Becoming an IT Graduate as a Mature Student: The Reality No One Talks About Going to university as a mature student was one of the hardest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Studying IT later in life meant juggling responsibilities, self-doubt, and the pressure of starting again in a completely new industry. Graduating felt like a huge achievement. But stepping into the job market as a new IT graduate who isn’t new to work at all came with its own set of challenges. What I quickly realised is that breaking into IT as a mature graduate isn’t just about technical skills. It’s about confidence, reframing experience, and learning how to tell your story in a way employers understand. Sheffield Hallam University Challenging the Assumptions of Employers and Recruiters One of the first hurdles I encountered was assumption. There’s a quiet expectation in some recruitment processes that a “graduate” is young, fresh out of university, and at the very start of their working life. ...
One Problem, Loads of Solutions One of the things I love most about computer programming is that there’s rarely just one “correct” way to solve a problem. Give ten developers the same task and you’ll likely get ten different solutions - all of which might work perfectly well. In programming, the how often matters less than the does it work . The approach you choose is shaped by your own technical background, the time you have available, and the resources you can realistically access. If your solution works, then it works and you weren’t wrong just because someone else took a different route to get to the same destination. That’s something worth remembering, especially when comparing projects or reading other people’s code. A different solution doesn’t automatically mean a better or worse one; it just means different constraints, priorities, or preferences were at play. One developer might prioritise speed of development, another long-term scalability, and another simplicity or...