From midwifery nights to junior SRE at Vancity

Misuzu did not grow up dreaming of terminals. She studied nursing for four years, completed midwifery school, and worked three years delivering care until night shifts became the reason to leave. A working holiday sounded like a socially acceptable exit. Vancouver won over Australia on accent familiarity and West Coast logistics; Britain’s lottery felt too risky. She expected one year and a night-shift-free job search back home—until she met her partner, secured permanent residency, and needed a skill that could travel if they ever returned to Asia.

Computer science was her husband’s world, not hers; she used to tease the “black screen.” He coached her from Hello World anyway. Relicensing midwifery in Canada looked as heavy as starting fresh, and immigration-company work during the holiday had a ceiling. BCIT’s Computer Systems Technology diploma offered practice-first projects from term one. She entered in September 2023 after raising English via IELTS work and a short BCIT reading/writing course. Business communication classes stung more than coding. Co-op was optional and scarce—about fifty seats in a much larger cohort, and she estimates only half found placements. After roughly a hundred internship applications and weak technical matches, a friend created a four-month paid role; coding was minimal, but she still learned how to tell the story without lying.

Second-year cloud computing plus an AWS Solutions Architect Associate credential shaped her search. From mid-January to a mid-July offer she sent on the order of a hundred applications a month—seven hundred plus—widening briefly to Japan when despair peaked, surviving burnout in March and tears in late June because going “home” was not simple with family ties here. Vancity appeared through the usual LinkedIn/Indeed/Glassdoor blur. A director screen turned into an onsite, then a team-fit chat. The posting had not screamed years of experience; only later did they admit it was meant for seniors. She answered with hunger—“junior, but I’ll grow”—leaning on AWS study and a philosophy she shares with her husband and a mentor: do not invent zeros into ones, but you may present a three as something closer to seven when competing with fluent self-marketers.

Technical grilling barely happened; they probed character, conflict stories from midwifery mentoring, and how she heard Vancity’s values. A month in, teammates cheer even one-line pull requests while leadership mixes “grow fast” with “learn steadily.” Her closing note for newcomers is volume plus self-trust: applications raise odds, and belief has to travel with you through the ugly middle.

Inside the team she found long-tenured SREs measured in decades, which helped explain a junior hire meant to add a fresh angle while seniors already filled the room. A short-lived idea of parking her on contract while a senior filled the full-time seat evaporated; she became the hire. Azure was unfamiliar, AWS study became the bridge, and mock interviews with her husband included talking through code even though Vancity barely tested that way. A month in, first pull requests earn congratulations even when they change a single line. Stability, mortgage perks whispered about in finance, and leave flexibility contrast with midwifery nights—and with the seven-hundred-application winter that preceded the badge.