My journey into IT

When I was asked to write a blog post about how I found my way into IT as a woman, my first answer was: I come from mechanical engineering, I can’t tell much about the „classic” way. Then I realized that this is exactly the exciting thing and that my way can encourage to dare new things.

I used to admire people who knew from an early age what they wanted to be. I never had such a big plan myself and now I think: That is also good! Otherwise I would never be where I am right now - as a client developer at 4Soft.

I remember too well how I sat in despair in front of the homework from the computer science lecture of my mechanical engineering studies and how I could hardly solve it. I came from a grammar school, had my Abi fresh in my pocket and had no previous contact with software development. I ended up in the mechanical engineering program through a chain of circumstances. Without the physics class, I would never have had the confidence to study. The physics class was offered at the neighboring high school and not at my own. I had registered for the physics course because the subject supervisor motivated me by greeting me cheerfully in the hallway with: „Ah you are the one who always writes only 1 in physics. ” Before that, physics was a negligently treated minor subject at school.

I had successfully worked my way through the computer science homework when, years later, I was employed as a research assistant at the technical university. In my working student job I had learned Java and now missed the teamwork and programming.

So I dropped out and changed to software development! First half application development in Java and Scala and half mechanical engineering. And then the desire for something new. This time into the client development, because I was missing the graphic and I had desire for a new challenge. The mechanical engineering master thesis served as a work sample. 4Soft gave me the chance to familiarize myself, learn something new and I know we both didn’t regret it.

I wish more people had told me about biographies like this - including women - earlier. In mechanical engineering school, the other women were mostly daughters of engineers. So they were more likely to know what they were getting into. As a teenager, I didn’t realize for a long time that STEM subjects were dominated by men. I was good at math and physics, followed my nose and delved into what I enjoyed. In the process, I put away setbacks and took advantage of the opportunities someone offered me, and I think many more women can do that.

In my current job I can use my strengths, my ability to think logically, my creativity and my ability to work in a team. At the same time, I can be myself and continue to face new challenges.