Getting to know

introducing myself at DFT

The journey that brought me to DFT.

When I knew that I had to do a little introduction during the cascade meeting, I thought it could be fun to create this page for my DFT colleagues.
I have a diverse background in Languages, Cultural Exchanges, Tourism and Marketing. All of my previous experiences were steps toward coding.

I am a self-taught developer, and I am grateful that charities like codebar London exists and that the developers communities is so welcoming and supportive.


I got the privilege to be a student at Futureproof Academy Wieland Cohort. This bootcamp was a concrete opportunity for me to "dive" into my new career as developer. I am thrilled to work at DfT and be part of its Digital Service Team and eager to contribute with good quality code and continue my learning journey.

If 5 years ago, when I arrived in London, someone had told me that I was going to be a junior developer, and work for the UK government, I would thought it was a prank!
Well Britain thought me that meritocracy and opportunities are its reality and I am proud to work in an environnement were diversity is considered a "superpower".

Funny fact

When I told my parents that I was going to work for the department for transport, they made me notice that I will be the third generation in my family to have a job related with transports. My grandfather and my father worked in a factory that assembled trains. So I take it as a sign of destiny.

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Play with me @ Two truths and One lie

Let's getting to know playing together. The rule are very easy each time 3 sentences will appear only one of them is false. Can you to find it?
Once you're ready :

  1. Click on the button play to start the game and see the three sentences.
  2. Select the sentence to discover if you won.
  3. To start the game again, please click on reset.

Take a guess:

winner trophy

congratulations you win, this was the lie!

sad face from iconixar

"Nope, this is the truth! Try again"

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Paola Maddaluno

More about...

Paola as junior fullstack developer

Sometimes people work for years before asking themselves if they are truly happy about their life and achievements. In the tourism industry, the high people turn-over and long working hours can lead to easily lose connection with ourselves, our real passions or our goals in life.

After almost 20 years, working in tourism and student's exchange programs, I felt lost and was missing being creative. So when the opportunity of a career change arose in October 2018, I took it!

I got my first job as a marketing assistant for an e-commerce company. The first thing I had to learn was to set my thunderbird signature in HTML and CSS. This is where my journey with coding started.

I signed up for the first workshop in town and started self-teaching myself. I enjoyed the creativity and the constant use of your mind to find a solution and enjoyed the never-ending learning process.
During my journey, I discovered opportunities for learning to code in a safer environment where underrepresented groups, career changer and mature folks are considered a plus, and every one is encouraged to share their knowledge.

This made me confident, and because I am not afraid of changes or of restarting my life in a new country; in June 2019, I decided to take a break from work and I invested all my time, energies and savings to pursue my life project and I became a web developer.

In October 2018, I joined the first coding workshop at codebar London since then I never stopped coding. This charity has the goal is to enable minority group members to learn programming in a safe and collaborative environment and expand their career opportunities. To achieve this we (as I am now an organizer of West London chapter) run free regular workshops, regular one-off events and try to create opportunities for our students making technology and coding more accessible. I will be pleased to answer all the questions you have on this topic, so feel free to ask.

During pandemic another group helped me to keep motivated, I joined Ladies of Code London in particular the "get on with it!" event. We virtually met on Sundays and sometimes even during the week to work on our project that could be tech related or not. I create my portfolio and worked to get the certification as Responsive Web Designer. I found in these communities the right support to achieve my goal and I am determined to contribute to their growth.

In October 2020, an amazing opportunity arose and I joined Futureproof Academy Wieland Cohort. I feel honoured to be part of this extraordinary learning process where I could refine and enhance my knowledge, previous knowledge, while learning new programming languages and new skills such as RESTful API, TDD, version control, agile and more. This experience broadened my understanding of the tech industry. I now have a solid understanding of cybersecurity, data science and DevOps.

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