After a career in digital, Alena Nikolaeva turned to web development. She tells us about her journey...
My career path?
I studied digital marketing a few years ago and worked as a community manager. I've always been curious about the tech industry (UX/UI design, front-end, 3D and graphics), even when I wasn't working in this field.
What motivated my professional transition is....
I guess, in my case, it's been quite logic decision. When I was doing metrics, SEO and getting data for marketing I kept asking myself "How do we make a website?" or "Can we really program a marketing tool?". So, the fact that you could create anything from scratch is really amazing in a developers world.
Why did I choose to switch to the digital industry?
I enrolled for the Full-stack development training at Wild Code School Madrid. The program offered seemed intense and that's exactly what I was looking for :)
And after Wild Code School, what did I do?
I work at Next Limit Technology (simulation technologies for a broad range of applications in Computer Graphics, Science and Engineering).
Currently, I'm at the crossroads of Front-end developer and UX Engineer roles. I would say, I am UI Developer, since I'm designing interfaces and building design systems. (I can stretch my dev muscles in React or Vue, but mainly I am a designer).
My plans for the future?
I've started a Computer Science degree while finishing my training. I believe that if you want to call yourself software engineer you actually need a solid foundation in the field. Eventually, after learning bases of web development, I knew that I wanted to become a software engineer. My training helped me discover a proper passion for Software Engineering.
If I still feel like it, I would specialise in Computer Graphics and Visualisation. But I'm happy with my current role :)
If I could talk to my pre-training "me", I would tell her:
Make sure you try to build something before the course to verify that you love it (you have to like it to be motivated). Also, don't compare yourself to others :)
Last word:
Yes! Love note to Alexis for patience and croissants and the school for giving me a scholarship and a chance to change my career and meet amazing people!
