The restaurant manager who became a Full Stack Developer
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Alexander Hirdman is a full-stack developer at Martin & Servera, Sweden’s leading wholesaler in the restaurant and catering industry.
As a young man, he dreamed of working in game development, but life took a different direction, and he ended up in the restaurant industry instead.
He worked as a waiter, bartender, and operations manager at the famous restaurant Lådan in Stockholm. When the pandemic hit, Alexander was laid off from his job, which made him reflect on his career and sparked a strong desire to explore new areas.
“I had previously learned some CSS and HTML, and during Corona, I decided to try programming. At first, I didn’t think it was for me because I didn’t consider myself a math expert. But I started experimenting with creating apps and started a project of my own,” says Alexander.
He quickly became increasingly interested and applied to SALT’s career program in JavaScript. Despite over 1,000 people applying, he became one of the select 30 admitted students 👨🏽🎓.
“I first attended SALT’s pre-course, which laid a strong foundation for my learning. The challenge was intense but incredibly rewarding. During the training, I strove to be as ambitious as possible. A typical day I started work at 7 am and didn’t turn off the computer until nine o’clock at night.”
After the career program, Alexander started as a backend developer at the fintech company Stabelo. Six months later, he had the opportunity to join Martin Cervera’s technical team.
“I think that the circle has closed. Previously, I bought food and drink from Martin & Servera, and now I get to participate in developing their entire digital purchasing process,” Alexander concludes.
