DEV Community

Gold-Blend
Gold-Blend

Posted on

Career changer, my first post.

My first post.

I had to think about what to write for my first post and if it is even worth writing about, well we're here... so I decided to do it.

About me.

I am a career changer, coming from the British Army of 10 years. I specialised in telecommunications about 4 years into my career and I actually got quite savvy at it, completing all promotional qualifications and becoming the go-to instructor for teaching telecommunication courses. I enjoyed the career but as I got older I decided I wanted to do something more technical, as that is what drew me to telecommunications in the first place.

Lucky me.

I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position as I was able to leave my previous profession and take on a full-time distance learning degree in cybersecurity. Wait, that's not computer science! No. I actually wanted to get into penetration testing, and coming from the army the idea of security and encryption really excited me- plus there is crossover between military telecommunications and cybersecurity, so it seemed logical. Then as I was moving through the fields of cybersecurity I decided to learn Python in an online boot camp by Colt Steele (great course!) to aide my knowledge in pen testing and eventually develop tools. Well, needless to say, I fell in love with programming.

Now.

Now I am studying for a Bachelors of Science in Computing and IT (Software) and I have enrolled in another online boot camp for web development. I also took on a full time job as a business analyst, which is perfect for me. It is remote, it is customer-facing, and, while it is not the most technical job, it falls under IT- so it's a start and it's my first job in IT!

I know what you're thinking though... a full-time job, a full-time degree and an online boot camp, how? Well, determination. Sure it is going to be tough but I am prepared for it. I think if I didn't enjoy the content I was learning then I would be predisposed to quitting, but I just find it so interesting so it doesn't feel like work so much. I'm not naΓ―ve enough to think that this love will last forever (although I secretly hope it does!) and I am sure this puppy love phase will wear off but I have never been one to shy away from hard work and enjoy the challenge.

If anyone has read this, I hope your path is going splendidly and would love to hear about it.

Top comments (0)