Annah

Personality for programming

Music, theater, accounting, retail. Annah started down several paths looking for her right career option. But none of them quite fit. However, family and friends saw in her personality – people focused, team player, inquisitive, dedicated – the foundations of a tech career. All Annah needed was a way to learn the technical skills. So, she applied for and was accepted into Catalyte’s software development apprenticeship program.

Grit overcomes doubt

While she had some basic HTML skills, the Catalyte apprenticeship was Annah’s first real introduction to software development. Like many in a new, challenging environment, she had doubts about if she belonged. But, as any good development team does, members of her cohort were there to support her along the way. Buoyed by that support, Annah dug in and would not allow herself to fail. Each victory built confidence and allowed her to see that she was meant to be a software developer.

Trial by fire

Annah’s first client assignment was to build an e-signature API for a bank using .NET and Visual Studio. This project was brand new, so all the work was done from scratch. Week after week, Annah was able to learn while she worked. She constructed the API mostly on her own and delivered the project to the client’s satisfaction. This success showed how far she’d come in just months.

Continued Microsoft learnings

Annah has continued to learn and apply additional Microsoft technologies to her client work. From the financial API project, she has tackled a Microsoft Power Apps project for a national nonprofit, with project management through Azure DevOps. Each new technology she learns makes it easier to learn the next, pushing her skills and career forward.

Microsoft competencies and certifications

• MB-910: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals
• .NET
• C#
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM)
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Microsoft Power Pages
• Azure DevOps
• Azure PaaS
• Visual Studio