We recently caught up with Therese about her journey into Tech at T. Rowe Price. She explains what inspired her to apply plus, some top tips for those wanting to kickstart an exciting career in the sector.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into Tech
I’ve always had an interest in tech, in school I did ICT A-Level. For the A-Level we had to build a website with 5 pages. During this time, I learnt HTML & CSS (mostly from using free online resources such as Codecademy) and was quite confident with the 2 languages. At the time I also had an interest in business (I also took Business A-Level), when it came down to picking university courses to apply for, I couldn’t decide between the two, so I chose both. I studied Computing and Management BSc (half Computer Science and half Business Management) at Loughborough University. My degree was a 4-year course that included a year in industry. During my studies, I realised I preferred more of the tech than the business side of things, so I applied for tech roles.
During my placement year I worked as a Local Applications Developer at Nestle and after I graduated, I joined FDM (a consulting company) as a Software Developer. I chose to join FDM as I wanted to get more confident with coding (they have an intense training period where you go through different languages and programming concepts) and they had a wide range of clients, one of which was T. Rowe Price.
I’m currently a full stack Software Engineer within the Localised Digital Marketing team within T. Rowe Price.
What inspired you to apply to T. Rowe Price?
I was placed at T. Rowe Price as a consultant whilst I was working with FDM. My contract with T. Rowe was for 2 years and after the 2 years, I got an offer to stay on as a permanent employee & I accepted. I chose to stay at T. Rowe as I enjoy my work, my team and the company – everyone is very friendly and helpful. I could also see that everyone cared about my progression within my career and making sure I get exposure to different areas and technologies.
What does a day in your life look like?
I’d say I work a typical 9 to 5 day; T. Rowe is quite flexible in the sense of if you have an appointment or something within the day, you can easily make up the hours some other time. Currently, we are hybrid working so I can do 1 or 2 days a week in the office and the rest from home.
My team follow the agile approach and Scrum framework (a framework used for project management). I would say the only regularity I have within my days are Scrum ceremonies (meetings where the team plan, review and reflect on work) and they fall on specific days. Other than that, my day largely depends on the work I’m doing and where we are within a project – I may have some code to review, meetings with designers to go over review feedback, I may help others within my team, pair with others or code by myself. I also take part in some “extra curriculars” at T. Rowe such as the Code Club. I help organise sessions where we teach Python to people within the organisation and Money Confident Kids, where I volunteer at a school to teach young people about financial education. So, some of my day may be taken up with time towards these.
What’s the culture like at T. Rowe Price?
Everyone is super nice and helpful, “T. Rowe Nice” is another name you’re likely to hear when people mention T. Rowe. This, along with our collaborative culture makes a great working environment.
What has been your favourite project so far?
I think my favourite was the campaign page project. We created campaign pages designed to attract new clients to invest in T. Rowe Prices’ products. We had to build out the new template along with various components that are used to create the page. This was my favourite product because it was the first time, I had worked on a project from start to finish and everything was new. The designs, the components, the template, we even had to create a new repository and pipeline for the project. It taught me a lot as I had my hands in different areas of the project and had to work with a lot of different people within the company too.
What is T. Rowe Price doing to increase diversity in the sector?
T. Rowe Price have Business Resource Groups (BRG) to help advance the Firms’ diversity and inclusion:
Wave - To support the firm by increasing its ability to attract, develop, advance, and retain talented and principled women.
Pride - To ensure all LBGT+ associates are comfortable bringing their full selves to work every day.
Mosaic - To help the firm succeed by enabling and using the power of our culturally diverse associates.
Anyone within the firm can be a part of these groups and each of them provide development, networking, learning and community service opportunities.
There are many initiatives that T. Rowe Price has created to increase diversity in the sector. One of which is the Black Technology Forum. This initiative serves as a dedicated program focused on equitable opportunities and inclusion for Black associates in technology at T. Rowe. I’m part of the advisory group for the Black Technology Forum. The advisory group is a diverse collective of Global Technology associates who serve in an advisory capacity to the Black Technology Forum. We provide feedback on prioritization, participate in idea generation and act as an ambassador across Global Technology to raise awareness/educate. With the main aims being promoting, attracting, and developing black talent.
What advice would you give to members, with a similar background, wanting to follow in your footsteps?
No one knows it all. Working in tech can be quite overwhelming, there are different technologies languages, and it is ever-changing. You may not know everything but don’t let that discourage you. I’d also say try to get some experience wherever you can. I knew I liked tech but didn’t really know what I wanted to do within it or where I wanted to go with it. I applied for work experience and placement opportunities within technology departments and have also gone to quite a few tech events (all of them free) - these helped me to figure out the direction I wanted to go in.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I’ve felt supported, empowered and encouraged to share my ideas and opinions here at T. Rowe. Having opportunities to get stuck into different areas of work and career progressions were my main wants when looking for a company to work for - I can happily say I have them both working here at T. Rowe.
Sound interesting? Find out more about T. Rowe Price here.