Can you start a career in tech and be a full-time Mom? Absolutely!
Mary’s story will inspire you and will show you that with a few sacrifices here and there, anything is possible!
Can you tell us a little bit about your background...
So, I have a degree in nursing and that has absolutely nothing to do with IT.
I signed up for my course with Careerist last July-August [2020]. I was a bit busy with my kids after that. So, for a while I didn’t have a chance to read, study, practice or try for interviews.
In January [2021] I decided to go back to my studying and to start applying for QA jobs.
I was constantly re-reading the course material, and practicing the interview questions while I was searching for a job. I just wanted to get a good job.
In February I had my first interview, and within a week of the interview I had a call back. This is when they told me that they’d chosen me out of the twenty other candidates they’d interviewed.
I was astonished that I got a job offer after only attending one interview. I did get a few more invitations to interviews after this, but I declined them all as I’d already accepted the first job offer.
Incredible! Can you tell us more about your job offer?
I got an $80,000 a year salary offer, for a remote job in Virginia. I will get a bonus every year and there are a lot of nice perks with the job.
Have you started your job yet?
Yes, I have been working at my job for a month. It’s a huge company. And I’m really enjoying working there.
What do you like about the job?
The work is very easy. I have to do a lot of stuff, but everyone is very friendly and supportive, so it makes my job a lot better.
To start off with, they gave me some training and I was able to get answers to some questions I wanted to ask. It’s super important to ask questions. I try to search online to find the answers for myself first, because I don’t want to bombarded my managers and colleagues with questions all of the time. Plus, I don’t want to bother them too much as this could spoil their impression of me.
I don’t write test cases right now, and for the first three weeks I was just doing paperwork.
I wrote my first bug report a week ago. It was a middle-priority bug. Bug priorities are something we learnt about in Careerist’s classes, so I was prepared for this.
I’m testing a web application at the moment. Everything is pretty clear so far.
What interview questions were you asked?
I was asked, “Tell me about yourself”, “What would you do if a developer told you that the bug you’d found was not a big deal?” and “What would you do if you had a lot of work, but not enough time to do everything?”.
To be honest, they didn’t ask me about projects I’d worked on, API or SQL (this was noted in the job advert though).
In the interview, I mentioned to them that I have no experience with automation, but that I was willing to learn it one day.
A science degree was not required for this role, and it was not mentioned in the job description.
What would you say to other students and graduates?
Never give up. If you want to get anything in your life you will probably have to sacrifice something.
Keep practising and reviewing your answers, so you are extra prepared for interviews.
Apply a lot. I applied for about 25 jobs a day, even on the weekend. There are many opportunities around, so you will definitely find something for yourself.
We are very proud of your achievements, and we are so grateful that you shared your experiences with us.