Career Changers Trailer:
Are you chained to your desk dreaming of doing something different? Perhaps you are an aspiring entrepreneur or want to try something with a social purpose? Join Emma Jacobs, the FT's work and careers writer, as she learns how to change career from those brave enough to take the plunge.
Career Changers Trailer Transcription:
Career Changers Trailer:
Are you watching this chained to your desk dreaming of doing something different I used to work with a financial industry for more than 30 years are you an aspiring entrepreneur desperate to escape corporate life I just didn't see myself climbing that ladder ever I've always wanted to become a CEO maybe you want to try something with social purpose every day I live with a sense of achievement but how do you reinvent your career if you lose a job you love suddenly she told me that I was one of the ones at risk I burst into tears and I literally felt as if I was falling off a cliff and I didn't stop shaking for two weeks for a stay-at-home parent launching a new career can be daunting I've a part of 24 jobs and tenant abuse I can remember saying to my husband oh I'm too old no one will employ me and his retraining is a coda all it's cracked up to be if you said to me ten years ago I would become a computer programmer that there's no way I could have believed that there's still something I thought weirdos did I'm Emma Jacobs I write about working careers for the Financial Times we all daydream about switching careers at some point in our working lives join me as I learn how to do it from those brave enough to take the plunge [Music] you [Music]
How To Start Your Own Business?
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur desperate to escape corporate life? Maybe you dream of starting your own business but don't yet have the courage. The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to know what its like to give up a steady career to go it alone.
How To Start Your Own Business Transcription:
How To Start Your Own Business:
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur desperate to escape corporate life? Maybe you dream of starting your own business but haven't yet built up the courage to take the plunge. I want to know what it's like to give up a steady career to go it alone. I'm Meenesh. I was an accountant. So I used to work in financial services. [MUSIC PLAYING] As a teenager, Meenesh had ambitions to start his own business. But he fell into accounting after finishing his degree in management. People often say that they start off in a job, and then I'll just get enough money, and then I'll leave and start something else up, or do something that I really want to do. And then one year turns into two, five, ten. Yeah. My dad retired. I went to his retirement drinks. He worked in the same job for 35 years, 40 years as an account. He was also an accountant. And it just got me thinking that I'm 10 years down the line, and I don't fancy doing this for another 20 to 30 years. Meenesh considered various business ideas. And after more than a decade in his job, he decided to swap number crunching for something completely different. If you work in any kind of office in the afternoon, especially around the 3:00 PM mark when everybody gets a coffee or tea, it's always greeted with things like cakes and donuts, cookies. And I don't mind having something sweet as long as it's some sort of nutritional value to it. So we started making our own nut and honey bars which were higher in protein, but still taste quite nice with a tea or coffee. We started taking it into our office. People started liking it. And then from there, we turned it into a flapjack. And then from there, we turned it into a cookie. And then it was just a little bit of a light bulb moment that actually, we've had this issue. We looked in the market. We've got this idea, and people in our offices like it. So Meenesh and his wife Parul launched Wholey Moly. Starting a healthy cookie company was a complete departure from Meenesh's old corporate life, but some budding entrepreneurs choose to start a business in a world they already know better about. I'm Thomas Davis. I'm the founder and CEO of Temporall. We help companies measure their organisational health and their high-performance culture. [MUSIC PLAYING] I spent 10 years at Google, so I had three separate leadership roles there. I'd call myself a business technologist. I've been doing that for the majority of my lifetime now. Business psychologist Lucy Standing reckons entrepreneurs who try to exploit a market they already know well are more likely to be successful. It does takes years to build relationships, knowledge, knowing who the influencers are. For someone who is already understanding the issues with the market and is addressing a problem to solve, that is a better place to make a success than someone who is coming into a market that's entirely brand new to them. It's not to say that they can't do it. It's just harder. After a successful career at Google, Thomas hankered for a break from corporate life. I've always wanted to become a CEO, but I didn't have the skills to be one. And I just really remember becoming quite agitated by that. And actually, my first big switch to think about this was to get an executive coach. And they made me stop. Two years later, Thomas' recruited staff is paying himself a salary and has just moved into a new office in South London. He says that his business proposition was refined by talking to lots and lots of people. For Meenesh too, testing the product and learning from mistakes was key. We got some spaces at some markets. We opened up the cookies, and they were all broken to pieces. Because we were using natural ingredients, it didn't really hold well. People still bought them because they were like-- they were just kind, and they like the taste of it. But they just-- they were like-- They feel sorry for you. Yeah, a little bit. We changed one of the ingredients, and that was kind of a game changer, turning it into what it is today, really. Herminia Ibarra is an organisational behaviour professor at London Business School. She says the stress testing that Meenesh did before he fully committed to his new venture was crucial. Many people stay stuck in the wrong career because they don't know what they'd like to do instead. [MUSIC PLAYING] And the way you find that out is by trying things out and by experimenting. These mid-career transitions take at least three years in developing the idea and getting yourself to a point where it is actually feasible for you to go and do that. It's only by stress testing it, and trying it, and piloting, and prototyping, and networking that the idea actually takes shape. And it's often in a form that is different from what you imagined in the first place. He's calming down, isn't he? That's him calming down. Meenesh and Parul started the business together in their spare time while they were both working. But then Meenesh was made redundant, which was the catalyst he needed to go full time on the business. It was not the most obvious time to plunge into the unknown. After all, he had a new baby boy. But he invested his redundancy money into the business, and Parul returned to her job in management consultancy after maternity leave to support them. That's when I went full time. If I had an ongoing job, I would have probably stayed on for maybe another five