Studying Music & Event Management, working at a ski resort and as café manager at Gothenburg Concert Hall. Malin Classon has done a lot. She knew she wanted to study more, and her interest in tech led her to systems development.
Tell us about your background.
– I’ve always loved mathematics and natural science and the idea of using this in my daily work has always been tempting. Furthermore, I’ve always been interested in tech, but excluded it because I thought working with tech required much more experience. I knew several people who were studying IT at university level, so I started thinking about becoming a developer. This inspired me to apply for a course in .Net web developing. I sent in my application just hours before deadline. The next morning, I got a spot on a preparatory programming course. And it didn’t take long before I was hooked.
”The challenge is always unpredictable”
But what does a systems developer do?
– Many probably think you spend all day coding, but those days are few. It’s not just programming, but solving different problems, planning and troubleshooting. And a lot of things are constantly happening. There are new frameworks to take into account, new technologies to learn; you always have to push yourself. I can learn so much, every day. Thankfully there’s always someone to ask if you want do discuss something.
How did you end up at Stendahls?
– I knew that there was going to be an internship period and started looking at companies early. Several people told me good things about Stendahls so I visited the website and I felt it was the place for me. I landed an interview and I immediately felt right at home. In the autumn of 2016 I started my internship, after helping out two weeks during the summer. I was then hired as a systems developer in March 2017.
Something that’s often brought up when talking about tech and IT-industries is the lack of women. In 2016, 20% of systems developers in Sweden were women. At the same time, studies show that diversity lead to innovation.
What about being a woman in a field that stereotypically seems to be dominated by men?
– I’ve never felt that me being a woman has been holding me back as a systems developer. On the contrary, my impression is that the industry is very positive when it comes to female developers. Admittedly, you definitely see that we’re fewer than male developers. There’s also an extreme lack of systems developers in general, so there’s a clear demand. Hopefully the number of female developers will increase.
And lastly, what are the three best things about your job?
– Solving problems. When you’re working on a problem and finally get it right, that’s hard to beat. You get a concrete answer that things are working like they should. And it’s also great that you get to share knowledge between co-workers, since we all have different areas of expertise. There are many ways to solve problems, and by learning from others you can improve what you do. The third thing is the constant challenge, you never know what today’s challenge is going to be. It’s not always what you think.
Published 16. December 2017