Ritam Verma
Full stack softare engineer
Friday, 26 November 2021
Could you please introduce yourself?
Hey! I'm Ritam - a full stack engineer currently working at Beauty Pie, a luxury membership cosmetics brand based in London.
Whats your background?
I studied Dentistry at University, and practiced for quite a lot of time until making the switch to engineering! It was one of the hardest decisions i've made, but so far think its the right one.
Whats your current role?
Full stack engineer at Beauty Pie. I work with technologies such as Next.js React Typescript Node.js ElasticSearch GraphQL Contentful AWS and the list is growing!
Why have you decided to learn to code?
I craved a career with more flexibility, where I was constantly learning and developing skills. I wanted to be able to work remotely, all over the world! Engineering allows me to do that, every day a new challenge is presented to me and I learn something new. I work remotely but am able to go into the office if I wish, and can work from pretty much any location with a stable internet connection!
Do you think its important to learn to code?
The future of the world relies on technology and I think that the global pandemic has taught us more than ever that we need the ability carry out our jobs in a remote fashion in case of (god forbid) future pandemics etc. Learning to code not only increases your employability, but it opens up many doors to career paths that normally would not have been accessible.
Do you feel the tech industry is male dominated? How can we encourage more women into the industry?
There is definitely more males in engineering roles - and I think that probably comes from the stereotype that females don't do IT jobs. But since I've started engineering and getting more active in the women-in-tech world I do think more and more females are getting into technology! I think we need to educate women and girls on the amazing career options in this field, which can work comfortably with work/life balance, families, and other interests away from technology. Not to mention its well paid!
Did you struggle being a woman in the tech industry yourself?
Not at all. I have a super supportive team and I am never made to feel any different to my male counterparts - but that is not the experience of everyone and we still need to draw attention to closing the massive gender gap in this field.
Whats the most rewarding and most challenging parts of your tech career so far?
Rewarding - daily! Releasing new features into the wild, seeing your code produce results for the company! Its very cool.
Challenging - again daily. No day is the same, there is always some new feature to produce or bug to fix. Its like a rollercoaster, some days you think you are amazing at coding and the others you think 'why am I being paid to do this again??' but generally I leave work with a smile on my face!