Katherine Hooper

Katherine began her career in science studying Materials Engineer at Swansea University, before undertaking a PhD in third generation solar cells. She continued her research as a postdoc for nearly 9 years before facing redundancy in February 2023. She took this as an opportunity to reevaluate her career and decided to learn how to code, discovering a love of software development. After some time trying to transition into tech, with help from organisations such as Code First Girls and their 16 week CFGdegree bootcamp to get experience (and lots of hard work and rejections), she eventually joined the DVLA in June 2024 as a Junior Software Development Engineer in Test. A mixture of software and quality engineering, solving complex problems every day, and lots of coding – she has now found the perfect role.