Changing careers at 29: Childcare to Web development

Growing up

During my childhood, I grew up playing with dolls, looking after & pushing them around in a pram, dreaming of the day I would be old enough to become a nurse or be looking after young children, helping them to grow and enjoy their early years, whilst developing their young minds. When I left school at 18, with good GCSEs and A-levels, by the time I'd left, I was already working, with a regular supermarket job in the day, and a bar job in the evening, whilst I studied to become qualified in working with children.

At age 20, I had to put my studies on hold, as I became a mum myself, to a wonderful daughter called Poppy. (She is 10 now - how time flies!) and by the time I had settled into motherhood, battling the school run every morning, I had my second child, a son called Isaac (or Whirlwind as we like to call him!)

After going through motherhood from the very beginning again with Isaac, I resumed my Childhood studies, thankfully, I had completed my level 2 certificate before I'd had my daughter, so I could go on to level 3 with confidence, Trust me when I say juggling an education with young children is definitely not easy! - Not by a long shot! But after 18 months I had finally completed my studies.

Craving the challenge

Fast forward 5 years later, I had just turned 28 and was in the prime of my career, a Room leader for 3-5 year olds, I had two wonderful children, so why did I feel complacent in the career I had dreamed of since I was a little girl? Like I was missing something?

That’s because I was, I was lacking the challenge, the get up in the morning, and the chance to add my own ideas, and artistic flare to something I had created, and that I was able to proudly showcase to lots of people, who were also, in turn, able to contribute their own ideas or take on projects, allowing me to see things from a different perspective.

The difference being, that in Childcare you need the knowledge to be able to follow the educational framework & teach children, as rewarding as this was. I found myself craving challenges on a daily basis.

Where did I start first?

I first began looking up Technology and Web based Development in small doses initially, maybe 1 or 2 hours in the evening. I used to begin researching from the second I managed to sit down at the end of the day, and I found myself becoming more and more drawn to it.

I began signing up to web development learning sites, taking part in challenges and tutorials set by tutors and experts.

I knew this was the sector where i could discover the challenges and problem solving I craved (and needed!) to engage my brain. I found, and still do myself, thinking daily about the 3 W’s: What I will I be learning next? Where could I use my newly learned skills? and When was the right time to put them into practice?

This Autumn, I am beginning a Computer Science degree, to coinside with what i have being learning on my own.

Social links & networking

My mind and decision making are being challenged almost daily, I have made new friends on LinkedIn and Twitter, who are always on hand to help out with any questions that I may have, when I have days where i feel like giving up, You may be familiar with those kind of days, you know, the ones when that code you thought was right, returns a “Syntax Error”, or your console doesn't display the message you thought it would, and you spend all day looking at it, only to discover 50 lines up you forgot to close a DIV tag. Yes, those kinds of days.

I have soon discovered that everyone, however experienced they are, were all on the same journey, and We are all here to help and support each other along the way.

If anyone says learning code, and using various platforms to execute it is easy, they are lying to you.. But is Learning Web development, and becoming an engineer achievable? Absolutely!