My story

After a decade working "code adjacent", I'm pursuing my dream to dive into the code itself

I'm a bright and motivated IT professional with a decade of experience in bridging the gap between IT and business teams, as a business analyst and project manager / dev manager.

Being technically minded, I've always been most comfortable in detail oriented work, finding myself drawn towards working with the developers to troubleshoot and problem solve, and wanting to really understand what the code is doing; I also love participating in testing, being extremely thorough and persistent in searching for bugs and helping figure out the cause and potential solutions.

When I was on maternity leave from a business analyst role back in 2010, I built my own online e-commerce store using Magento, and absolutely loved the process, especially the customisation. This was the first time I seriously considered retraining and becoming a developer, and I took a Web Development unit with the Open University passing with a Distinction. However I then emigrated to Australia with my husband and daughter, fell pregnant again almost immediately, and my own plans took a backburner as I focused on parenting for the next few years.

As my children grew a little older I returned to the workforce, working for a small boutique ruby on rails development house as a general manager. It was an incredibly varied role encompassing many aspects of the development process, from managing clients and projects, to writing user stories, managing support tickets, and serving as scrum master. Again I found myself being drawn to the detail oriented, technical work and many times I considered retraining and becoming a developer, but by this time I was a middle aged, busy single parent and thought I had left it "too late".

During the extended COVID lockdowns in NSW, I made the difficult decision to resign due to personal carer responsibilities. I gave myself 18 months to pursue some artistic passions, while also taking on various small freelance projects. I even for a time used my hobby and provided sewing services - a wonderful experience.

As time went on, I increasingly provided IT-related services to small businesses on a freelance basis, including analysis support to a previous employer, sales work for a startup cybersecurity company, and implementing Wordpress websites for small businesses.

This reignited my thirst for moving into a more technical direction and as I was researching whether it was feasible to upskill and retrain as a developer, I discovered the She Codes program and decided it was now or never!

I'm having a ball learning about all sorts of technologies, starting with HTML/CSS and moving through Python, Django, DRF, Javascript and React. I'm also learning about cybersecurity in my free time.

I'm so excited to be a part of the She Codes programme and can't wait to see where it leads! If you're interested in chatting with me, please reach out on Linked In or e-mail me.