BENLIGHTEN ALUMNI STORIES: Katrynira, TEST ENGINEER

BENLIGHTEN Alumni Stories is a blog series where our alumni share their experiences of embarking on a new career journey with BENLIGHTEN Academy.

BENLIGHTEN Alumnus Katrynira shares her view on the biggest value BENLIGHTEN provided for her and her tips on how to stay on track during your studies. Now, Katrynira is working as a Test Engineer at Cloudpermit.

Congratulations Katrynira on your new job as a Test Engineer! What a fantastic achievement. How would you say BENLIGHTEN Academy has helped you to get there?

First and foremost, the lectures and support from the teachers have been the backbone of the Academy. Surely one can find tutorials and other documents online, but the detailed and student-focused materials and the projects resembling a real-life setting make studying more efficient and fun.

Secondly, encouraging the students to form study groups and have scrum meetings is a big deal as it gives us an opportunity to network and gets both technical and mental support from our peers. Working in groups teaches us how to be good team players, how to ask for help and feedback from our peers. These all are very useful experiences and skills to have when you are starting a new career.

What did you think about the Full Stack Academy curriculum?

During my software development study journey I have participated in a few different online and in-person coding courses, and I have to say that BENLIGHTEN has been the best of them all! We covered the most modern technologies that are in high demand in the job market, all the materials were up-to-date and easily accessible, and the teachers were highly professional and always available for supporting students. The lectures were fun, and I loved that we had the time and chance to apply the learned theory in practice in our own projects.

The projects at BENLIGHTEN Academy have been challenging enough for us students to get the most out of them, but never too overwhelming. The teachers also reviewed our projects, helped us if we got stuck, and gave us tips and tricks on how to improve our coding. We got all the support we needed to succeed.

For a person who is aspiring to become a software developer – could you share some tips & tricks for best practices in learning?

The most helpful advice I got was to embrace the struggle. Software development is not easy. Sometimes it can be very frustrating to just stare at the screen for hours and not find the bug you are looking for. But that is part of the game, and even the most experienced developers encounter this frustration from time to time. It’s important to not get discouraged when it gets hard. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to take a break, go for a walk, and when your mind is clear again, you can return to the problem with a fresh pair of eyes.

How do you feel about BENLIGHTEN’s instructors and student support?

As a career-changing immigrant woman, the most important aspect of this course was to gather valuable knowledge. The warm, supportive atmosphere that BENLIGHTEN’s team created for us made me feel welcomed and appreciated. I had a great time studying at BENLIGHTEN and of course, celebrating my colleagues’ success stories!

Do you think that BENLIGHTEN was helpful in finding a job for you?

Absolutely! I cannot emphasize enough how valuable the work of the business development team is! The job hunt is really time-consuming – having a team supporting me with the professional CV, the mock interview, and their trust in me helped me build my confidence in achieving my goal to land my first tech job.