Not your typical dish: The Chef preparing a career as a full-stack developer. Meet Neil.
After 15 years spent working as a chef, Neil Mallia has developed an appetite for something new and completely different. Now that he’s successfully completed a double dose of Web Design and Web Development, we caught up with the certified full-stack developer at a particularly exciting time in his life as he prepares to transition into a tech career.
I’ve always had my eye on tech but I also had a second love, which was cooking. At the end of my secondary school education, I ended up choosing that over programming, and it was a great decision at the time. As I grew older, however, I began to see the appeal of a 9-to-5 work schedule that didn’t impinge on weekends and public holidays. Working 15-hour shifts is tiring and takes its toll on you. Also, the catering industry took a hit during Covid-19 and that pushed me to seek a more secure profession. This was my chance to pick up programming again and reignite that spark.
I kept my full-time job while I was studying. The part-time evening lessons and the fact that it’s all online made it easier for me to make time for my studies, and in fact, I never even missed one lesson. My colleagues were also very supportive at the time, which I’m grateful for.
In a nutshell, the first course helps you build a static website and the second gives it life, so they’re the perfect combination. The two just work really well together to enrich your skills and broaden your perspective. The fact they’re both eligible for the Get Qualified Scheme means you’re going to get 70% of your course fees back, so that makes it all the better.
And I didn’t stop there either. I also took advantage of some sponsored classes that were on offer from time to time to widen my tech knowledge as much as possible. As a web developer, learning about the cloud, for example, is very helpful. I’m an independent learner, so I kept on going and trying out new things wherever I could, adding to my portfolio.
The courses are beginner-friendly and build on the basics, but they’re perfectly suited to people who’ve already taken their first steps in code. I still learned new things, and it’s always good to make sure that your skills are updated or that you’re following best practice, especially in tech. It’s important not to be complacent. You can’t just stick to what you think you know. Going back to class helps you refresh your knowledge, get the certification to prove your skills, and go further.
Both programmes were really hands-on. Whatever you learn in theory, you get the chance to see and test in practice. In fact, I took everything that I learned and applied it to building my own website. Even after I finished the courses, I often turned to the educator to discuss solutions related to my work on the page and other projects I had turned my attention to. He was always available to help, and I suppose he was also proud to see his students’ progress.
I’ve taken it upon myself to dedicate as much time as possible to working on my portfolio and honing my skills as I prepare to leave my chef days behind. With coding, you need to build stuff while you learn, and that’s great practice. So over the last few months, I’ve worked on around 12 projects, each time picking on an idea to develop it.
The most recent project I’ve worked on is a shopping list app that’s fully translatable to Maltese. You can share it between friends and see real-time updates if you’re on the other side of the supermarket, for example, without having to hit the refresh button. This started as something that I thought my girlfriend and I could use, just for fun, but I’m always trying to emulate what I’ve achieved and push myself further.
Some risks are just worth taking, and I’m the kind of person who’s always ready to take a leap of faith. My family also encouraged me to make this move because they know that tech has always been a passion of mine that I never quite got the chance to pursue. I returned to the classroom in my late twenties and I’ve met people in their fifties picking up new skills, so I don’t think there’s such a thing as the ‘right’ age to be a student, to learn something new and change things around. My advice to others out there would be not to let anything hold you back.
I returned to learning in my late twenties & I’ve met people in their fifties picking up new skills, so I don’t think there’s such a thing as the ‘right’ age to learn something new & change things around. Don’t let anything hold you back.
NEIL MALLIA
WordPress Developer
