Hannah Beder’s speech at the ICT Showcase

Hi everyone, my name is Hannah and I graduated four years ago. For most of my time at school I thought I wanted to be an architect. I thought I would like it because I liked Maths, Design and History. As I went through school, my subjects and my interests became more diverse, and I become more confused. How was I meant to choose what to do after school if I liked so many things, and they all seemed to point in different directions?

When I started university, a friend who had always been interested in computing suggested I try to take a subject with them. I laughed – how was I meant to compare? They had been doing computing since Primary School. I didn’t even like computers! But what I found was crazy! It didn’t even feel like learning. We solved puzzles and mysteries, we cracked codes and played games. It didn’t matter how good my friend was, before I knew it we were working together on our assignments.

It all made sense from there. I knew I had found the right degree. I became more confident and knowledgeable and felt like I was learning things that matter. Before I knew it, I was applying for summer jobs and I received an offer from Google! I worked all summer two years ago and just came back from America a few weeks ago, where I spent three months working for them again. I never dreamed I’d be working for Google! I never thought I’d be in charge of projects in Google, Chrome or Google Cloud Platform, contributing to a company whose products I use every day. They treated me like a real employee and the work I did is “in production”, which is what software engineers call, “the real world”.

Google was everything it’s cracked up to be and more – whether it was a software engineer, a chef, a receptionist or a manager – everyone is friendly and fun. Everybody wants to hear about what you’ve been working on, how you’re doing, and what you’ve learned recently. I was stoked to be a part of it.

To everyone here I’d like to say: the Google’s of the world are not far away. I knew a lot less about computing in Primary School than anyone here and the work I’ve seen at this show is phenomenal. If you’re still not sure if this is for you, just remember there are so many different parts of computing you might not know you like yet. Do you like board games like checkers, connect 4 and chess? Do you like drawing or painting? Are you good at knitting, origami or music? Or reading maps or braiding hair? All of these things and more could help you unfold your passion for computing and help you find cool problems to solve, even if you already think you know what you what to be when you grow up.