I started working at Equinix in December 2018 as an associate software developer. Until then, I worked at university for over 13 years. I completed a Ph.D. in mathematics and wrote a dozen publication in field of fixed-point theory. Despite those successes, I could not find myself in the hierarchical environment. I felt unappreciated and had the feeling that I’d reached the ‘glass ceiling’ you hear so often. At that moment I wasn’t ready for a complete change in job nor was I ready to effectively re-start my career from the beginning.

It took some time for me to feel a strong desire to change my life. It wasn’t until a friend gifted me a Java course as a birthday present that thing began to change for me. To begin with, I start learning to keep my mind busy, but soon I felt that coding could be something for me. I joined a Java bootcamp for beginners that took almost 9 months to increase my knowledge and test my skills.

After 1,5 years of hard work, full of obstacles and moments of doubt, I was ready to look for a new opportunity. That’s when Equinix came along. The first few months were quite tough, I had no experience and some technical tasks were challenging, but I was surrounded by wonderful people who are always ready to help and support me.

There is a special atmosphere at Equinix, no matter what skills you have or how experienced you are, everyone makes you feel like an important part of the team. People at Equinix put their faith in you from the beginning and often give you the opportunity to test yourself, despite not having a lot of experience.

Equinix is not only work for me, we have integration meetings, we have breakfast mornings, board game evenings, occasional joint events like buying Christmas gifts for kids that live in an orphanage and much more.

One of the program’s that Equinix is particularly proud of is Equinix Impact – it’s a program that encourages employees to give back to charities they’re supportive of and is fully endorsed by senior leadership. This year I took part in Impact Month for the first time and I was coordinating a charity collection for an animal shelter!

As someone who is still relatively new to Software Engineering, I encourage anyone to push through their comfort zone like I did - Equinix has taught me that if you’re prepared to work hard and challenge yourself, you will be rewarded.