Think of your go-to apps. Deliveroo for food. Whatsapp for messaging. And for travel? Trainline. Trainline is Europe’s leading train and coach app. Its mission? To open up every train and coach journey in the world through cutting-edge tech that saves customers hassle, time and money. The challenge is no mean feat but Trainline believes it’s the people behind its products that can make its mission possible. Its diverse tech team makes up half of its workforce and it continues to enlist new talent with fresh ideas and relevant skills to drive its progress forward.
Enter Makers. Makers and Trainline teamed up to deliver the quality developers it’s come to expect in its team. Trainline said “Makers produces language-agnostic graduates with a strong grasp of engineering principles. Our tech stack is constantly evolving and engineers are required to be flexible and able to adapt. Makers produces motivated developers with a great handle of the fundamentals and a passion for hacking code. They transition seamlessly from career changers, to Makers to junior developers in our team.” With the company taking on four brand new Makers grads it looks like its stream of tech talent is only increasing, but what is it about Trainline that has Makers graduates queuing to get in? Here’s what they had to say:
What was it about the Trainline that stood out to you?
Jen says, “Working for a company that embraces innovation is at the top of my list. Trainline is a company who continually push themselves to evolve. Theysee junior developers as a valuable resource and seek to find ways to grow them into well-rounded mid and senior developers which is evident through their commitment to having all juniors push code to production within their first two weeks on the job.” Siobhan continues, “From the Trainline’s engineering blog I picked up a strong sense of community, culture and the growth mentality that really enticed me — meeting the people just reinforced these opinions. After further explorations Trainline comes across as a near perfect place for a developer of any level to grow their skills.”
“They have a vibrant culture and a tech stack that I’m really interested in!” adds Laura.
So, where did our Makers come from and what are they looking forward to about beginning life as a software developer?
“It’s a brave new world!” says Laura who ran her own Dental Practice in Romania before coming to Makers. “A fresh start. I get to do something I was always interested in!” Siobhain continues “I honestly can’t answer that question! It just means so much to me!” Before Makers Siobhan, who has a Masters in Computer Game Design, was working in marketing and operations. She says “I’ve always been a tech geek and a creator. Somehow I forgot that what drives me is learning. Starting to a career in tech means I get to perpetually learn new things.”
Jen’s previous line of work in the charity sector fueled her passion to change the world around her and led her towards tech. She says ‘Technology touches every aspect of society and has the potential to change the world in countless ways. This realization led me to want to begin a career in tech.”
Ellie previously worked in a start-up, encouraging the next generation to develop digital skills. This environment inspired her to take the reins and develop skills of her own. “I thought it was time I practiced what I preached! I wanted to step away from running workshops and move onto developing my own knowledge of programming and work on creative projects.
So what does the future hold for our Trainline Makers?
“I’d love to point out something on the website and proudly say “I built that” says Ellie. “As a long term user of Trainline, I find it really cool that I’ll be creating features that thousands of people will be using and I hope to learn as much as I can from experienced developers around me over the coming years.”
“Trainline is partnering with Code First: Girls to teach 20,000 girls and women to code for free. They recognize the importance of addressing the issue of gender imbalance in tech, I would be really excited to be a part of this initiative!” writes Jen. Siobhan says, “I want to become as proficient as possible in my craft. I want to build on my confidence as a developer and feel, on a personal level, that I’m adding real, intrinsic value to my team.”
With a successful record of Makers joining their team, will Trainline continue to look for Makers in future?
“Previous Makers graduates continue to wow us with their passion and drive to build great products. We strive to maintain a diverse high-calibre engineering team and Makers Academy connects us with just that! “
So watch this space, Trainline is on a journey to bring its service and its team to the next level and without doubt, Makers will be aboard.