Over the last 10 years at EndGame we have been lucky to have a number of developers choose to start their careers with us. Tess joined us as a junior developer 3 months ago, we spoke to her to find out more about her experience so far and what it’s been like starting her career as a developer at EndGame.

What made you want to become a software developer?

I decided to become a software developer when I realised that all of the things that I really enjoyed and seemed to excel at all pointed in this direction. I always loved maths, foreign languages, and making puns, and software development to me is the perfect mix of all three. I really get a kick out of knowing how many moving parts are coming together to make something that actually still works despite having so many opportunities to fail.

How did you break into the software industry?

I started out in tech last year by attending Enspiral Dev Academy, which is a 15 week web development boot camp. From there I worked for a couple of really awesome start-ups, Squawk Squad and Spring, which gave me a lot of great knowledge about working as part of a product team. I ended up at EndGame after running into Jezz (Product Discovery Lead at EndGame), who I had met last year at a hackathon. He spoke incredibly highly of EndGame so I came and checked it out.

Tell me what it was like starting at EndGame as a Junior Developer?

When I first started at EndGame I was amazed to find out how much I really didn’t know about software and equally amazed at how kind and willing to help all of the people were. It was a little overwhelming but incredibly exciting. I started with a lot of pair coding, mentoring, and learning about C# fundamentals and then moved on to real projects to learn by doing. I’m not sure how many people get to leave work every day feeling a little smarter than the last, but I feel very lucky to be one of them. I am now almost three months in and I’m becoming a lot more confident in my ability to find the right answers and still learn so much every day.

How much have you learned on the job vs when you were studying?

I think studying in a boot camp really prepared me well for this environment because it taught me how to learn completely foreign concepts really quickly and how to be comfortable with not knowing everything. I also learned React and Redux which has been helpful as it’s part of our stack here too. I have definitely learned a lot about working in a proper team here, as well as how to write good quality code that is maintainable later, rather than just the first thing that works. I have also learned almost everything I know about back-end development from the learning I’ve done here at EndGame. It was a bit of a black box to me but now I feel a lot more confident that it’ll all come to me eventually.

How has EndGame supported your learning as a Junior Developer?

EndGame has been super supportive of my learning as a Junior Developer. When I first started, we made a learning plan and we have been regularly setting goals to make sure I am staying on track. It’s a really great place to learn and there are always lots of people around that are ready to help. I’ve also had time for pair coding and regular mentoring sessions which have been really helpful too.

What’s one piece of advice you would give you yourself before you started at EndGame?

Probably to relax a little more. The people here really want you to succeed and we’re all in this journey together so if you put the mahi in you’ll get there.

If you’re keen to be part of the EndGame team, keep an eye out on our website for any jobs that come up in the future.