn to learn effectively,” Ironmonger says. “You have to have a growth mindset – it’s one of the secrets to success.”
She can demonstrate just such an approach in spades. For example, after working at SEM for four years, Ironmonger took a year’s sabbatical to practice as a plumber and electrician at her friend’s business – skills she had learned at night school to refurbish her own newly purchased house.
Despite initially experiencing anxiety about being the only woman in the room, she quickly became comfortable.“I realised that difference doesn’t need to separate you as other things can bring you together,” she says. “We talked about music and, before I knew it, I was part of the team, one of the lads, so it’s important not to let things like that hold you back.”
But developing a website for her friend’s plumbing company “sowed a seed”. So, after her wife had a baby following the first Covid lockdown when SEM was unable to offer the flexibility working opportunities she desired, Ironmonger followed friends’ advice and started to explore careers in tech.
Secrets to success
This led to her joining the Manchester Codes software engineering bootcamp. On completion of the course, she spent a week firing off a “ridiculous” number of job applications – to no response. This was when she learned the value of networking, which included building a rapport with recruitment agents and attending in-person events.
It was through such an event that she was approached by her first tech employer, Synch.Money. From there, she moved to Zuto, where she has now been for nearly four years, despite a disastrous first interview for which she was 10 minutes late.
“The hurdle of being late could have put me off, but it was a Sliding Doors moment,” Ironmonger says. “You just have to push through when your back’s against the wall – you can’t wait for a second opportunity.”
The lesson she learned is that it is impossible to “second-guess what people will think of you” as it boils down to whether recruiters think they can work with you or not.
But, Ironmonger says, if she was going to do it all again, she would advise that people “learn how to learn” by using a system such as notetaking or the Feynman Technique.
“Also make yourself visible in what you do – for example, by creating a ‘brag doc’ and regularly updating it,” she adds. “Finally, develop your confidence by exploring with your manager how to widen opportunities that help you move out of your comfort zone.”
Learning by trial and error
Another professional who took an unconventional route into the tech sector is David Parry-Jones, chief revenue officer at AI-based language platform DeepL. After undertaking a physics degree at Bangor University, Parry-Jones qualified as a teacher of maths and combined science, which he did for a year.
After discovering that teaching was not for him, Parry-Jones then started working on oil rigs in the North Sea, where he undertook geo-physical seismic surveys to understand “where to point the drill bit”, adding: “It was a mixture of electrical engineering, computers and geology – none of which I was particularly good at, so I revisited what I wanted from my career.”
Taking advice received early on that his strengths lay in working with people, Parry-Jones’ next step was to take a sales job with a Lexus car dealership. After moving into the tech sector a year later, he has not looked back, particularly since moving into management.
But he did learn a number of lessons from “blundering my way through my early life, not knowing what I wanted to do and learning by trial and error”. The first was just how important it is to “find something you like, and something you’re good at. Then, to some extent, your career looks after itself.”
“It’s what I learned from my early jobs when I had either one or neither of those things, and it’s why I kept changing direction until I found them,” he adds.
Finding a good cultural fit
A third leg of the stool, meanwhile, is finding a company whose culture suits your personality and values, he believes. This was something he learned after working for nearly seven years at Microsoft.
“I found the culture was very aligned to those at the top and the traits of those individuals, and I didn’t share them,” Parry Jones says. “I didn’t enjoy the culture, but it’s important to find an organisation that’s at least close enough culturally for you to be yourself.”
He discovered that having to “display attributes that aren’t really me” was hard work as it involved “wearing a mask and pretending to be someone you’re not”. As a result, his next move was to VMWare in a bid to find an organisation that was “culturally closer to how I behaved myself, and where I would potentially be valued more”.
Another lesson that Parry-Jones learned along the way is that the tech industry is not a place for those who are uncomfortable with change or lack resilience – particularly as life in the sector appears to be constantly speeding up rather than slowing down.
But that is not to say that careers are equally quick to build, he says: “Some people focus on progression before they’re ready to go, but it’s important to be patient and learn how to excel in a role. Nothing replaces hard work – if you have the right attributes, you will succeed.”
By the same token, Parry-Jones also advises professionals never to be afraid of failure. “I’ve managed teams that have and have not failed collectively and, as long as they can stay together, those that fail perform significantly better after doing so,” he says. “I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but you can learn a lot and you certainly become more resilient.”
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While it might be a bit larger than your average soundbar, Sennheiser uses the space well, packing a ton of functionality and drivers into the less-than-compact body. There are both full-range and 1-inch tweeters combined in every conceivable direction, and the result is an impressive reproduction of true spatial audio, something few other standalone bars can claim. As a result, it also has an impressive low-end, with bass that doesn’t rival dedicated subwoofers, but comes really close for how much simpler the setup process will be.
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On Thursday, hours-long security lines snaked through New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. The wait was far from the longest in the country—George Bush International Airport in Houston reported three and a half hour lines. Over a month into a partial government shutdown that has left some Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees working without pay, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are calling in sick or leaving work en masse, leading to travel chaos around the US. The Trump administration’s solution? Send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in.
ICE agents were deployed to at least 14 airports on Monday, ostensibly in an effort to speed up security lines—and five days into ICE’s incursion, airport employees are infuriated. The ICE agents, Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) who work for the TSA tell WIRED, don’t have the proper certification and training to perform many of tasks that might truly speed up security lines. The TSA employees say they’re frustrated by the situation—and worried about what it might mean for their future.
