Opencast’s Liam O’Connor has made a big recent career shift with a move from talent into software development. Here he shares the story of his well-planned ‘squiggle’ from one discipline to another – and how the business has helped him move.
Like so many others during the pandemic, I suffered the misfortune of being made redundant. I’d been working in recruitment since 2014, so it was without doubt a challenging time. Despite managing to secure a new role fairly quickly, the experience made me start to think about my career differently.
After taking the government’s online personal skills assessment, work as a software developer appeared as a suitable option.
Although there were plenty of other suggestions, this wasn’t the first time I had seen software developer as a potential career move. When I was at school, to my mind tech wasn’t a ‘cool’ thing to do so I never pursued it, despite having always had a keen interest in technology. Once I starting my working life, I never really saw a switch into tech as achievable, given that so many roles required a university degree and/or experience in the industry. I didn’t have either.
This time, however, it felt different. With the encouragement of my partner Steph, I started off learning Python in my spare time through a course on Udemy and began reaching out to tech companies to find out about entry-level opportunities.
One of those companies was Opencast, but at the time there were no opportunities at the business. Despite this, Sarah Purvis, a former colleague from my recruitment days, set up a call with David Sarginson, Opencast’s head of software development.
‘Sarg’ spent almost an hour chatting with me, giving me advice on what could help me break into the industry. What amazed me at the time was that Sarg volunteered so much of his time to help someone that he didn’t know.
With no immediate opportunities on the horizon but a real desire for a change, I went down a different path and tried my hand on the production line at Nissan. It turned out that it was not for me. I have huge respect for people who can do that type of work - but for me, it just wasn’t engaging enough. It didn’t get my brain working or learning the way I wanted to.
With a baby on the way and still no joy on the tech route, I decided to look to something familiar and started applying for recruitment roles – with a key consideration being the ability to work from home so I could maximise the time with my family.
Around a year after my phone call with Sarg, I noticed an internal recruiter job advertised with Opencast. I knew I wanted to work there, because Sarg had made such an impression on me that I just knew this would be an amazing company to work for, whatever the job role.
