Shift happens: Ewan’s journey from energy technician and chef to joining Ten10
Hear Ewan’s winding career journey that led him into the exciting world of tech
People join the Ten10 Academy from all kinds of backgrounds – whether its fresh out of school, post-graduation or changing lanes from another career entirely. In fact, we often find people with experience from a completely different field are able to tap into transferable skills that help them become brilliant technologists just as much as our coding modules do!
Take Ewan, who became an Academy Consultant with us this year. He lent us some time to take part in our newest ‘Shift Happens’ interview series and told us about the many stops on his career that led him to apply to Ten10.
What position and industry did you work in before joining us?
In what seems a previous life, I was an oil and gas technician on platforms in the North Sea. Over a ten-year period, working my way up from labourer to permit controller – with a few sidesteps in between – I began to find the job and industry unfulfilling. After some soul searching, I decided to jump ship and become a chef!
Starting off from scratch again, I worked briefly as a dishwasher before quickly getting promoted to a chef role where the learning began. Forging a close friendship with the sous chef, I was roped into opening our own restaurant which we built from the ground up, and (despite my departure!) is still very well regarded to this day.
What made you pursue changing careers to tech?
While studying Maths & Physics at the Open University, I taught myself some Python to assist with calculations and graphing. For years I thought this was as far as I’d go with coding, but after talking with a friend who got a job as a web developer after completing a three-month bootcamp, I found myself contemplating my second (and final…) career move.
Relearning what I’d forgotten in Python, and becoming a dab hand at Code Wars, I rediscovered my love of problem solving and learning and thought it’d be a shame to waste this. A career in tech seemed inevitable, so I sold my share in the restaurant, signed up for a data engineering bootcamp — ultimately leading to my place at the Ten10 Academy — and the rest is recent history.
What was your perception of tech before joining Ten10?
My perception of tech before Ten10 was that it was vast, varied, and confusing. Not much has changed! There are so many ways tech can help or hinder businesses and individuals, but the exciting part is learning about how the many facets of tech can be combined and utilised to solve real problems, safe in the knowledge that no two days will be the same in this ever-evolving field. By the way, it’s not like in the movies (sorry).
Do you feel that having prior work experience has been an advantage during your training?
The soft skills I learned in previous careers, working in both large and small teams, in a variety of environments, were of great help during my training at Ten10. Regardless of whether you pursue a role on the business side of tech or on the development side, one hugely important skill is effective communication. An amazing idea is next to worthless if you can’t communicate its benefit to others!
How do you feel about your career change so far? How are you enjoying working in tech?
Having only recently commenced my first placement as an AI engineer after the Academy, I can say that it has been daunting, exciting, enjoyable, and fulfilling all at the same time. Thankfully, the client and Ten10 have been extremely good at alleviating any concerns before starting, and the Academy’s focus on business procedures stood me in good stead, knowing what to expect and how to integrate into my new team.
What advice do you have for other people considering a career change to tech?
If you know anyone in tech already, reach out to them and get as much insight as possible. What is a day at work like? What do you do? What have you learned? Do you recommend it? What will the change require from me? Find out as much as you can from whoever or wherever you can, and think carefully if it’s for you. If the answer is yes, you’ll be rewarded with endless opportunities to learn, solve puzzles, contribute to real improvements, and meet some very nice and interesting people along the way!