Hannah Ellicott

"My personality types from the My Skills My Life quiz are 'Developer', 'Investigator' and 'Manager'. I think these fit really well, both with the work I currently do, and where I aspire to be in the future. Right now I'm a software engineer - I develop solutions to problems, and I investigate when bugs arise. In the future I hope to become a manager or mentor and to guide others in the same way that my manager and mentor guided me!"

"What I like most about my job is that it varies a lot and I have a good amount of control of what I do each day. Sometimes I will spend all day writing code, other days I may be trying to fix a bug in a system I was involved in writing a year ago! I also often get asked to 'demo' some of my work to people from other teams and answer their questions to help them in the project they are working on. This can be fun as i allows me to take a step back at what I've been doing and to practice explaining it in a simpler way, which is sometimes harder than you'd think! One thing I really enjoy and would love to do more of is mentoring and coaching the more junior members of the team. Sometimes they ask questions which stump me, but that it a great way for me to learn too. Of course, there are the slightly more mundane things like answering emails and attending meetings, but when the people you work with are fun they don't seem like too much of a chore either.The starting salary for my role is £36,000."

"My journey to my current role was perhaps not the conventional route, I had some low and high points and am very proud to be where I am now!My first experience of computer science and programming was when I started GCSE Computing. I was the only girl in the class, but this didn't bother me, I loved writing code and solving problems. I discovered I was good at it too and decided to continue with the subject at A-Level, leading to my acceptance into my preferred university to study Computer Science. I had always been good at school, and even enjoyed it, however university was a whole different ball game and I found my mental health was suffering. I passed my first year with average grades and was hoping for my mental health to improve with a fresh start in second year. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and in November of my second year I decided to suspend my degree for a year to focus on getting better. It was a difficult decision but in the end I think I made the right choice for me.Throughout most of my first year I had a part time job as a climbing instructor (my favourite hobby) which I loved. I continued working there during my time out of university and ran some climbing sessions with a local facility for young adults with autism, I loved those sessions so much it inspired me to get a second job there as a carer! I worked at both of these jobs for a couple of months, and thoroughly enjoyed them, however I couldn't see myself making a long term career out of them, and I missed computer science. I started browsing the kinds of jobs I might be able to get after I went back and finished my degree and stumbled upon Ordnance Survey's IT Trainee scheme. I interviewed and, thanks to the skills I picked up as a climbing instructor, carer and student, got the job! I worked as an IT trainee for 1 year, receiving a lot of hands on training and learning on the job. This learning style suited me so much more than university lectures, it turns out! After the year I was promoted up 2 job titles to \"Software Engineer\", and that's where I am today. I believe I got lucky with some of the opportunities that came my way, but I also put in a lot of hard work and was able to make my way into the career path I always hoped for, without needing to complete my university degree."

"I now live in Winchester with my boyfriend and our rescue dog Casper. We spend lots of time walking the dog and enjoying the lovely countryside nearby, sometimes going on a nice long hike or camping in the nearby New Forest. As much as I love programming, it's important to get away from the screen for a while!My other passion is climbing, I still sometimes miss my old job of climbing instructing, however I've made up for this by setting up and running my company's climbing club - OS Climbers! I am a qualified instructor and teach lessons to others at Ordnance Survey who want to try out the sport for the first time, as well as going on lots of climbing trips with those who are already experienced. It's a great sport for meeting people and making friends!"

"A typical day at work would start with the morning stand up. This is a short, 15 minute meeting where each person in the team says what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and if there are any 'blockers' (things which may stop them from doing what they plan to do). After this my day varies. I may have some meeting to attend, these could be project related - planning upcoming work, or reviewing our progress, or they could be part of the wider department - perhaps discussions of software engineering good practice and industry standards. The rest of the day would be spent writing code, or fixing bugs. Sometime we do pair programming, where 2 people work on one bit of code. This can be really useful for making sure we're both up to speed, and also catching bugs quicker or bouncing ideas off each other to come up with better solutions.During my lunch break sometimes I join in with other clubs within in Ordnance Survey, like the choir, table tennis or the summer volleyball league! In the afternoon we often have meetings with stakeholders (these are usually the people involved in how the project is being funded) where we show the progress we've made and ask each other questions to make sure we're still on track to supply what the customer wants. Then for the rest of the afternoon I continue to work on coding and problem solving."

"After my GCSEs I completed 3 A levels: Maths, Further Maths and Computer Science. I worked very hard which resulted in being awarded an A grade in all three subjects.Thanks to passing my first year of University I also hold a Certificate of Higher Education in Computer Science from the University of Southampton.I also hold my Climbing Wall Instructor qualification, however whilst my experience as a climbing instructor helped me build important skills I still use everyday, this specific qualification definitely isn't necessary for a job in Computer Science!"