At 13 years old Jonathan wanted to be a monster truck driver or some other ludicrous occupation along those lines. Now 25 years old, Jonathan is a far cry from these ambitions. After completing a degree in IT at NMIT, Jonathan now works as a software developer for Datacom – a job that he truly loves.
At work he’s usually involved in conversations and meetings with clients or writing code and developing software. Jonathan admits the variety is the most interesting and exciting aspect of the job.
The idea of getting into IT didn’t occur to Jonathan in his first years of college. His interest in IT ‘outside of the classroom’ was largely limited to playing computer games. However, in his later college years, he took some of the elective IT subjects that Nayland offered and found that he enjoyed the practical side of IT as much as he enjoyed playing the games.
Deciding that it was a good industry to get into, Jonathan enrolled in NMIT’s IT course with the initial idea to give it a try and see what he thought and as he fell under the category of the ‘Half a Degree for Free’ campaign, it was the perfect set up.
“I did the first semester and really enjoyed it. I would never say that I was a particularly great student in college, ‘severely average’ is how I would have described myself. As soon as I got into NMIT and started doing the stuff I liked, low and behold my grades started improving.”
Jonathon then begun the job search to land his first industry-based position after graduating from NMIT. Jonathan got his first job with SQL Services (now called NTT Database Solutions), a leading database service provider. After three years, he wanted to branch out, learn more skills and broaden his scope. This led him to his current role as Software Developer at Datacom. When asked about Nelson’s career opportunities in IT, Jonathan highlights the growing industry, “it’s got much better in Nelson and it’s continuing to get a lot better as there’s a lot of companies that are growing significantly. Even compared to when I first finished my study and I was looking around, it felt like there was a lot less and I can’t see that slowing down. The companies that have established a foothold here are running with it and going to continue.”
Outside of work, Jonathan spends his evenings and weekends going swimming – either at Nayland pool, the river, or out at the sea wall. The lack of traffic and ease of getting in and out of the office add to the lifestyle that living in Nelson allows him. Additionally, gaming, cooking and reading are big aspects of Jonathan’s lifestyle that enable him to relax and unwind after a busy work day.
