How I went from being a professional musician to coding at Vodafone
Former copywriting jazz pianist Danielle Booysen is now a Software developer at Vodafone UK, and a ‘co-butler to one indulged tabby cat’. Read her story here.
I started playing piano as a toddler. I learnt classical piano in school. I played and sang gospel in church. I studied Jazz at university. I went on to be a full-time performing pianist and vocalist. I say this, because even though my background was so completely submerged in music, I made myself suffer from imposter syndrome.
For the past 3 or so years I’ve been curious about the world of software development.
My fiancé Ben is a senior full-stack engineer but even though he’s self-taught, he’s been doing it professionally for a decade.
He’s also one of the smartest people I know, so the thought of me starting out in a new field with no idea of my aptitude level was pretty damn intimidating.
My biggest fear was sucking at it but pushing on; being a charlatan who stumbles into a new industry through nepotism. I’ve seen my fair share of this in the music world, and I didn’t want to be that person in tech.
Anyway, after an insane amount of encouragement from Ben…
I read a couple of super simple books on coding, saved up some money, and finally started the freeCodeCamp course in December 2017, full-time, alongside Colt Steele’s Web Dev Bootcamp on Udemy.
I was hooked. I knew that this was what I wanted to do. So I did.
(I still have imposter syndrome — these days as a dev, but at least now I know it’s not me, it’s me… and that’s something I can work on.)
I initially found out about another London-based bootcamp, Founders & Coders, via some fellow freeCodeCampers. It sounded amazing, but the entry requirements were pretty strict.
I decided to train for it anyway, thinking that if I didn’t get accepted by their next application date then I’d probably be ready for a junior dev role anyway. In April 2018 I looked at different bootcamps again.
Makers was the only one that appealed to me. The one thing that put me off was that it seemed too good to be true.
I applied all the same, and the rest is magical did-this-really-happen history.
Makers has EVERYTHING to do with my job at Vodafone.
The careers team introduced me to Vodafone’s (awesome) hiring manager and at the end of week nine of the course, I could use my time to complete the tech test. I was hired the next week. I didn’t have to write a single cover letter or update my CV.
For someone who worked as a copywriter for 4 years during which I wrote hundreds of CVs and cover letters, as well as applying for more copywriting jobs than I care to remember during that time (about 150), this was magic.
It was like having the best music agent who only cared about you and your happiness land you that gig you’ve always wanted and then thanking you for it.
The “aftercare” process is also fantastic. I have a lovely programme manager (Lauren) who makes sure that things are as they should be. I’m ashamed at how much time has elapsed since I last visited the campus, but I still feel connected to Makers because of her.
To others who are thinking of training with Makers…
What are you waiting for? Makers won’t magically turn you into a developer, but it will give you that confidence you need to do it yourself, and it will open career avenues that are much harder to enter on your own.
It’s hard, and it’s easy to burn out. It is a bootcamp after all. But is it worth it? Absolutely.
Article written and first published by Makers:
