6-months have already passed, and there is still so much discovering, learning and growing left to do!

Realizing change is needed to continue growing

Ever since I finished university, I always asked myself a lot of questions about my work. How can I be good at it? Can I be happy going to work every day? After having worked two years in something not really related to my degree, I still had questions. With little adds on by stress.

In some way, I liked what I was doing, but I was not happy doing it. Weird, isn’t it? Daily life was sometimes boring or stressful. Social interactions weren’t on a daily basis. I was often overlooked for developing tasks, even though this is my area of expertise. I had stopped learning and discovering new things. Thinking ahead, I knew not honing my skills further would be detrimental to my career. It took me a while to understand that this wasn’t what I expected from my professional life. But I finally got the nerve to start searching for something else related to my diploma. I wanted a position where I could continue learning and growing.

Change takes courage

After much reflection and a dose of courage, I started searching for a position as a software engineer. I was looking for something new and different, where I could be myself. I found Railnova on Linkedin, and it was ticking a lot of boxes, going in the way I was thinking about work. After the interview, I knew it was what I was searching for and hoped it would work. And here I am!

Continued growing

The first weeks were mentally difficult and kind of hard for me as I can be really shy. Welcome calls to plan with everybody? Why would they want to talk to me, is it to evaluate me? They may have better things to do. But I was totally off the mark!

People here like you and care for you: You’re not an “8h/day” dispensable resource! They want and like to explain things to you and make you grow. All this without any personal interest or special requests after. Now that I’m the one with planned calls, I understand it. Meeting a newby is always a good time, and it breaks the ice by making you feel comfortable with the team.

Growing out of your comfort zone

After this step, where I was out of my comfort zone, I started working and discovered the different tools used. No email, no endless meetings where I could not speak, no hierarchical leader to understand before asking a question. When you’re not used to it, this can be weird, but you get used to it when you discover that you can focus on the important stuff.

Discovering new things to learn

I started developing almost directly, discovering again what I had chosen to learn in university: embedded development. After two months, I had the opportunity to do my first release with Low Power. I also had the chance to present my work in front of everyone during the company workshop. Adding to the thrill of making my first steps in this world, I was delighted and thankful to have all this gentle and great feedback after it.

The cycle at Railnova: discovering, learning, growing, repeat

Since then, I have continued working on different new features and still discovering a lot of new things, allowing growth in my area of expertise. I still smile every time I come into the office, and seeing all your faces makes my past anxiety disappear!

I just wanted to say thank you for giving me a chance to learn and “start again”, getting back into development. Thank you for helping me since the very beginning of this new road!

Want to discover more about Railnova, grow in our teams, and learn new things? Check out our job section, https://jobs.railnova.eu/, for any opening that might interest you!