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Graduating with awards and landing my first job with Software Engineering at Cardiff Met

Lakshima with her award certificates
Lakshima with her award certificates

Hello, my name is Lakshima. I was born and raised in Bahrain, a small country in the Middle East. However, my ethnicity and nationality are Sri Lankan.

Growing up, I was fortunate enough to have a desktop computer. I would play games on it all day. I was creative, very curious and I loved to explore things, and this spurred my interest in working with computers. During my A Levels, I studied Multimedia and Web Technology which gave me a taste of web development and programming. I did well in the subject and thoroughly enjoyed learning to code. I became the school’s topper and earned a merit award in my A Level result outcome.

Despite this, I was initially put off studying computer science or software engineering at university. I thought that I needed to be a maths whiz, so I doubted myself and didn’t believe I could do an actual degree in something that looked so complex at the time. Luckily for me, I had a great female influence already working in tech who told me otherwise, and that was all I needed to hear.

Lakshima sitting on a sofa with her laptop
With the encouragement of a female role model working in tech, I moved past my self-doubts and decided to study Software Engineering

I started researching university courses and found myself drawn towards software development or engineering. When I received my unconditional offer from Cardiff Met, I was over the moon and excited to begin my journey. I didn’t study maths at A levels, so I had to complete a foundation year first. Looking back now, I am thankful for the opportunity to study the Foundation before starting my degree. For someone who was moving to a whole different country all by herself, that first year was extremely helpful in getting myself familiar with things. The education system and assessments in the UK were all so new to me, and the Foundation allowed me to progress onto my first year being a lot more prepared.

Throughout my course, any doubts and insecurities I had diminished. I received a lot of support from the academic staff at Cardiff Met’s School of Technologies, and also had a great number of female role models within the lecturing team. That made me feel so much more at ease, as I was one of just a few female students on my course.

I was interested in understanding the reasons behind the gender disparity in computing in the UK. I was aware that in Sri Lanka, the IT sector and most universities see an almost equal split between genders. When formulating ideas for my final year project, I decided to focus on understanding the gender gap here in the UK, comparing it to Sri Lanka.

Lakshima working on her laptop
Working on my dissertation during a global pandemic was a challenge – but I persevered

With the guidance of my course’s programme director, I drafted my first dissertation proposal, which I refined in subsequent months. It was a big project. My supervisor helped me break it down into manageable chunks, and I would not have been able to push myself as far as I did without his support. As I was working on my project during the pandemic, I found it difficult to work from home and meet the deadlines I set for myself – the pressure was weighing on me. I pushed through and worked to the very last minute before submission. My dissertation was roughly 22,000 words and I also created a mobile web application to receive accreditation by the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. After submitting it, I was exhausted and a bit disappointed, because I didn’t think I had reached the standard I wanted it to be. Once again, my lecturers reassured me that I had done a great job and I needn’t be that hard on myself. This level of support was incredible and got me through the next few weeks until results were out.

Lakshima sitting at a desk working on her laptop
I ended up getting a First, two awards for my performance, and landing a graduate job!

To my surprise, I scored an 86 – making it a First on both my dissertation and my degree. As well as this, I was awarded the Software Engineering Student of the Year Award for the best overall performance, and the Cardiff School of Technologies BSc Dissertation of the Year Award for the best dissertation. In that moment, I knew that everything I went through was worth it.

I also managed to land a job immediately after graduation – a graduate scheme in the Cardiff office of a global digital consultancy company that specialises in web and mobile application development.

Looking back, I can’t imagine why I was so hard on myself. I gave it my absolute best and learned lots of things that have changed me as an individual and helped me grow. My four years at Cardiff Met were the best years of my life that I will cherish forever. And I would honestly do it all over again.