‘It’s all about being approachable.’ BearingPoint’s Ellen Whelan discusses the company’s tech internship and the most important aspects of being a mentor.
Before Ellen Whelan began searching for an internship while studying at university, she never really considered technology consulting as an option.
Whelan, who studied computer science at Trinity College Dublin, says she was initially focused on more “straightforward” software companies. However, after hearing about BearingPoint through Trinity, she got an interview with a member of the company’s recruitment team and as a result, she was sold on pursuing a career in technology consulting.
“As someone who didn’t have a particular area of interest in software, BearingPoint really appealed to me for its varied projects and engagements, the different technologies it works with, and the large spread of industries it has a foothold in.”
Whelan secured a place on a six-month tech internship at BearingPoint, which she began in February 2021, and after completing a master’s in computer science, she returned to the company as a graduate in 2022 and now holds the title of technology consultant.
Here, she tells us about her experience of the internship and her working life.
What expectations did you have before you began your internship?
Looking back now I don’t really know what my expectations were – in truth I think I had no idea what to expect. I did my interviews with BearingPoint in October 2020, all over Zoom, all from my childhood bedroom in Wexford. I had my first day in BearingPoint from that same room in February 2021. Covid lockdowns were seemingly never ending, we were coming up on a year of living in a global pandemic, and there I was starting my career – entirely remotely. It was more than a little strange booting up my laptop that morning, with very little idea what was to come.
And thankfully, what came was a fantastic six months working with a great software team, learning everything I could about professional software development and technology consulting. And despite never setting foot in the office, or getting to visit a client site, six months on Microsoft Teams was still enough to make me want to come back.
Tell us a bit about your career development from your time as an intern to your role as a graduate.
After my internship I returned to Trinity to complete the master’s year of my integrated computer science programme. I specialised in pedagogical technologies for coding education, and my dissertation focused on the development of an intermediate programming environment to ease the transition from ‘drag and drop’ interfaces to plain text coding.
A little over a year after completing my internship, I returned to BearingPoint as a technology analyst in September 2022. I joined a project working on a case management platform for a client in the public sector, as a junior developer. In the two years since then I have been given the opportunity to expand my role in the team, mentoring junior developers, leading subprojects, overseeing the team’s onboarding process and sprint ceremonies, and in March of this year I was promoted to technology consultant.
Tell us a bit about your current role as a technology consultant.
In my experience, being a technology consultant can change so much day to day. Primarily I’m a software developer, most of my time is spent working on user stories and bugs. But in addition to that, I have a lot of face time with the client. Some days I’ll have sprint demos and sprint reviews with them, and some days there’ll be calls to discuss new functionality or production issues.
With all this client face time, naturally comes emails and follow-ups, documentation, and while it’s not something I expected, it’s something I’ve found I really enjoy.
Once you became a senior developer, you began mentoring junior developers. Tell us a bit about that and how you went about mentoring them.
The team I currently work on is quite small, just a handful of developers and a business analyst, and for a long time when I first joined, I was the most junior member of the team. However, about a year in I got the opportunity to onboard a new joiner to our team and take on a mentor-like role for the first time.
As it was my first time taking on a ‘mentee’ so to speak, I didn’t have any particular ideas about how I should go about it so I just tried to put myself in her shoes, tried to remember the kind of things that were challenging for me when I first joined and be a friendly face for her to bounce questions and problems off of. It’s a role I’ve really enjoyed and as time has gone on, that new joiner has become a really great colleague and peer. And now with our graduate intake just joining this past week, I get to do it all again with another new joiner to our team.
What do you think is the most important part of mentoring young professionals?
I think for me it’s quite simple, it’s all about being approachable. Starting a new job at any stage in your career can be daunting, especially when you’re just starting out. I remember how nervous I was before I started, and how important it was to me to have such great managers during my first few months at BearingPoint. Having people I knew I could approach with any questions or problems was a huge part of why I settled in so well here and I try to keep that in mind now that I get to take on a mentorship role.
What in your opinion are the biggest challenges facing interns and graduates entering the tech world right now?
I think the hardest part of starting a career in technology right now is knowing where to start. Things are changing faster than ever before – just look at the explosion of AI technologies in recent years. That can be intimidating and overwhelming for people starting off. What do I need to know? What should I focus on? Where should I upskill? There are thousands of technologies being used in software systems around the world, and I think it’s easy for new graduates to feel like they need to know everything right away in order to be successful.
Of course, that’s impossible and part of being a graduate is learning on the job, but with the technology landscape changing faster than ever, knowing where to focus your time is easier said than done.
What advice would you give young professionals or graduates who are just starting out on their career journey in tech?
Learn as much as you can! As a graduate, there’s an expectation that you don’t know everything yet, and that in itself is a great opportunity to grow as a professional. Take every available resource and learning hour you can to explore your area, discover what’s interesting to you, and don’t be afraid to try things outside your role.
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