Charles Tapar, Senior Fullstack Engineer, found it difficult to transition into the tech industry. Seven years later at Q4, he breaks down his many roles, what he learned, and how he got to where he is today.
Meet Charles Tapar, Senior Fullstack Engineer at Q4
I studied software engineering in college but found it hard to break into the tech industry. When job postings for entry-level roles at tech companies had 3-5 years of experience as a requirement, it was discouraging. How can I get experience if I can’t find a place to start?
I started college later, at 22 years old, and I had to find work as soon as possible to support myself. I was working as a machine operator at LUSH cosmetics before I joined Q4.
I didn’t know much about FinTech but I was keen to learn and apply my technical skills. It had been a few years since my engineering classes so I felt imposter syndrome and hesitation about whether I had the skills needed to accomplish this work. I’m thankful I was surrounded by great managers and mentors at Q4 from the beginning who I still have today.
We even had a Q4 internal event focused on overcoming imposter syndrome. It was exactly what I was feeling. I thought it was awesome that I’m at a company that actually invests in development like that for people.
Now having been on the other side of interviews as a Team Lead, I know it’s something many candidates wrestle with especially if it’s their first role in tech. I want to break down my roles at Q4, and what I learned to get me where I am today.
Seven years and four teams later, I’m a Senior Fullstack Engineer
Since joining Q4, I’ve worked in web support, web development, and product roles.
The common pattern is that I jumped on opportunities to try new projects and had great managers who helped me transition to new roles and teams, based on my interests and skills.
- Web Support Analyst: Helping customers and taking on the technical
I was managing client websites when I started on the support team. I was working directly with customers to update their investor relations websites. At the same time, I was refreshing my skills in Javascript and CSS and taking on more technical support for customers. There was a turning point where I became the go-to support person for the internal jQuery library we use.
I became a Senior Web Support Analyst and started training a few new members of the team. I had a really good manager who cared about where I wanted to go and provided ways for me to learn new skills. At that point, I was saying I wanted to be more technical and had my ultimate goal of being on the product team as a developer.
There was a new special project where they were looking for technical people to join short-term. It's called Interactive Proxy and it was supposed to feed off of third-party data to automatically create a single-page web application with the ability to choose given layouts. I was interested and although it was nerve-wracking, I relied on my manager, coaches, and mentors at Q4 to support me in taking on the challenge and moving into more development work.
- Front-End Developer in Web: Improving processes and efficiency
My manager recognized my technical interests on the support team, and I got to try out spending half my time as a front-end developer, while still working half my time in technical support. It allowed me to try out parts of a new role and confirmed working on the product team is where I wanted to be.
We wanted to make communication efficient with the onboarding team that was setting clients up with their new websites. I focused on helping make our process more efficient and easier for our developers.
We were always asking how we can improve: How can websites be built faster? What are our current gaps?
My experience working on the support side directly with customers helped give me a fresh perspective on our product work because I’d heard a lot about what our customers were struggling with and wanted to help make their experiences better.
- Team Lead in Web Development: Managing a team of developers
Then I took on a Team Lead position in Hamilton when we were building out our new office. I built and managed a squad of developers which was a huge learning curve and very different work. I managed a team and led a big project where we had one year to completely migrate 700 client websites.
It was intense! It was also a big opportunity for me. There are really great, smart minds within this company and I call many coworkers my mentors and coaches.
I learned so much being a people manager, but I found I really missed coding. Being a people manager involves many meetings, interviews, and process-related work. I realized I wasn’t really prepared for that mentally yet at this point in my career. I still wanted to code in my everyday work.
- Senior Fullstack Engineer: Back to coding
Again, when opportunity knocks you follow your interests and skills. I told my manager I wanted to be a senior engineer and now that’s where I am! I’m back to my original goal of being a developer on the product team, but I’m glad I got to experience many different roles and teams in between to clarify what I really wanted.
I’ve found an important part of growing my career is being at a company where you have the flexibility to try new roles and take on new projects to challenge yourself outside of your daily tasks. I was always clear about wanting to take on more technical work, and I had great managers who recognized that and provided opportunities where I could step up.
Make it known what kind of role you want to grow into.
You can’t expect your career growth to just happen for you. I learned how important it is to make it known where you want to grow, and good managers can help you get there. When I look back at my journey with Q4, I couldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t vocalized that I wanted to focus on my technical skills and move to the product team.
You may not know the exact role you want or even what different roles are out there in the tech industry. Finding good mentors and coaches within your company really helps.
What I love about software engineering is you always need to learn new technologies. It’s refreshing in a way, and can also be frustrating. It requires the mentality to keep learning and get out of your comfort zone. Whether you’ve been working in tech for years, or it’s your first month on the job, that mentality is something we have in common and makes us all better.
Learn more about what it’s like to work and grow your career on our R&D team.