Dev Academy graduates win Tech Ruck awards
Enspiral Dev Academy is an 18 week web development school based in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand.
Congratulations to Sarah Dueweke, Best Emerging Player of Tech Ruck 2017!
We sat down with Sarah and asked her a few questions about her winning team’s experience.
What is Tech Ruck?
The Wellington Tech Ruck was a full-day event supported by NZTE, British High Commission, Westpac New Zealand, Robert Walters and WREDA, that tech organisations around Wellington were invited to participate in. Each organisation sent in a team (or teams) of no more than six people to spend the day coming up with their best ideas and pitches for new ways to enjoy sports using the latest technologies.
Why did you sign up?
I found out about it in my last week of Enspiral Dev Academy bootcamp, and signed up straight away. I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet other industry professionals, and just have fun with my team coming up with cool ideas to share.
What were your thoughts going in?
Most of the team thought we were heading into a hackathon, where we’d be coding all day. In fact, we didn’t do any coding at all! So that was a bit of a surprise. But mostly I was just looking forward to the opportunity to get more involved in Wellington’s tech community.
What was the day like?
It was pretty full on! Throughout the day we brainstormed ideas and came up with story boards to pitch to the judges. I volunteered to be the representative of the group who would do all of the pitching, so I spent a lot of time standing up and talking in front of the crowds. It was a little intimidating at first, being surrounded by people who have been doing this kind of work for years, but in the end it was a great experience.
How did it feel to win?
It was such a cool surprise! We were up against seasoned pros, and our whole team had only just finished Bootcamp the week before. So when they called our names for two of the three prizes, it was really exciting. We were all very proud. The group prize was called the “Player of the Match” award, which was a trip to Melbourne and tickets to the Sports Analytics World Series conference on August 4th. The individual prize they gave me was called the “Best Emerging Player”, which was an internship opportunity with Westpac.
Where to next from here?
As a team, most of us are now just getting out there to look for jobs as developers. Participating in the Tech Ruck was a great starting place for us to meet industry professionals and get our names out there.
Apply now for Dev Academy and you could gain the skills to become a junior web developer in just 18 weeks! All levels of experience welcome — level up and design a creative, flexible, well paid life you love. Check out the Dev Academy website for more info.
