I was a Psychologist and became a Front-End Engineer at Strapi. Here is my story!
💖 The purpose of The Allyance is to help both companies and candidates: companies wanting to reach excellence in hiring and candidates wanting to find the perfect companies.
➡️ Let’s meet Julie Plantey and understand how The Allyance helped her land a Front-End Engineer role at Strapi! A long-time partner of ours...
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Who are you? Tell us everything!
My name is Julie, I am 30 years old. I was born in Paris and graduated with a Master’s Degree in psychology with specialization in trauma clinics. Then, I realized I preferred working in childhood clinics, so I worked in several nurseries where I supported parent-child relationships, teams, and management.
After 3 years in the psychological sector, I decided to take a major turn and become a developer. Since November 2021, I am Front-End Developer at Strapi.
💘 I truly love cats. I cannot stop talking about my two cats at work! I also love discovering and learning new things, like playing ukulele, caring for a bonsaï, knitting…!
🐱 Sacha (on tope) et Michka (chilling on the sofa)
Why did you make a career change to become a developer?
I always had trouble finding enough hours to work as a psychologist in Paris. When my partner and I started considering moving away, I realized it was only going to get worse. It led me to wonder: what other activity would I like as much? I thought about illustration, and then realized it could get as precarious as my current job.
💻 I looked at people around me and saw my dad coding and my partner, who, as a Product Designer, has a lot of developer friends I could talk to. I got interested and tried Free Code Camp: I was so into it I could spend hours without eating.
Then, I started a quite intense Ironhack React and JavaScript training February 2021. It also clicked: the fast pace was exactly what I needed, I got to learn a lot quickly. I was lucky enough to land a freelance mission right after graduating, but when applying for full-time positions companies were concerned about my lack of experience.
Applying to jobs, companies were worried about my lack of experience, so I needed help.
How did you meet The Allyance?
🔎 Someone from my partner’s job’s HR team posted about me, and Caroline contacted me. That’s when I discovered this big HR network I knew nothing about!
How did The Allyance help you?
We had a first meeting where we talked a lot about my profile and my expectations. During the following meetings, I had the chance to talk about my insecurities. As I was used to the quite formal and institutional world of psychology and health, she helped me to adapt to the tech sector where being natural is the norm.
After a first offer from a company, we realized it was not going to work for both parts. Caroline then spontaneously contacted me about Strapi, a company looking for an intern: she already knew them well and discussed values with them. I really liked that she thought about me for this position and that she was attentive to these aspects!
📌 Even though I was in process with another company offering me a permanent contract, I was convinced that Strapi would be a better fit for me in terms of values, dynamics and communication. So on July 5th 2021, I started out as a freelancer, and with a salary a bit higher than the usual base for interns.
Obviously, even if Strapi could not make any promise about it, the original idea was for me to prove myself enough to transform this internship into a permanent contract.
You first started as an intern at Strapi? You are now a full-time Front-End Engineer. What made you decide to stay?
Honestly, I did not hesitate at all!
🚅 As I arrived in the middle of the v4 development, it was an all-or-nothing situation. The project was huge and I had to catch the train. Fortunately, this was exactly the mindset I had after finishing Ironhack: I was eager to learn, to work, and did not want to stop!
I know that Strapi took a risk by having me as an intern during this intense period. Strangely enough, it went well: the communication is always open and caring, so I could express myself whenever I had to.
About the product itself, I have to say it intimidated me at first. It is quite tech-oriented and its code is a lot more complex than what I’ve seen before. It just felt like a huge mountain to climb, but I turned it into a positive thing. I had the opportunity to build an API that makes sense, and I am not sure you can feel that way in any other company. This level of requirement in coding is amazing when you’re still learning.
He’s doing great! V4 was released last November and the feedback is amazing! Last week, the Strapi Conference took place. All good!
How do you keep yourself up to date with engineering topics and methodologies?
On social media and blogs. I follow people associated with React and CSS to see what’s up, notably Kent C Dodds (and his podcast), Jen Simmons and Stefan Judis.
Strapi makes sure that every developer has time to keep informed on what’s new in the sector, what the competitors are doing… Generally, we share a lot!
Sharing is also quite common among developers, through GitHub and StackOverflow. I also have contacts at Ladies of Code and Ironhack.
When you are not working, what do you do?
To be honest, I am so into my job these days that I keep working and working to find solutions.
When I manage to switch off my computer and Visual Studio Code, I switch my games consoles on. Since I was young, I have always loved video games. These days, I am deep into an indie game called Grow: Song of the Evertree on Nintendo Switch. I love the indie games sector and try to support them as much as I can!
Name a well-known person you admire. Tell us why you admire that person!
My former job and my career switch taught me to respect every journey. I find everyone interesting and inspiring, without being focused on anyone in particular.
Why would you recommend other engineers to work with The Allyance?
Because engineers, and most specifically women, need to be heard and supported. They need to know where they’ll be landing, and to do so, we have to keep the conversation open.
Caroline is the first person I had this conversation with, and it was so relieving. She always surprised me by how kind she is: she never failed to ask how I’m doing. In my psychologists’ bubble, I knew nothing about companies and business. I got to meet someone really cool, whose values are close to my heart.
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CONCLUSION
A few words from Caroline, The Allyance CEO:
“Sometimes, you meet a candidate and you feel an instant connection. This is what happened when I first met Julie. I am 100% convinced she was an excellent engineer and knew she would be perfect for Strapi’s Front-End team. I can’t tell you how proud I am to have connected Julie with Strapi.
✔️ Want more?
If you are interested in knowing more about The Allyance recruitment offer, feel free to get in touch with us.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ✒️ Léa C, The Allyance Contributor