National Coding Week is an annual event that aims to promote the importance of learning digital skills and takes place on the third Monday in September. This year it runs from 18-24 September and we wanted to shine a light on some of our fantastic coders at Locate a Locum and share their career stories so far.

Jack Moore - Lead Full Stack Developer

How long have you been with Locate a Locum? 3.5 years

What does your coding journey look like? When picking my subjects to study at college I intended on studying Music, Music Technology and Physics. However, I ended up picking Computing instead of Physics due to timetable clashes. Because of this I discovered my enjoyment for coding and decided to study Computer Science at the University of the West of England (Bristol), instead of pursuing Music as I was initially planning.

What is your favourite thing about coding? My favourite thing about coding is the satisfaction you get from finally getting something working, despite the many hours often being poured into it… I suppose it’s more of a love/hate relationship!

What advice would you give to anyone looking to pursue a career in coding? The great news is that the introduction to coding is getting more and more accessible so there are plenty of resources out there that’ll get you started. In my case, I learned a lot using online tools that “gamify” the learning such as CodeAcademy.

However, because I am a very hands-on learner I would say that my rate of learning increased massively when I applied this to apps that I was actually going to use. On some of the occasions when I had a thought of “I wonder if there is an app that…”, I took the opportunity to try it myself rather than downloading an existing app.

Chris Walker - Full Stack Developer

How long have you been with Locate a Locum? 7 months

What does your coding journey look like? I went a slightly roundabout way to become a Software Developer. I started out by going the typical path and studied Software Engineering at the University of Ulster, after which I got a job in a semi-related field.

I left the technology sector for about 6 years and decided to get back into it because I missed Software Development. So, I taught myself Python in my spare time and landed a job as a developer.In that role, I learned web technologies such as JavaScript and React. Eventually, I became a freelancer and then joined Locate a Locum.

What is your favourite thing about coding? To me, coding is like a giant puzzle; it's just that there are hundreds of ways to solve it. I love that there is an answer; you just have to figure out what it is. It's incredibly fun.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to pursue a career in coding? If you're starting out, don't just learn the theory; actually build things to cement the knowledge you've learned. Stick at it; everybody gets confused. As a developer, you never reach a point where you can say, 'I know it all'; you learn something new every day.

“Confusion is part of programming” - Felienne Hermans

Richard Hetherington - Full Stack Developer

How long have you been with Locate a Locum? 6 months

What does your coding journey look like? I studied Geology at QUB but by the end of the course, I wanted to try something different. So I signed up for a Masters Conversion course at UUJ, I really enjoyed the course and knew I had found something I would like to pursue a career in.

What is your favourite thing about coding? I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of programming. It is very satisfying when you can take a complex problem, break it down into small pieces and solve them one by one until you have a fully working solution.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to pursue a career in coding? Get a good understanding of the basics. There are so many languages and frameworks out there that you can't know them all, but if you understand the basics you should be able to work most things out!

Sean Creaney - Full Stack Developer

How long have you been with Locate a Locum? I have been with Locate a Locum for over 2 and a half years now, but that's not including the 3/4s of a year I spent with LAL for my placement!

What does your coding journey look like? My coding journey is the typical one on a surface level, with a plan to pursue software development in university from my GCSEs, if not before. However, what is different is that during both my 1st and 2nd years of university, I was very close to dropping out of the course several times to pursue a completely different career path, as I felt it was not gripping my interest as I thought it would. However, it was only in my placement year, that I experienced and learned the real business application of software and how development in the real world works, which is what then hooked me, cementing my decision to continue my Computer Science degree and that it truly was the career for me.

What is your favourite thing about coding? Similar to many people's favourite thing about coding, is that when developing, your work day can sometimes change to feel like a series of brain games, rewarding much joy when you complete different pieces of work and fix issues.

However, probably my favourite part about coding is when you create something from end to end, bringing each new part to life, seeing each new part beginning to work with the last and then with the next, all coming together to create something full and new.

From gathering data on the side that is invisible to the average internet user, to then returning this data to be displayed on the visible side that they interact with day-to-day on their phone/computer. For some people, this all happens like magic, but it is far from it and actually can be very simple!

What advice would you give to anyone looking to pursue a career in coding? My biggest advice is if you're in a Com-Sci or Soft-Eng degree currently and you've yet to do your placement year, or thinking about skipping it or even leaving the course. I highly recommend at least giving your placement year a shot, as if it wasn't for my placement year I wouldn't have found my love for coding and my life could have been very different.

However, even in university, conversion courses have made a career in coding more accessible at a later time, but also University isn't the only and it is far from a necessary path.

Coding in my opinion is not always about who gets concepts the fastest, who has the best skills, or who knows a language/s, but in the way that each individual's thought process when given a problem. Unique approaches to problem-solving keep coding interesting and ever-evolving!

National Coding Week Resources

It's incredible to hear from members of our team and their varied experiences within the coding industry. One thing that remains consistent throughout their journeys is their passion for the industry and their work! If you're interested in learning more about coding, the National Coding Week website offers fantastic resources and you can find them here.