Tech-005: Leaving University and Finding My First Software Role

After a year at Nottingham Trent University, I realised something important about myself: I’m a kinesthetic learner. I learn best by doing. While university helped me sharpen my programming skills, it wasn’t hands-on enough. So, after my first year, I made a tough decision — I quit

I completed 1 year at NTU and whilst I learned a lot and further enhanced my programming skills, I also felt it wasn’t hands-on enough for me... being a kinesthetic learner, I needed something more so after my first year I decided to quit the university

I then applied for an apprenticeship at a security printing firm in Derbyshire

Here I worked in under a sales manager and worked on creating custom web solutions for their website and customization products using Pageflex

Here I worked with customers like ODEON cinemas creating personalised greeting and gift card solutions...

I still remember being proud to this day to see my work published on the ODEON cinemas website

I also automated a solution that a staff member was doing manually to create tickets for a transport company in Blackpool.

With light mentoring from the Beach hut software, I started to delve more into C# and .NET development

This really pushed me towards the .NET community and I spent Copious late hours enhancing my skills at home

I really enjoyed my time here and it was my first real step into my software career

Special Mentions

David, Ian, Carly, Craig, Phil: Thank you for my journey on becoming not only a better developer, but a better person.

Reflection

This wasn’t coursework. This was real customers, real businesses, and real impact. For the first time, I felt like a software engineer, not just a student.

My time here gave me the foundation — technical skills, problem-solving, and the confidence to innovate — that I would later use to turn businesses around.