A day with SumUp by Madhhuri (Student Spotlight)

** The following is a blog post kindly written by a recent graduate of our Compass Course – Madhuri Kalyan **

” Role-model Day with SumUp – June 2nd 2021

On this warm sunny morning, the students of StartSteps Compass Class login in one by one to our Zoom classroom … but today was not a usual day of workshops and class – today was the day when Digital Industry experts join the class to open up about their career and the journeys they took to get there. Today we were lucky to have SumUp joining us, as they are the ReSkill Germany partners of StartSteps.

The day started with Marco Buffa an Online Marketing Manager; sharing his insights as someone who has been an industry pioneer, starting with his journey in Facebook advertising – right from its early days. At the end of his very engaging session, his advice was

“The Stay Curious mindset makes you successful in an ever-evolving tech industry”

Rafal Chmielewski (Data Engineer) was next.

Rafal had always wanted to be a Software & IT expert since childhood. He spoke passionately about how he started small with a job in IT and tech support and all the possibilities with a career as a developer, including ‘Back-end’, ‘Front-end’ and ‘Full stack’. He encouraged us to find out which field you wanted to work in first and then invest the time & effort to learn and train.

“Developers love to learn & share, and are very open, so don’t hesitate to reach out to the community“.

Jillian Anderson was the third guest of the day, Jillian is a Front-End developer, and shared how she came from an “utterly untechnical” background in Psychology and only later on moved into the field of tech.

She learned through tutorials, online classes and took advantage of the large network of tech community though conferences and meetups. When she started with SumUp, she gained from the structure and mentorship in the company. Giving deep insight into the daily life of a coder, she said she also loved the company culture at SumUp which encouraged employees to spend time working on projects other than work, like Mental Health, helping minority communities and teaching.

“There is no better way to learn than to teach it to someone else”

Our final session of the day was Marcela Coutinho, a Product Designer who gave exciting insights into the world of Product Design and how research is a core skill in the world of Design,

“Exercise the information, and not just consume” were her parting words.

The four sessions gave a much-needed insight into the world of tech jobs and the pathways to these careers. Not just the training and skills that one needs, but also the attitude and mindset for success.

As a participant of this exciting day, we got a rare opportunity to connect and interact with industry experts who not only shared their career journey and insights, but opened the door for questions of any types. By asking questions we learned some behind the scenes hacks to find out if we were the right fit for certain digital careers.

My takeaway from this day long session was that by ‘being consistent and staying motivated’ – the doors will automatically open up to help us along the way!

The SumUp experts we met, have been through such a journey and are now opening these doors for others. A big thank you for this day of Mentorship for us students at StartSteps. Thank you SumUp! Thank you Marcela, Jillian, Marco & Rafal!! We loved having you visit our class. “

** June 2nd 2021 – Madhuri Kalyan