From psychology graduate to software engineer in a consulting firm
After graduation I worked as a research assistant in the psychology department at Warwick University, though I knew I didn’t want to pursue a career in this area in the long term.
I studied computing at A level and looked at some graduate schemes in IT after finishing my first degree, but I didn’t have much success in my applications at that point. I felt that I would be disadvantaged because I didn’t have a degree in computer science and started thinking about going back to university.
Getting the right balance of vocational skills and academic knowledge
Initially I looked to see which universities in the region offered an IT conversion course, and the Birmingham course struck me as offering a good balance between academic and vocational elements.
I was offered a scholarship covering the cost of tuition and was able to use my savings from having worked full time for 18 months to pay for maintenance. I also did some flexible part-time work as a research assistant, running experiments in the psychology department at Birmingham.
Learning to programme in Java
Most of my time was taken up by learning how to programme in Java. We were taught through lectures, tutorials, practical classes, weekly programming exercises and group projects. They started with the assumption that we had no programming knowledge, which was true for most people on the course, and it took a lot of work to get up to the required level.
The other main core modules covered topics such as data structures and algorithms, databases, the software development life-cycle and commercial programming, with two guest speakers from industry coming to talk to us every week. I also chose optional modules on the philosophy of cognitive science and advanced software engineering.
Programming isn’t for everyone, but it suited me
Be aware of what’s involved I’d advise anyone considering an IT conversion course to look long and hard at exactly what is involved. Programming isn’t for everyone, but for me it was the most challenging and enjoyable part of the course. I also gained useful insights into the industry, for example, through studying the software life-cycle I came to appreciate the types of problems that must be overcome when developing software and how important it is to take a structured approach.
Hooked on computing
While studying I’d heard positive feedback about the advanced MSc. When I was accepted onto the course I was offered a generous scholarship covering both tuition fees and some maintenance costs, and I decided to take the opportunity to do some more in-depth academic study before joining the world of work.
The advanced computer science MSc course is very open ended, with a strong focus on project work, and gave me the freedom to extend my knowledge by developing my interests. I chose optional modules relating to computer security.
Jamie Pendle first studied for a degree in psychology at Lancaster. He converted to IT on Birmingham’s MSc in computer science and stayed on for another year to complete the MSc in advanced computer science. He is now on Capgemini’s two-year graduate programme working as a software engineer.
