Meet our Academy Consultants – Michael Ellis
Read how Michael finally found a fulfilling career path through our Ten10 Academy
Anyone can apply to our Academy and take their first step towards becoming a technologist, no matter what they studied or where they’ve worked in the past. Take Michael Ellis for example, who was part of our January 2021 Academy.
Before the Academy
“I studied Maths at university and afterwards worked lots of different roles from bartender to Maths teacher – both bringing with them late nights but for very different reasons. During the first COVID lockdown, I worked for Samsung as an operational trainer and although it was a good job, I felt I had gotten everything out of it that I could in a little over a year. I was 27 and knew I needed to start thinking about long-term prospects – something I could sink my teeth into. One of my friends had worked as a software tester through Ten10 so I thought tech might be a promising area to explore.
“I completed some coding courses through Udemy and Code Academy ahead of my application for the Ten10 Academy. While I hadn’t done any coding as part of my Maths degree, it helped me grasp the concept of programming languages and the puzzle-solving nature of coding. With so many applications for the technology available and how fast things change, I could see much more opportunities for development compared to my previous job.”
Training at the Ten10 Academy
“Joining the Academy was a great experience and helped me gain a solid foundation for my technical knowledge while meeting other people who were also starting their careers. One of the tasks we were given was to fix a test script for a mock e-commerce website and it was satisfying being able to logically work through different elements, testing them in isolation and then getting everything to run smoothly.
“I knew about Java, IntelliJ, and Selenium through the courses I had completed before the Academy, but I still had a lot to learn and skills to develop. Peter Russell and Thomas Crabtree were our main trainers and they complemented themselves excellently, helping us understand concepts and letting us pick their brains with questions. I really feel the Academy primes people well for the working life they’re going to have afterwards.
“After my core training, I completed the additional DevOps course which covered using Jenkins, Amazon Cloud and Docker containers. It was all completely new to me and a little daunting given how important that technology can be to a business but the knowledge has become incredibly useful in the client work I’ve completed since finishing the Academy.”
Michael’s Academy Training
Core training started: January-February 2021
Core training modules:
Specialist training: March-April 2021
Specialist training modules: DevOps – Linux, Networking, deployment automation, debugging system issues
After the Academy
“I was placed on my current client in November 2021 for a UK-based charity as a Performance Tester. We use IntelliJ to form directories that house JMeter scripts, which are triggered by Groovy code in a Taurus wrapper which then communicates with Jenkins to trigger a pipeline. This was technology introduced to me through the DevOps training that I’ve been able to take to the next level. Performance testing wasn’t something I had considered before this opportunity arose but it definitely suits me.
“Before I joined the Academy I never really knew what I wanted to do, which is probably why I ended up in so many different fields and didn’t keep a role for much longer than a year. Now I feel that I’ve found my place. I feel settled and even though I’m still very new to it, tech is that career path that I can properly sink my teeth into. It’s a great feeling, especially because it took me a while to get here. I’ve learned so much just by being on my first client. As an overall transformation: it’s huge.”