Technology deeply impacts our lives and we’ve talked a lot about it on the blog. It turns out that in September, we celebrate a special date: the Day of the Programmer. What would so many IT projects be without programmers and developers? Nothing, of course. So we want to talk a little more about this.
September 12th or 13th?
If you google it, you’ll notice that the Day of the Programmer is sometimes celebrated on September 13th and sometimes on September 12th. This is because it depends on when the 256th of the year falls and, in leap years, like 2020, it was on the 12th.
256 is the number of values that can be represented in an 8-bit byte, so why not celebrate this date, right?
The IT market
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Brazil has around two million graduated workers in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. By 2024, Brasscom estimates we will need around 70,000 IT professionals per year.
The point is that in 2017, for example, we formed only 46,000 professionals and, of these, only 26,000 entered the work market. In other words, we have a significant deficit, which turns it into a very promising market.
This is still, essentially, a men’s world
The IT market also has more professionals who identify themselves as male. In 2018, according to Brasscom, only 33% of the more than 845,000 professionals in the field identified themselves as female.
Few people, right? But that will change a lot! That’s why we had a chat with Jade Lessa, a software analyst who is part of the EUGENIO team, to find out more about how this market is doing and talk about its countless possibilities.
Taking things apart just to understand how they work
EUGENIO: What is your background and why did you decide to be part of the IT industry?
Jade: I graduated in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Paraná. My father is an electronics engineer, more focused on working with machines, and he always stimulated my curiosity about how things work. When I went with my parents to the bank, for example, I just watched how the system worked. The use of cards, passwords, sometimes biometrics. And that interested me a lot. At home, I always took everything apart to understand how things work and then put them back together again. So going down this IT path felt natural
EUGENIO:And how did you start working with IT?
Jade: During college, I developed a ‘radar for bike paths’ project, both the hardware and the software. The radar measured the speed of bicycles using the Doppler effect and ultrasound, which is one of the cheapest technologies for this type of project. I created a treadmill that measured the speed when the bikes passed. And then I ended up meeting an investor, when I was about to graduate, who wanted someone to help him put together a parking sensor project. I started to be a developer at that moment. We designed a sensor project that indicated which were the closest free parking spaces, for example, in malls.
EUGENIO:And here at EUGENIO, what is your role?
Jade: I joined the team when EUGENIO already existed. It was a complete change for me, because, until then, I had only studied solutions related to parking, such as vehicle and presence sensors. In the EUGENIO team, the applications are diverse, we deal with projects that range from the safety of a pet to the safety of people and the city. It’s pretty cool.
EUGENIO:What do you think of the Internet of Things?
Jade: There are many possibilities when it comes to IoT, so I like it a lot. Today, I work more on embedded hardware and software, but I’m already studying how to work with cloud and fog. I want to be able to help with the end-to-end process, which is what EUGENIO allows. We work from capturing information, with sensors, to delivering data on the platform to our customers.
EUGENIO: What about working with IT and the Internet of Things? Was it difficult at first?
Jade: The beginning was really difficult. This is a market made up of many men. At the beginning of the course, no one believed that I would really like IT or even that I would be able to go to college. I was the only woman who graduated in my class, others who joined me ended up giving up on the way. I had to prove myself a lot, but I don’t feel so much pressure nowadays. I believe I already have a lot more space and I can prove that I can make a difference.
EUGENIO: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to start a career in this market? Do you recommend any books?
Jade: Study a lot! College provides the foundation we need, but we have to study much more. You must have the discipline to study alone, to go after the latest information. There is a lot of great information available for those who want to start in this market. A book that I highly recommend (but be prepared, because it is very technical) is “C: the complete reference”. In addition, some movies can really arouse the desire to work with IT, one of them is “The Imitation Game”, which I recommend.
