My Journey into technology

Hi Friend! Welcome to my blog!

Seeing as this is my first post, I thought the best place to start would be to introduce myself to you all? So here is the short story of how I got to where I am now….

My dad gave me my first sudoku book when I was seven or eight years old. Looking back, I think this is where my love for problem-solving began. Since primary school, I’ve always loved Maths and it has always been my number one subject. However, for some odd reason, back then I wanted to become a lawyer. Remembering this makes me laugh a little because I have always been a numbers girl, didn’t like reading much and English was never a strong subject of mine.

In secondary school, my love for mathematics continued to grow. I’ve always liked how you are either right or wrong, with no ambiguity or arguments. I started A-level Maths in year 11 and I was completely taken in! I decided I would pick that up alongside Further Maths during Sixth Form and maybe even take it further depending on how I got on. I distinctly remember the look of horror on the faces of people whenever I told people I was going to study Further Maths, and I very nearly decided against doing the subject, but I thought to myself why am I holding myself back from a subject I love so much? I knew it would be a challenge, but I enjoyed it, so it was worth it!

During my A-levels I worked and revised harder than I ever had in my life. I ended up doing all 4 of my subjects (Government and Politics, Maths, Further Maths and Psychology) for the two years because I couldn’t pick which one to drop, I really enjoyed them all! By the time it got to year 13 I was the only girl in my Further Maths class, which at the time I didn’t think about too much, but being one of the only women in a room would be a frequent occurrence in the future (as I am now aware of). Maths and Further Maths were always my favourite subjects. I always looked forward to those lessons and the new topics we would be learning. The only option was to really take this love, passion, obsession (whatever you want to call it!) even further... and, yes, I’m talking a whole Mathematics degree! I know many readers will be cringing at the thought of this, but I honestly couldn’t see myself doing anything else, and look back and still feel exactly the same!

I genuinely had a great time studying Maths at degree level. Don’t get me wrong university as a whole most definitely had its ups and downs. However, I am glad I got to take my love for Maths to another level. Exam season consisted of me becoming nocturnal, JustEat and a lot of banter with those I revised with. I always aimed to achieve highly in my degree, but I consistently doubted myself in this pursuit. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do so, but I think I just didn’t want to set myself up for failure. It took blood, sweat and tears, but I can proudly say I graduated with a First Class Honours in Mathematics from the University of Nottingham!

Whilst at university I had NO CLUE (and to be quite honest I’m still learning as I go along!) what I wanted to do as a career. Everyone around me was applying to spring weeks, internships or graduate schemes (depending on what year I was in). At times I felt pressured to know what I wanted to be or others would pigeon hole me and tell me to be a teacher or an accountant purely due to me having studied Maths. I wasn’t interested in those types of roles but I applied since I needed experience... Any experience is better than no experience, right? A lot of my friends had roles at banks and I thought why not try that? Dionne the investment banker - it has a bit of a ring to it don’t you think? I forced myself to do certain applications for certain roles, when I really didn’t give a flying monkeys about what I was applying to. It took a while before I sat myself down and told myself “Girl, slay in your own lane!”. Looking at what others were doing and trying that out was not going to get me any closer to knowing what I wanted to do in the future.

In February 2018, I went to an event hosted by Bright Network called ‘Women in Tech’. I had never ever considered a role in technology - honestly, I didn’t really have an idea what that kind of role entailed. All I remember thinking was ‘coding’, and I actually didn’t really like modules that involved coding. I told myself I did not want any role that involved coding, which is comical now considering I love to code and actively seek out learning new languages. What I have now realised is that was mainly down to the way it was taught. I was naïve, and had the exact same thoughts that many people do when they think of technology - “it’s for boys”, “it’s boring”... But, in reality, those are the exact same thoughts some people have towards Maths, and I loved it! So why not see what a career in technology could potentially look like? I met various inspirational women at the event, one in particular resonated with me as she had studied Maths, didn’t like coding, and now was working as a software developer, and guess what that means… coding! After attending the event, my entire mindset had shifted. Why did it take me so long to realise there is a wealth of opportunities in the field? How a role in technology would be a perfect fit for me? This was the event that changed the course of my future career.

In my final year of university, I made the decision that I was no longer going to apply for graduate roles, and I was going to take a gap year. I didn’t want to rush into a job that I knew I didn’t want, I wanted to take time out to figure out what I truly wanted to do as a career. I also really wanted to travel, and I knew having 28 days holiday from a job was not going to cut it. This was one of the best decisions I made, I knew deep down I didn’t want to be in a role I was not happy in. Sure, lots of my peers had roles secured and would be starting in high-paying jobs in September, and then there was me and I had no plan, but I couldn’t let that deter me from doing what I knew was right for me. In fact, I wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to land the job I’m in now if I had rushed into it, because it didn’t exist a year previously!

The summer I graduated I was fortunate enough to take part in an insight week with Accenture called TechVisionaries. This week brought out the coder living within me and solidified my decision to pursue a career in technology. I began applying to any and every technology graduate scheme available. What I noticed with these applications compared to the ones I had previously done was that applying didn’t feel like a chore, the answers I had for questions were real and I felt enthusiastic at the thought of starting a career in technology! I began attending tech events, networking and even taught myself Python! I also got onto the CodeFirstGirls HTML and CSS course, helping me develop my front-end skills.

The more applications I did, the more rejections that piled up. Although I knew something would come up, it is very demotivating and I started to question myself and my ability… A LOT. Not getting a job wasn’t an option, so I continued with my applications in the hopes that one will come back positive. My word, it took determination, and perseverance, but by the grace of God, I got that yes I had been waiting for! I cannot begin to describe the overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness that came over me when I got that call. I remember being told that it only takes one “Yes”, and it wasn’t until that moment that I truly understood this. Months and months of online tests, interviews, assessment centres and finally HSBC decided to give lil ol’ me a chance to begin my career in technology!

God Bless,

DD x