ICE agents have been spotted walking in packs, patrolling security lines and baggage areas. They have been seen giving directions to lost passengers, photographed distributing mini water bottles to those waiting in line, and, more often than not, standing around and appearing to do very little. “ICE are here and they’re doing literally nothing to help,” passengers in a security line overheard one airline worker complain on Wednesday at John F. Kennedy airport in New York.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some passengers stuck in line spotted ICE agents being trained to check passenger IDs and boarding passes. In a hearing in front of the US House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday, TSA acting head Ha Nguyen McNeill said that “the travel document checker function is one of the nonspecialized screen functions of the TSA,” and said ICE agents are being trained to conduct checks.
TSOs say ICE’s presence is frustrating to those working without pay—especially because ICE agents are being paid. “If you want to bring a tactical force into an environment where it’s required to have customer service and a mindset where you know what you’re doing, how to identify something that might be suspicious—they don’t have that training,” says Hydrick Thomas, a security officer and the president of AFGE Local 2222, which covers New York and New Jersey airports.
Security officers say they’re concerned for their coworkers, who, thanks to last fall’s government shutdown, haven’t received a steady paycheck for half of the fiscal year. Agents are worried about paying for rent, mortgages, gas, and childcare. Food banks have stood up drives in several airports, including those in Houston, North Carolina, and San Diego. In Knoxville, Tennessee, airport authorities are accepting donations for employees at a Delta Airlines counter. Eleven percent of airport checkpoint employees called out on Tuesday, compared to four percent pre-shutdown, a federal official testified to Congress on Wednesday morning. Some airports, including those in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York’s John F. Kennedy, have seen daily callout rates higher than 35 percent. More than 480 TSA screeners have quit since the shutdown began in February, the agency says.
Long term, security officers say they’re concerned that the federal government plans to replace them with other federal agents, including ICE agents, or private sector employees. One mentioned Project 2025, a blueprint for the second Trump administration published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which advocates for privatizing TSA altogether.
“A part of the American dream that I was sold was that working for the government was honorable and stable,” Carlos Rodriguez, a security officer and a AFGE TSA Council 100 vice president representing airports Northeastern airports from New Jersey to Vermont. “But this is not honorable or stable at this moment.”
Every year, without fail, the US experiences at least one major disruption in air travel due to severe weather, government shutdowns, software outages, or power outages—you name it.
Right now, a partial government shutdown has meant that thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have not been paid for several weeks, causing many to call out of work or quit. That has meant long security lines—more than three-hour waits—ensuing chaos at airports around the country. It’s unclear how long this mess will last, so it’s worth thinking about other options.
Flights are also expensive and hard on the environment. If you can take a bus, train, or ferry to your destination, why shouldn’t you? These travel search apps help you find routes and prices so you can compare them and make the best decision.
Wanderu
Best for Buses and Trains in the US and Canada
In the US and Canada, Wanderu is my go-to search aggregator for travel by bus or train (it works in Europe and the UK, too). Wanderu is your classic travel aggregator, looking up the schedules and prices across several bus and train operators, including Amtrak, BestBus, Flixbus, Greyhound, OurBus, Peter Pan, RedCoach, Vamoose, and others.
You see price comparisons at a glance, as well as options for upgraded class fares, departure and arrival times, and the location of each bus and train station, since sometimes you can save a lot of time by choosing one point over another. Filters help you narrow down your results based on your preferences, and you can book right from the app.
Omio
Compares Trains, Buses, Flights With Excellent Summaries
If you aren’t sure whether you want to travel by land or air, head to Omio. Type in your departure point, destination, and the date you want to travel, and Omio finds routes by plane, bus, and train. A concise summary at the top of the search results tells you the lowest fare and how long it will take for each mode of transportation, so you can make an informed decision quickly. Omio also shows whether the fare will be higher or lower if you travel on a different day of the same week, in case your dates are flexible.
Rome2Rio
Includes Comparison for Driving
Rome2Rio compares prices and times for travel by bus, train, flight, and driving yourself, based on estimated fuel costs. It works reasonably well for trips in the US and Canada. Rome2Rio touts itself as being for worldwide travel, though Europe and the UK seem to be its sweet spot. Elsewhere, take the approach of “trust, but verify,” and this app will take you places.
Virail
Compares Buses, Trains, and Flights
Virail is similar to Omio, comparing travel options by train, bus, and flight, with a neat summary of prices at the top of the search results, although it lacks the total travel time. For that, you have to scroll through the results. To book a ticket, Virail sends you to other websites, and you might have to do additional legwork to reserve your seat. It works reasonably well in the US and Canada (in testing, it got a little tripped up in Mexico), and does well for travel in Europe and the UK.
Vivanoda
Includes Flight and Carpool
Vivanoda (website only, no app) is similar to Omio, comparing all your options for getting between two points—and it includes flights, ferries, and carpool/rideshare options when applicable. The site operates out of the European Union and seems to work slightly better for travel in Europe and the UK than in the US and Canada, where it has some holes. (It didn’t find a direct flight between San Francisco and Vancouver, for example, even though there is more than one daily.)
Seat 61
Best Old-School Site for Trains and Bus Info Worldwide
Seat61, also known as The Man in Seat 61 (website only), has an old-school look and some of the best, most reliable information about traveling by bus and rail all around the world. Mark Smith, who runs the site, tells you exactly where in the world he knows about the train and bus routes: The site lists all the countries it covers on the left side, everywhere from Albania to Zimbabwe. He shares timetables, prices, and even includes photos, though his site is not a search aggregator, and you do have to go elsewhere to book. That said, it’s an excellent resource.
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