Catch-up with Aaliyah

We’re meeting Aaliyah again – it’s been a few years and now she works as a senior software developer for a local IT company.

You might say “But I thought she wanted to work for a charity? What happened?” Well, she did that at first. She joined a local charity that worked in local colleges, supporting students to gain key life skills as a Skills Guide. “How does this relate to software developing, she didn’t even do that as a degree?”, you might ask. Well, as a Skills Guide, one of the key skills she was required to teach the students was simple coding – the charity booked her onto a five day intensive course to learn how to code in different languages to then be able to teach it to others. From day one she was hooked.

She wasn’t satisfied with just the five day course, so she started a few online qualifications in SQL and HTML and other coding languages (certified by Google) in her spare time. She was fascinated by the ability to create anything at all on a website – images, fancy menus, different types of computer mouse, anything! By enhancing her knowledge of computing and different software, she realised that maybe she’d like to go into this field.

At a careers fair hosted by one of the colleges Aaliyah worked in, she met a representative from a local IT company who were looking for college students to come onto degree apprenticeships in their business. She spoke to the business and talked about her current role and how she’d love to learn more about software developing and asked if the business could help her. They explained they had a junior software developer role about to be advertised, and if she might like to apply – having explained the courses and interest she has in working with software, she thought this was a great opportunity to move to a new career path.

So, she started at the IT company as a Junior Software Developer and after a couple of years in the role got promoted to Senior Software Developer. If it wasn’t for her first role as a Skills Guide and attending the careers fair, she might not have realised her passion for coding!

Of course, no one can predict the number of transitions we will have to make in our life. However, embracing that changes will happen in our lives will allow us to make the most of these opportunities. Especially with the ever-growing impact of technology, our lives and our careers will need lots of reinvention. Having a plan that you can stick to rigorously is no longer as reliable as it once was when planning your career. The typical career path is becoming less linear, as we are likely to move from organisation to organisation, maybe even moving in and out of professions. Be willing to reinvent yourself; there will be an abundance of opportunity out there and you have to be ready to take advantage.

Over to you

In your workbook, you’ll see a diagram. Fill in the diagram with your journey so far, identifying opportunities you’ve taken outside of your education.

Share key thoughts as usual please!