Meet our Academy Consultants

The Ten10 Tech Academy is a perfect opportunity for promising talent to grow into well-rounded technologists, no matter what background they come from. Sandhyo Fernandes was a marketing communications student at university, before reverting back to his initial childhood desire to work in tech.

Before the Academy

“I was doing a master’s degree in marketing communications, and before that did an undergraduate degree in software engineering for business. I was looking for something like the Academy as I hadn’t touched anything computer-related for a while. I thought it would be good to get back to it with somebody to hold my hand.

“If you had asked me before university, I would have said I always knew I would do tech as a career because I always loved it. After my undergraduate degree I felt it was too intense and I had enough, so I wanted a break. After my marketing degree I felt I had forgotten everything about tech so the Academy was the perfect opportunity to help me. I grew up in Angola and there wasn’t much to see regarding tech. However, we had the internet so I could see all the new concepts of things coming out which I couldn’t use as it was too far away. I remember doing a career quiz and saying I wanted to own a company like Apple!”

Training at the Ten10 Academy

“At the start of the Academy, I felt I didn’t know anything, but the more I did I felt it coming back to me and everything made sense again. I guess some things just never leave you. The thing with the Academy is that they start from the basics and if they started with something difficult I would have felt lost. But step-by-step it really helped.

“The training was really good. To an extent, it felt like what I did at university but it added to how it would feel in the real professional world. University is all theoretical so it was hard to know what an employer would want or need. I knew what things were but not how they worked, and the Academy really made a difference in understanding this.

“I did the development training after the core training and it was great. It was the first bit of in-person training I did after COVID-19 and lockdown so I could go into the office and work with others. I learned a lot and although my client isn’t a development client, it still helped me understand their projects.”

Sandhyo’s Academy Training

Core training: January-March 2022
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: Development – Internal project to migrate a web app from on-prem to AWS, Introduce automated build/test/deployment process in the AWS ecosystem

After the Academy

“I was about to start the most professional job I had ever been in. At the start, it was difficult as I was jumping into it and I felt worried everyone would be ahead of me. It was a bit scary but my client helped me and all the other new people settle in and learn the ropes. It was a lot of learning about their systems and how we can utilise our skills from the Academy. It is nice to not have to go to events or do work on my own as other people joined me from the Academy; it’s really comforting to know I won’t be by myself.

“I am currently doing quality assurance which is mostly manual testing. I have to check that nothing has been missed by the development team and I try to break whatever they have made. I make sure everything is how it should be and there are no bugs, so the business is satisfied with the work before it goes out to its customers.

“I feel like I have grown a lot from applying to the Academy to now. What I learned was incredibly valuable so I could start to work with my client, and what I’ve learned while with my client has also been great – to manage lots of systems that companies use. I want to keep learning more and although I feel I am good at my job right now, I know I can get better and keep growing. I keep in contact with the Academy tutors to see if I can do anything to improve myself. I have one-to-ones to see what certifications I can get, which both Ten10 and my client offer to provide financial help with. It is great to have that support from both sides.

“I would say to anyone considering the Academy to not be scared. It might look scary from the outside with tech, as it looks like a lot of complicated things and you think it won’t be for you, but it isn’t like that as much as you think. There are many things in tech you can be a part of, and if something isn’t for you, there will be something else in tech you will be comfortable in. Tech is a growing industry and it is great to have something like the Academy to get your foot in the door.”