Computing course was the start of a successful career for Rachel

Rachel Evans graduated from Coleg Sir Gâr with a first-class honours degree in applied computing and has worked for companies which include Facebook, Paramount Studios, Walmart, Apple, Tesla, Shell and British Airways.

She says that the computing sector is vast and that she wasn’t sure at first, which area to specialise in, but because the course offered experience in programming, networking, security and design she could try her hand at everything and eventually she chose programming which resulted in a career in software engineering.

Rachel didn’t come from a computing background and had studied A-levels at the college beforehand but she applied for the course as she knew the college had a friendly learning environment and had smaller classes with lots of tutor support.

She chose computing as it’s a fundamental part of society’s everyday life and the biggest appeal for her was the transferable skills gained from a degree such as problem solving and critical thinking.

Rachel Evans said: “When I was enrolling on the course, I thought I’d be one of the weaker applicants which gave me anxiety and scepticism, however, the amount of support and encouragement that I got from the tutors was second to none.

“I even enrolled on the college’s Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) course in the evenings.”

Just before graduating, Rachel was offered a conditional job role with Hoowla, a conveyancing platform.

Sadly, the company faced a redundancy period and Rachel was affected but she didn’t lose hope and went on to complete numerous roles contributing to a variety of different products including the development of physical security software, fintech (finance­), conveyancing software and much more.

Currently, Rachel works for Kalibrate Technologies Ltd as a net developer where she is involved throughout the software development lifecycle from specification, development testing through to deployment, development of features to end of line support to clients as well as supporting junior members of her team.

Rachel Evans added: “The hardest but most rewarding element of pursuing a career in development is that no two days are the same; problem solving takes up a significant chunk of every day but the degree gave me the building blocks for the skills required for a successful career.

“Pursuing a career in any IT related field is not the easiest, with such a broad range of specialist areas and everchanging evolvement in the tech world but it is very rewarding. Not only is it one of the highest paying job markets in the world but it allows you to transform your career into what you want to make of it. Training, flexibility, culture, travel are all examples of just some of the benefits that I have experienced along my career journey.

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to join this course, because without it I would not be where I am today.”