Fabiana Lassandro

I started my career as a project manager in a web agency. I had the chance to work closely with both developers and designers, and I started to become fascinated with their skills. In particular, the ability to build something from scratch. I started to ask questions and to shadow them as much as possible. I attended a few short courses to learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and how to use tools like Photoshop. Throughout the years, my confidence and curiosity for the web increased, and I decided it was time to change and start a new career. After weeks of research, I found the MA at the University of Greenwich, and I sent in my application. The programme’s aim to teach the students with the method “learn by doing” convinced me straight away.

I attended the MA full-time. I found the ability to plan ahead around my schedule very helpful. It allowed me to focus exclusively on the course for the first term and work part-time during the second one. It was an intense year, which demanded a lot of hard work. However, the course allowed me to become a web designer able to make a website from scratch with solid knowledge about web standards and best practices.

For the Major Project, I decided to make a website encouraging people to make ice-cream at home. I wanted to convey my passion for homemade gelato in a “homemade” website. I decided to build my project, avoiding third party intervention, from the creation of the contents to the compiling of the code. The most significant challenge was building my WordPress theme. However, the final result at One Million Flavours was hugely rewarding, and what I’ve learned was worth the effort.

The MA has ignited my passion for learning more. Moreover, during the course, a clearer idea emerged about what I wanted to pursue after. I wanted to become a front-end developer, and during the summer, while working on the final project, I started to take a look at the options available. One day I received a newsletter from Code First: Girls, a not for profit organisation which widens women and non-binary people’s access into the tech industry. An ad invited people to apply for a four-month digital intensive course to learn to code. At the end, we would have the chance to be interviewed, and eventually to be hired, by BT. Today I’m living in Belfast, and I’m a software engineer in BT with a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I’m excited by how far I’ve come so far.