Computing graduate📚 Mum of five 💪 and Avid coder 📜
I was 12 and a family friend had immigrated and left behind their BBC Basic computer. We couldn't have afforded that computer, but that one event started me on my journey in development. I learnt to programme by breaking and fixing code, learning syntax along the way.
I coded pretty much for the next 10 years until my graduation. I met a few women along the way. But the shortage of women in tech didn't really dawn on me until I began to work and have a family.
My career began and ended as a Java Developer. It was 2001 and the industry was male dominated.👦👨👴👦👨👴👦👨👴👦👨👴👦👨
Everyone was a back-end developer and the technical work environment involved long hours, innovation and start-ups were the life blood of the industry.
I took a break in 2001 to have my eldest 2 children. 3 years later when I thought about returning the industry had moved on considerably and I lacked the confidence to take on this challenge.
After leaving my job as a developer I spent the next 15 years raising my kids, contracting as a project manager and running my own company for a few years. As the gap in my IT career grew bigger I came to accept that that part of my life was over and Tech was something I couldn't return to. But it always irked me that I had given up something that I loved😞
Fast forward to 2019 and my now 19 year old daughter dragged me to a Women in Tech evening at IBM. I didn't know this movement even existed and was so inspired by the talks I heard that evening that I was one of the last to leave✨ 🌟👧👩👵👧👩👵👧👩👵🌟✨
I enrolled on my first Python course soon after and loved it so much that I decided to give Returning to Tech a real shot!
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