Kirstie Davidson
Job:
Junior Software Engineer
Company:
On The Beach, Manchester
On The Beach is a technology-focused company that’s grown into the UK’s leading online retailer of beach holidays. I’m a member of a friendly team of 8 developers who help to enhance our online services for customers both by improving existing features and developing new features for the website.
I am...
Quirky
Smart
Friendly
The skills I use most in my job...
Rails
React
RSpec
SQL
The most interesting thing I've worked on in my career so far...
I’ve been working in software for only 8 months - the most exciting things so far have been building on my coding skills and also helping to create a whole new B2B website. This has given me a great insight into how different apps together create an entire holiday booking process.
What inspired me into digital and tech...
The last education post that I held didn't allow me much creative freedom so I began researching careers for creative people. Software engineering came up frequently so I took a free online beginners course and loved the combination of learning, problem solving and creativity that it allows.
My educational background is...
I studied German and Dutch at university, graduating in 2003. Since then I worked mainly in education until deciding to embark on Northcoders coding bootcamp in Manchester last year. This taught me to write JavaScript for both BE and FE (mainly React). After securing my job at On The Beach, I attended their fantastic Ruby Academy for a month to learn Ruby and RSpec.
What advice I'd give to girls thinking about a career in digital and tech...
Computer programming started as a women's field! Women bring so many valuable skills to the digital/tech sectors, and it’s a great area in which to work - it’s easy to find flexible working hours, great training/advancement opportunities and the chance to work on so many different interesting projects.
