A former pastry chef and hospitality manager, she made a deliberate career change into tech in her 30s — teaching herself to code while working full-time before completing a government-funded Skills for Life bootcamp.
Less than three years after writing her first line of code, she became a paid developer working on services that affect the lives of real people across the UK and EU.
How did you land your current role? Was it planned?
Very much planned — though the path to get here was anything but straightforward. After completing a government-funded Skills for Life bootcamp, I was actively searching for an entry-level developer role. As a career changer this was tricky, because a lot of junior roles these days expect applicants to have working experience through a university internship or summer job. When I came across Mercator Digital, what stood out was their commitment to training: rather than throwing junior developers in at the deep end, they invest in building your foundations first before placing you on a client team. For someone making a career change without a traditional computer science background, that mattered enormously.
The hiring process itself was memorable — as part of it I gave a presentation about Dorothy Vaughan, the first female supervisor at NASA and a self-taught programmer who taught herself FORTRAN when electronic computers threatened to make her role redundant. Choosing her felt right. Her story reminded me that women before me faced far greater obstacles and still broke through — and that gave me courage. I applied and got the role.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?
Honestly? That I even have this career. It would have been very easy to stop along the way — and there were plenty of moments where I really wanted to call it quits. I was self-taught at first, coding in the evenings after long shifts in professional kitchens and on the shop floor. Starting over in your 30s means giving up the professional network and identity you have spent years building and stepping into a room where you’re the least experienced person again. That’s genuinely frightening — but I am so proud that I learned to tap into my curiosity again, fuelling my omnipresent hunger for knowledge.
However, I am so glad I didn’t stop. Going from zero coding skills to a paid developer working on real government services in three years — services that affect people’s lives — is something I’m incredibly proud of. I make a real impact and take pride in my work.
What does an average work day look like for you?
I work from home most days, which suits me well — I’m a morning person and I protect that time fiercely. Before I open my laptop, I’ll usually do something just for me: a gym session, reading, or a walk. It sets the tone for the day.
Our team standup is at 9.30, so I’m usually at my desk between 8.30 and 9. The team I currently work on keeps meetings to a minimum, which I love — it means I spend most of my day actually writing code, either working independently or pairing with a colleague when I need a second pair of eyes on something. We work Kanban style, so instead of sprints we pick up work continuously. I also carve out time for learning alongside my day-to-day work; I’m currently working through an advanced Scala course. I try to finish by 5.30 or 6.
The beauty of consultant work is that every team you join is different — it keeps things interesting and you get to see many ways of working. No two teams are exactly the same, which keeps things fresh. But the constant is the work itself, and I genuinely enjoy writing code.
Has anyone ever tried to stop you from learning and developing professionally?
Working in consultancy means you encounter a real spectrum of people — some who are genuinely invested in your growth, and others who simply aren’t. Mercator itself is really supportive — there’s a generous training budget and a genuine culture of learning. But client environments vary, and not everyone you work alongside will be equally invested in your development. I won’t pretend every environment has been equally supportive. But coming from professional kitchens where harsh criticism is the norm, I have a fairly thick skin.
What I’ve had to unlearn is the tendency to look for the fault in myself first. It took time to understand that showing up every day and giving my genuine best is enough — and that someone else’s lack of investment in me says nothing about my worth or ability. I try my best every day, that is what matters.
Have you ever faced insecurities and anxieties during your career, and how did you overcome them?
I am the self-appointed president of the imposter syndrome society. What’s helped most is simply accumulating evidence — every problem I’ve solved, every ticket I’ve closed, every time I’ve figured something out that once seemed impossible. Confidence is something I built by doing the job and working with code. It’s not something you can wait for to appear, and I had to live in that ambiguity for a while.
I also remind myself regularly that I’m one year into my journey as a developer. I was an expert in my previous career — and now I’m a beginner again. Rather than find that shameful, I’ve chosen to find it exciting. There’s so much still to learn, and I get to learn it.
The deeper shift was realising I deserve a seat at this table just as much as anyone else — and being able to say that and mean it. I worked incredibly hard for this career, investing evenings and weekends while working full time. As women, we’re often socialised to step back, to make space, to let others take the spotlight. I’ve learned that I can be kind and generous and still take up space. Those things aren’t in conflict.
Any advice for women wanting to reach their career goals in technology?
A few things, from someone who was exactly where you might be standing now. Focus on your next step, not the whole journey. When you look too far ahead the scale of it can be paralysing and overwhelming — so just ask yourself: what’s the one attainable thing I can do next? Maybe it is an evening course once a week, maybe it is a Udemy class you always wanted to take, or going to a networking event or writing a certain number of applications per week. Work towards that, once you have reached that goal set the next step. As long as you are not standing still, doors will open.
And please, talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend. We are so quick to list all the ways things might go wrong, to rehearse failure, to talk ourselves out of even trying. Try the opposite. Assume everything will go well. Give yourself the pep talks you wish someone else was giving you. You’d be amazed how much that shift in inner dialogue changes what feels possible. For me that also meant telling the people in my life what my plan was, so it held me accountable — because my friends and family would ask how things were going, and I would have hated to say “Oh, I’ve done nothing for the past few months.” Say it out loud. Then go do it.
