I still can’t believe that, in my first year at university and with no previous coding experience, I was able to design and develop a financial mobile application… and even pitch it to professionals from some of the biggest tech and finance companies, the same ones I dream of joining someday. While it seems unreal, I had this opportunity in the annual ITMB Showcase competition and recruitment event at AMBS, where my team and I secured a place amongst the finalists by presenting Lloydy, a financial solution designed for customers of the Lloyds Banking Group, one of the course’s industry partners.

This day-long event offers ITMB students a unique opportunity to present the outcome of our year-long Integrative Team Project to representatives from leading companies in the technology and finance industries, including Bank of America, Lloyds Bank, Amazon, NatWest, P&G, UBS, Fujitsu, and Ford. Each team pitches to around 14 employers over 7 rounds, receiving one-on-one feedback and industry-driven perspectives that get us to think critically about our solutions. After these exciting rounds of pitching, all the employers come together to select the two teams who demonstrated the best financial solutions. I’m proud to share that this year, my team was selected as one of the finalists, which gave us the opportunity to present our solution and working application to a larger audience of industry partners, professors, and fellow students.

Not only was the day incredibly exciting, allowing me to grow my professional network and improve my public speaking and communication skills, but it also marked the end of a year-long project that truly challenged me to step out of my comfort zone to solve a real-world problem. Given that the challenge was deliberately open-ended and none of my team mates nor I had coding experience, we had to learn how to approach an ambiguous problem from scratch. Understanding the users through research, designing an application and relational database, offering tailored insights, and adapting to different user types felt almost impossible at first, yet we made it happen, feature by feature. Throughout the entirity of the project I had to think critically about every detail that I usually take for granted when using other apps, from UX design and functionality to technical integration and data persistance. Moreover, as the project leader, I developed key skills in people management and leadership, which I’m excited to carry forward in my upcoming role as President of the ITMB Society.

The showcase itself represented the moment all of our efforts and dedication came together. My team and I proudly presented Lloydy to all of the employers and the judging panel, gaining valuable feedback, insights into different companies, visibility and meaningful connections with industry professionals, who have now seen my work, dedication and abilities, and could play a key role in my future professional journey.

Having experienced all of this in just my first year at the University of Manchester, along with being part of the close-knit ITMB community and gaining an extremely diverse range of skills through the different courses and industry partners, makes me feel genuinely satisfied and confident with my decision or pursuing this degree. I say this as someone who, exactly one year ago, was unsure and hesitant because I thought that having no coding experience would be a major limitation If I chose ITMB, when in reality, the course is much more than that. Now, I can proudly say that I’ve finished my first year at university having not only developed an award-winning financial application for The Lloyds Bank, but also built valuable industry connections, gained technical skills, grown confident in public speaking and pitching, and developed strong teamwork, leadership, project management and time management skills.

I’d say it’s not a bad way to start my professional journey!

If you would like to see more information on my experience in the showcase and the application my team and I developed, check out my LinkedIn post about it!

Written by Cecilia, an Information Technology Management for Business student at AMBS