Changing jobs is always a stressful thing to do, leaving the relative comfort of a company where you know everyone and have a daily routine, to take a chance on something new. Usually this would be a step up or at least sideways into familiar territory – but what if you decide on a career change at the same time?

This is how I arrived at earthware in July 2021.

My jobs have always been around tech in various forms, from early days in data entry, through several years in retail, then turning a HTML hobby into a full-time career. That move into coding for a living kept me gainfully employed for almost 25 years, so deciding to move on to something new was no small decision.

I was looking for:

- A hands-on, tech-adjacent role

- Exciting projects

- An agency with a great culture

- Somewhere I could make a difference

I tried my hand at project management but that wasn't quite right for me - I wanted to do everything I had done at other agencies, but without the coding. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE coding, but I wanted it to be a hobby again. I love being involved in dissecting projects and really figuring out what needs to be done, or spotting opportunities that a client had maybe not considered. So, when I was introduced to earthware, the Business Analyst role seemed to be a perfect fit.

Healthcare as a sector brings its own challenges for a newcomer - there is a LOT of new terminology, infinite acronyms, constant checks for compliance and new uses for technology. earthware are proudly agile in every aspect – even training our clients in a fun, interactive workshop.

I have been working on mobile apps and websites of course, but healthcare is beginning to embrace the possibilities of newer technologies such as AR & VR, which are increasingly part of our toolkit for innovative solutions. New ideas, even off-the-wall ones, are encouraged and we have the latest technologies available to do the research when needed.

I'm sure that all developers at some point will have been frustrated by being given something to build where the technical requirements have not been thought through properly. Having a coder mindset really helps with that and I have found that the development team appreciate not having to be as involved until later stages - coders want to be coding rather than in meetings!

Speaking of the team... if you know us, you’ll know that earthware is all about people. It's an incredibly warm and friendly place to spend your days, everyone always has a smile and is very supportive of each other, even with a lot of the staff working remotely. It was actually a little disconcerting at first being somewhere so positive. I was almost waiting for it to wear off, but it really hasn't – genuinely good places to work DO exist! That positivity makes you excited about everything you do. Everyone is excited to be working on projects that make a measurable difference to real people's lives.

My first 6 months has been full of surprises. I'm still finding new aspects to the role as we are defining how and where we can bring value to the organisation. I've been involved in pitching, scoping, estimating, writing user stories and tickets, documentation, developing processes and conducting user testing. I've even been hands-on with SQL, JavaScript, and Google Analytics as part of research to help solve some problems.

So, if you are a developer looking for a new challenge, wondering if there is a different way to progress while still being close to the code, I can tell you there is. Get in touch for a chat about the possibilities.