Welcome to Alice Brown's Career Change Blog
- Alice Brown
- Jun 14, 2023
- 3 min read
A blog about changing careers, women in technology and post-burnout growth
"The willingness to show up changes us. It makes us a little braver each time."
-- Brene Brown --
All about me and my journey to digital marketing
Hi, I'm Alice and I am documenting my journey through the digital marketing bootcamp course I am completing with The Skills Network. First, a little about me...
I trained as an educational psychologist and worked for local authority services for over 12 years. While the work was interesting, varied, challenging, creative and incredibly rewarding, it was also emotionally draining and ultimately led to burnout.
I decided that it was time to look at different careers and worked with the lovely and hugely experienced careers psychologist, Dawn Dawson from Working Career. This led me to explore different strengths and interests, as well as transferable skills and led me to look into a career in technology, something that had been a hobby for me in my teenage years (many, many moons ago).
My journey in technology so far...
After deciding that I wanted to change careers into technology, I started to explore different online courses and programmes to see what aspects I enjoyed. I started completing some basic HTML and CSS courses on freecodecamp.org and discovered a wealth of free resources online to teach myself tech skills - a blog post for another day!
As I learnt more and discovered the wide range of career options available within IT, I started to narrow down on things that I enjoyed doing and was good at.
Research - I'm a bit like a dog with a bone and can spend hours looking at different options and variations to something that I am looking for. I also completed a doctorate in educational psychology, so am not unfamiliar with carrying out a unique and substantial piece of research.
Creativity and visual thinking - I enjoy using visual and creative methods to simplify and represent complex topics and ideas in an accessible way. I love using flowcharts, mind maps and other visual techniques in my work and to help me plan out goals.
Problem-solving - I love solving problems and, according to my MindPal app, my problem-solving skills are higher than 97.4% of their users in the same age group as me - go me!
Marketing - having run a private practice since 2017, I am not unfamiliar with digital and traditional marketing methods. However, I seemed to genuinely like learning about them and applying them to my business.
According to the Highlands Ability Battery that I completed when working with Diana Dawson, I had high scores in Concept Organisation (ability to arrange ideas, information, or things in a logical order), Idea Productivity (the number of new ideas you can generate within a given time in response to a given stimulus), and Spatial Relations Theory (ability to see the theoretical relationships which exist in the working of the mechanical universe).
All of this led me to two areas: digital marketing and data science.
The next steps on my career change journey
Recently I have started two programmes to develop my skills in coding, data science and digital marketing:
Level 3 Digital Marketing Skills Bootcamp run by The Skills Network and funded by the Department for Education as part of a programme to help people aged 19 or (a lot!!) older gain the skills needed to secure a job in sectors where there are workforce shortages. Click here to find out more about the programme.
The Python and Apps Coding Kickstarter course by Code First Girls. I was really excited to be offered this opportunity to study with CFG. Their mission to close the gender gap in technology by offering free opportunities to people who identify as female or non-binary really aligned with my beliefs in inclusion.
There are lots of opportunities and initiatives to encourage women into technology and diversify the workforce. There is also a recognition that people with specialist knowledge in certain areas may be well placed to lead on new technology in those areas. This is something that I am really interested in as I would like to explore how data science and technology can be used to improve mental health services for children and families.
The future is bright!
Recovering from burnout has been tough - especially as a mother to 2 young children and additionally being a carer to one of them. It's a journey that continues as I learn to prioritise my needs and create boundaries around my time - not easy as a recovering people pleaser too!
I'm proud to be at a point where I can explore other options and create a future for myself where I am able to be more present for my family and myself.
Thank you for reading and remember to check back as my journey continues :-)
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