She came here as a young, graduate nurse and worked in care homes and later, the Mater Hospital as a surgery nurse. Life was good, she was happy with her new life in Belfast, then the Covid pandemic hit and Paula realised she needed a change. 

Paula was working long hours and moved around different hospitals. She soon began to feel burnt-out and realised she needed a change in career to get herself back on the right track.  

She’d always been fascinated by computers, but never seriously considered it as a career option, given that she didn’t have a degree in a related subject. Then she heard, through a friend, about the Queen’s MSc Software Development conversion course, which offered the possibility of bringing her up to IT graduate level in just one year. Although the challenge was daunting, she found she couldn’t shake the idea. 

After discussing it with her partner, she decided “life is too short” and she started the one-year course in September 2022. Since then, she’s not only achieved a Distinction in her Master’s degree, but has also started a dream job, as Associate Software Engineer at Liberty IT. 

It wasn’t all plain sailing though – Paula admits the MSc was “intense”, with a lot of extra studying on top of a full timetable of classes. Being a conversion course, no prior knowledge was assumed, so it was a steep learning curve for someone with an educational background so far removed from computer science. 

For her final project, she used her experience in healthcare to develop an app to encourage people to walk more and to help them find more trails near where they live. 

“It’s called WalkQR,” she says. “I used a small device to generate and display QR codes that would be present at the end of the walks for people to scan in their app and add it to their completed walks. 

“I love this idea as it merges my love of software with my interest in keeping up good health and people getting outdoors and taking more exercise.” 

She’s delighted to now be graduating and has no regrets about taking such a radical change in direction. 

“I used to think that I would never go back to studying after obtaining my bachelor's degree, but circumstances change,” she explains. “I’m a lot more optimistic now about the future and grateful to Queen’s that I was accepted on to this course, it has opened up a whole new world for me.” 

Media

Media enquiries to comms.office@qub.ac.uk