Dimitris Anagnostopoulos

My Graduate Story

My name is Dimitris Anagnostopoulos and I am currently working as Senior Software Engineer in Uni Systems S.M.S.A.

My primarily tasks are designing & developing solutions using Java stack technologies across all aspects of Backend and DevOps. I am involved in projects of Greek public sector (such as healthcare), but I have also worked in very large scale projects for several EU institutions.

A Day in my Life

A typical day includes liaising with other team members to discuss and agree on handling several tasks, then analysing and designing the solutions and before implementing them by developing code. Moreover, as a Senior Dev, I always search for new, better technologies to improve our code and skills within the team.

My Journey

After graduating from Birmingham. I applied for a PGCE to gain my teaching qualification, which felt like a natural next step given my passion for working with young people. Once qualified, I registered with supply agencies, which made it easy to find flexible teaching work that fit around my training and competition schedule. The process was fairly straightforward, and being based in the UK, I didn't have any visa considerations to navigate.

After graduating from Birmingham, I returned to my homeland, in order to complete my military services (it is compulsory for Greeks) and after that, I started sending CVs to Greek companies in order to find a job, which I finally succeeded.

My Birmingham Experience

The support I received from the University of Birmingham was extremely useful, because I was involved in the cutting edge of technologies by that time and also learned how things work on professional level. Thus, I was better prepared to get a job at the market.

Birmingham's Impact

Tutor support, interesting projects, great facilities, organization of courses

My Achievements

My biggest achievement is my progression at the University of Birmingham. I originally knew nothing about computers and after 9 months, I managed to combine my Physics background together with programming skills to build a machine learning app (Face Recognition), which was a dream come true for me, from scientific perspective.

Advice for Students

My advice would be to study one or two programming languages very well and focus on the fundamentals to build strong skills in basic technologies. Then, you can search through the market to find the job you want, start building the skills relevant to that job and after that, build a very good CV in order to get this job. Also, make the most of platforms such as LinkedIn, AngelList, etc.