Meet our Academny Consultants - Daniel Jakus

The Ten10 Academy welcomes anyone interested in a career in technology, whether you have a background in it or not. Daniel Jakus studied Computer Science in both college and university, but gained much more knowledge, plus industry experience, through our Academy.

Before the Academy

“I studied computer science at college, then at Coventry University. The jump from college to university was something I was quite concerned about because my degree was focused more on programming and college had a big lack of content in that area. You never really got into things in depth.

“I saw online all the things Ten10 did in the Academy, which were all applicable to the things I learned from university. But when I read into the actual process and the role of the Academy I thought it would be a good way to get into the industry as I didn’t have any prior experience.

“Before training at the Academy, college gave me a good foundation of knowledge and university stepped it up a bit more, but I also felt that I had quite a few gaps. I came into the Academy knowing that I could definitely improve. I always thought that the main role you would go into from tech is software development, and one thing that did surprise me was that I didn’t know the role of a tester. At university, we were taught developers do unit testing and that was as far as testing went. But actually testing is a really important role on its own.”

Training at the Ten10 Academy

“Something I liked about the Academy was that we went over similar areas I studied at college and university, while also filling in a lot of knowledge gaps; and it also made me question my previous perceptions of computer science careers. I really enjoyed the roadmap for the training. It was good to start off with the basics of what IT is in general, and then go into more specifics, reaffirming my knowledge.

“I also really enjoyed the additional training as we got to choose from either DevOps or Business Analysis and Test Automation. We received examples to work on, so we could apply what we learned as we went on. I enjoyed the core training in testing, and we also covered some elements of automation. I liked fixing any test automaton that went wrong, as well as creating new test scripts. It pushed me in the direction of test automation.”

Daniel’s Academy Training

Core training: September 2021-October 2021
Core training modules:

• Introduction to the Academy – Overview of the Academy, assessment, and expectations
• Introduction to Agile – Agile manifesto, principles, and philosophy; a simulated practical Agile project
• Introduction to Enterprise IT – IT Architecture; CI; CD; Virtualisation; Cloud; Enterprise IT Roles
• Foundations of Web Technology – The Web (HTML, CSS, HTTP, protocols); APIs
• Data and Database Fundamentals – Data types; databases; relational databases; SQL; non-relational databases
• Development Fundamentals – Essential programming; version control; OO design principles; unit testing
• Foundations of Testing – Testing approaches, designs, and techniques; practical testing; performance engineering
• Foundations of Automation – Automated test techniques and approaches; Selenium WebDriver; intro to BDD
• DevOps – Living in the Pipeline – DevOps tooling; infrastructure automation; CI; CD; quality and reliability engineering
• Effective IT Professionals – Leadership; communication; self-awareness; self-development

Specialist training: Test and Test Automation Exploratory testing/session-based testing; context-driven testing; heuristics; further defect management; further test automation using C#, SpecFlow and Gherkin

After the Academy

“Before starting the client work, at first I was nervous as I hadn’t had a job in industry before. I think it really helped that we were onboarded with a senior consultant, helping us integrate ourselves into the project with help along the way. You don’t tend to get placed with a client on your own. Especially when you’re at a junior level, you already have a support network there.

“I started working immediately in test automation. We had an automation pack that needed to be corrected as it was quite old, and we also had to improve its performance. The next project that we’re going on to is manual testing, so we’re getting a real broad range of testing experience.

“I think that after the Academy I have got a lot of knowledge of agile projects and agile testing; the processes involved, how a business works in test, how it all connects to each other. I have a lot more confidence in test automation and now understand how test data is set up. On more of a soft skill level, I have learned everything new always seems daunting at first, but if you apply what you know, try hard and ask the right questions, it’ll all be okay in the end and you will grow.

“If you are considering the Academy, you should definitely do it. Ten10 offer a lot of support in many areas, such as technical or well-being support. You’re encouraged to develop yourself whilst you are there, always encouraging taking qualifications and training, Ten10 providing the financial side of that to take them too. It’s a great way to get into technology and open up your options within both industry and Ten10 itself.”