Former technician at Harley Davidson and graduate of the Wild Code School of Marseille in February 2019, Maxime Pochet has since worked as a React/Node js developer at Vyfe, a startup in Toulouse. Here’s his interview…
My career path?
Before Wild, I was a technician at Harley Davidson for 4 years in Salon de Provence in the Bouches du Rhône region after graduating from a professional motorcycle mechanics school.
What motivated my professional transition is....
Breaking the routine
The main trigger that pushed me to do a career change is the fact that as a mechanic, the work is very often the same, the days are the same, so the routine sets in. Once the procedures are mastered, everything quickly becomes machine-like, we don't really think about what we're doing and we do it without even noticing it.
Protecting my health
There is also the working environment: being in constant contact with chemicals such as oil or gasoline made me think. In the long term, daily exposure can cause skin or lung cancer, which is potentially dangerous.
Why did I choose to switch to the digital industry?
Being very attracted by the digital world, I became interested in programming because I rediscovered the concept of creation and customisation that I had at Harley Davidson and that I particularly liked.
There is also the fact that there is no real routine, of course there are problems to solve every day, but they are all different, which makes you constantly work on finding new solutions.
I also like to solve problems and I can find this in algorithmics. I think it is essential to exercise your brain every day to increase your ability to think and anticipate.
I attended the very first React / Node session in Marseille from September 2018 to February 2019.
I didn't look into other schools that offered programming courses, I attended a breakfast presentation on a Wednesday morning at the end of July 2018. I got hooked immediately during the presentation. So I decided to invest in myself by financing my training. I left my position as a technician to dedicate myself to the pre-entry exercises throughout August with the objective of finishing everything and being selected for the start of the September school year. Goal achieved :)
And after the Wild Code School, what did I do?
Today I work in a Toulouse start-up: Vyfe. Founded in February 2018 it now has 6 employees. It offers a solution to improve educational programs by making them more entertaining and interactive through video. My job is to manage the backend, improve and maintain the web platform. Platform on which learners have the opportunity to review their simulation videos and interact with their coach. I still work with the technologies I learned in training, which are React and Node.
My plans for the future?
On short-term projects, my objective is to learn a new language (Swift) to help develop the iOS app for my company and to strengthen my knowledge in React.
On long-term projects, my goal is to travel to Canada (between 2022 and 2023) to discover their work methods, population, culture and the country.
If I could talk to my pre-training "me", I would tell him:
Despite the determination to learn that I had during this training course, self-confidence was not always there. The advice I would give myself would therefore be to have more self-confidence because I am capable of it and all my efforts are not for nothing.
The final word:
A big thank you to David (former instructor) and Caroline (campus manager at the time) who really helped me throughout the training and still do today! I am very happy to be part of the big Wilders family! And also a big thank you to Romain and Alex (at Vyfe) who enabled me to make my first steps in this beautiful career by welcoming me into their company.
