Daniel Mishko

• Year of graduation: 2014
• Current job title: Technical Product Manager
• Current employer: The Access Group
• Industry sector: Business Software (Health, Support and Social Care)

I knew initially I wanted to do something related to computers and engineering, as it’s always been a strength and a hobby of mine. However, before university, I hadn’t thought about the software side, or even considered what it entailed, so I initially joined the Systems Engineering BSc course. However, UON allows students to study a wide range of computing topics in the first year and that’s when I had exposure to Software Engineering. From that very first moment, I knew that was what I wanted to do. It combined problem-solving with technology, and I enjoyed every aspect of the course and knew it would open many career paths for me.

I loved the problem-solving aspect of the course – every session felt like a new challenge or a puzzle to solve. I also enjoyed coding and seeing the end product as a result of a couple of lines of code – it gave me a real sense of accomplishment and pride seeing something I made come to fruition. I also enjoyed the people – both the teachers and the students were very supportive and made the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable.

Studying at UON gave me an advantage in applying for graduate positions, enabling me to rapidly progress my career. Having now been in management positions and gained experience of interviewing countless individuals for graduate and non-graduate roles, I can clearly see that the experience and knowledge you gain from the Software Engineering course at UON is above average and allows students to stand out. The core fundamentals I learnt from the course have never left me and I still use most of them today, even after ten years of industry experience. It gave me the confidence and the know-how to be adaptable in my role, which is critical in this industry.

The skills and knowledge gained on my degree that are most useful in my current role are problem solving, problem solving and problem solving. It’s the most important and fundamental skill you can learn in education, so if you can master it at university, you can achieve or do anything. For example, within my course, there were approximately 9,000 different coding languages and all sorts of tech platforms they can go on. You’re not going to learn all of them, but if you can problem-solve, I guarantee you can pick up any of those languages with enough time. And in every job, it’s all about figuring out problems or coming up with ideas to make something a reality, so if you can problem solve, you’ll go far.

I started my career as a Junior Engineer working on both recruitment and social care technologies as a full stack engineer and was given the job before I’d even taken my final year exams. Only a year and a half later, I was promoted to Software Engineer, and then within a year or two, I started managing my own team. About three and half years after my promotion, I was promoted again, to Senior Software Engineer, and was managing more and more projects from an engineering perspective. But being ambitious and wanting to have a bigger impact on the business, I decided to go down a new path which was more related to product management, and in 2022 I was promoted to Technical Product Manager, a role that I love.

Regarding the future, I want to see how far I can go and how high up the ladder I can get. But for now, I’m in a very happy and content place in my career. The only hurdle I find is being able to get over my imposter syndrome, by gaining confidence in my own ability, and an understanding of things and how to express that externally.

The company I work for has a ‘Giving Back’ initiative, in which we can give a few days of our time to help the community or undertake charity work. Every year for the past few years I’ve been coordinating a scheme with the University of Northampton, to bring in experienced individuals within the industry and run ‘Challenge Days’ in which we give the students a real-life project and have them complete a smaller version. The students get to interview individuals with various roles and experiences and receive feedback from managers and directors on their work. It gives students exposure to working within the industry and if they stand out, there are often potential recruitment opportunities too.

The advice I’d give to undergraduates interested in this career path would be that the University always offers great recruitment and industry-led events. Go to them, get connected and don’t think you need to wait until you graduate to do that. I had a job offer and was accepted before I even finished my final year exams – get ahead of everyone else and stand out.

My time at the University of Northampton was a character-defining and life-changing experience.