Caroline Danson: It’s never too late to change career

After finishing high school, Caroline went straight on to university, with the goal of being a social worker in sight.

- I wanted to work with people and have a varied role, which is exactly what you do as a social worker.

 In the years after university she worked in several roles, as both a consultant, in schools and with assessments at the social services.  

- Common for all my roles was that I always worked with children and their families.  

Time for a change 

On her spare time, Caroline played around with some light programming, and in 2019 she wondered if it was time for a career change. 

- A friend of mine told me about an IT course with intensive training over 3 months, where you learn the basics of a programming language. I thought why not, and my application was accepted. 

Caroline admits that it wasn’t easy to let go of a steady job and income to try a new career path. 

- It’s a question of courage really. I also worried about what working with IT really was like, how long it would take for me to get a job and if I ever would be good enough. But I kept an open mind and trusted that curiosity and the willingness to learn would get me there. In the end, I didn’t have that much to lose, but so much to win.  

Opportunities and variety 

After her intensive Java training, she applied to Tietoevry and landed the role of Solution Consultant.

- What originally attracted me to Tietoevry was the many opportunities in a company of their size. I currently work in a team that focuses on Tietoevry’s integration platform called TEIS. Even though I studied Java, I mainly work with .Net and C#. it shows that you’re given opportunities for development.  

Caroline works with projects throughout their life cycle, which gives a great variety. 

- Project start with defining what the client’s needs are and what we must solve. Then we can start the technical programming of the solution, before we test it and deploy it to see that it works according to plan. 

Caroline prefers the technical side of her job, but it’s in the initial stages of the projects that her background comes in handy. 

- As a social worker, a great deal of the job is about talking to people and understanding their issues and current situation. It’s the same with our clients. It's all about asking questions and being curious about their business needs.  

Public sector 

Many of the projects Caroline and her team has worked with is within the public sector, which is both familiar and rewarding. 

- I know how many of our clients operate, which is a plus when trying to understand their needs. I also admit that working for the greater good of society adds an important dimension to my work.  

Caroline has worked with various integration solutions, like connecting several API’s and internal and external IT-systems together, handling data from a fileserver to a database and building a solution that handles secure information between different governmental units. 

- I have for example worked with a municipality where the inhabitants could apply for various types of permits via the municipality’s website - for building houses for example. The input information was then added to an internal system where the processing of the application was handled.  

Another project Caroline has been working on is setting up a service where care personnel could get their schedules onto an app service, allowing them to see their schedules on the go. 

A diverse group of employees 

When asked to describe the culture at Tietoevry, Caroline answers that it’s first and foremost diverse. 

- In my team we are around 25 people who work across Sweden, meaning we have to communicate with each other in different ways.  

It’s not only the location that makes the team diverse, but most definitely also their varied background. 

- I have colleagues who have taken a straight IT path since their youth, but also a former car mechanic, a salesperson and a subway driver. It makes for a work environment where there are great opportunities to learn, especially since we’re so open with each other.  

Drawing on her experience, Caroline has three pieces of advice. 

- I highly recommend both starting a new career, the IT business in general and Tietoevry in particular.