Dimitra Zuccarelli took a chance when she moved to Waterford to study at South East Technological University (SETU) but it worked out well! Now she is working in London as a product engineer for incident.io.
Red Hat
After SETU I got a job as an associate software engineer in a company called Red Hat, I worked there for a couple of months as a software engineer. After Red Hat, I moved on to work for Microsoft and then Ravelin Technology.
The internship was fundamental in my course. What we did in our class was very much theoretical even though there was an applied practical portion. Having the internship and getting to understand what technologies were being used in the workplace was so important, we got to see how we fit into the job so it gave me an idea of whether or not I could do that job and if I would enjoy doing it.
Moving to Waterford
My dad moved to Ireland when I was in my last year of high school, I didn’t consider Ireland as an option, I didn’t even know where Waterford was on the map, to be honest. He’s also in software and he knew I wanted to study computer science. A lot of his colleagues had studied applied computing at SETU so I looked into it. What attracted me to the course was the fact there was a work placement module which I knew would be important to me to get practical experience in the industry so I applied to SETU and got in. I didn’t know what I was getting into, I was still in Italy at the time so it was a shot in the dark.
Not just a number
The lecturers are so helpful, so willing to help you grow, encourage you and support you through your journey and that’s unusual at least where I am from, in the universities there, you are kind of just a number, the classes are huge, you don’t know your classmates let alone your professors so actually getting to know your professors, getting to know your colleagues and working with them closely is amazing for me. The practical element as well, we did a lot of labs, and a lot of practical work and that helped my learning style so I liked that a lot.
Right up to date
Consider Computing at SETU, it’s an amazing course. Be warned that it is a lot of work, I’m not going to tell anyone that it’s not a lot of work, it's hard going but it’s so rewarding; it’s so worth the experience! What you get to learn in class is bang up to date as a lot of companies have input into the course work. It’s very rare to go into the workplace with the skills that you already need, and I think that’s such an important thing that SETU has to offer.
Women in Tech
There was a Women in Technology event that was happening when I was at SETU so I was happy to get involved. One of my classmates was organising it with our SETU society and I was able to talk at that and they were able to come into the Red Hat office and talk to us while we were on placement. It's important to encourage young girls to get into technology because there is a lack of us in this field. To create more awareness around this is so important.
It's important to encourage young girls to get into technology because there is a lack of us in this field. To create more awareness around this is important." SETU Graduate, Dimitra Zuccarelli