or six months longer. I could have gone into another role in terms of what I was doing. I was getting offers for interviews, and they all looked quite nice and rosy. But I just didn't see myself climbing the ladder anymore. You were able to do this when your partner is staying on a steady job. And so there is usually a kind of, what's the family unit, and where's the stability going to come from? And it's really critically important that you have conversations with your other half about what you're doing, and what it's going to take, and what the sacrifices are going to be. Executive coach Geraldine Gallacher says if you're going to make a success of starting your own business, you need to be honest about what you're good at and what you're not. First of all, you need a product. So you need someone who can design the product, who is a developer. Secondly, you have to be able to sell it. You have to talk to people. And the third thing is someone needs to be able to do the processes behind that, which is essentially the finance and the IT. [MUSIC PLAYING] I've never found anyone who's actually able to do all three of those things. What you really need to know is what is it you're good at. Which of those three can you do? And then you need to find people around you in your network that can help support you on the ones that you're not so good at. Branding is one area in which we went out to the market to get some help. And you have to be realistic. Is it going to be a lifestyle business, or do you want it to grow and scale into a larger business? And what do you need to get there? There are just certain things that you just you can't escape from needing to know to a reasonably high degree, so things like finances and tax. As a founder, I need to know operationally, commercially exactly what's going on. I don't get energy from doing those things. So I think that is definitely one of the learnings that I've had, is I would describe myself in the last two years as having to play the role of a decathlete. And I'm-- maybe I'm good at the 100 metres, but I'm lousy at throwing a javelin. And actually, I've been having to do that again and again and again. I've felt out of depth all the time. But I think only recently, I started to feel more comfortable in what I'm doing. Would you like to try a healthy cookie? They've only got 5 grammes of sugar. Are you being serious? No additives, no preservatives. It's you and your wife, isn't it? It is, yeah. Yeah. I've seen the newsletter a little while ago. OK. I think a newsletter or Instagram or something like that, isn't it? Probably Instagram, yeah. Breaking into retail at a time when food and beverages are increasingly dominated by startups isn't easy. Competition is fierce, and you have to stand out. Would you like to try a healthy cookie? Meenesh eventually got his cookies in Selfridges. Getting there took persistence and a personal touch. I was emailing on a weekly basis, not hearing anything back. So I went and dropped off some more products. And I left a hand-written note. I know you get 100 guys like me emailing you every day, so here's some cookies to get you through the emails. And give me a shout when you get to my email. She replied within 24 hours. You need to realise that you don't have the power or the leverage to expect things immediately, so you have to be persistent. It's a fine balance of being persistent but not being annoying, because we're all human. And if you had somebody emailing you every week with exactly the same thing, you're just going to ignore them. [MUSIC PLAYING] Networking is key. You'll be surprised at how many people give you advice if you ask them. A lot of startups, especially in the food industry, are very helpful with each other. And there's a lot of communities out there which you can join. Make sure you talk to people that you don't know. They'll just tell you the truth. If I ask someone very close to you, they'll say that's a great idea. It may be a lousy idea. Asking people that don't know you, don't know your background, can give you this different sense of perspective-- and that would be my key advice, is don't be afraid to go and ask people. Because most people are very generous. Cheers. Meenesh hopes to turn a profit and start paying himself a salary in the next 12 months. But other than the financial stability, the only thing he really misses about his old job is the social side. I'm working on my own constantly, so-- You don't have Christmas parties? Christmas party for one man. There will be days where I don't interact with anybody. There will be days where I'm out sampling, and I'll speak to 1,000 different strangers. But social size and pay packet [INAUDIBLE].. There is nothing that replaces just really knuckling down. If you don't have that intrinsic, desire, motivation ethic to work through these moments of, like, oh, my god, what am I doing, you may not want to do that. Maybe a lot of you think, well, I haven't got that one idea. I don't have the courage to go and follow this one idea. And I'd encourage people to keep thinking through. Because if they are creating ideas, there's probably one in there. When it's your own thing, you're a lot more passionate about it, and you find a solution to problems. And it is hard to switch off, but it doesn't feel a burden to be constantly thinking about how to be switched on. So if you're thinking about leaving a steady job to start your own business, consider the following. Take your time. Your first idea might not be the one you run with, so don't give up your day job until you're sure your business plan is viable. Test your idea. It may take several iterations before you have a product or service you can take to the market. Ask experts for advice. Seek guidance from people outside your friendship group. They're likely to be more honest with you about your idea. And knuckle down and get your finances in order. It's hard work, and you have to be prepared to survive without a salary for a while. [MUSIC PLAYING]
How To Turn Your Hobby Into Your Full-time Job?
Are you stuck at your desk dreaming of another working life? Many consider switching careers but few are brave enough to do it. The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to know what it's like to leave a well-paid career in finance to turn a hobby into a stable job.
How To Turn Your Hobby Into Your Full-time Job Transcription:
How To Turn Your Hobby Into Your Full-time Job:
Are you a senior executive with decades of experience? Maybe you've had a high powered, well-paid career in finance, but you want to have a job with more social value. I want to know what it's like to leave a successful career behind to retrain as a teacher. I'm Zed Holmes. For 20 years, I've been a banker. The last 10 years of that, I was a senior executive. After a long and successful working life, Zed didn't think there was anywhere left to go in her profession, so she quit and went travelling to give herself time to work out her next step. And did you leave without knowing what you were doing next? Yes, more or less. I had a vague idea, but I didn't have the time to actually figure it out. Was that a risk? I'm kind of the age where I don't have to worry that much about having no work for a while. I knew that I had to do something eventually. The risk of finding the right thing was worth it. Zed has an MBA. She had an important role at a credit rating agency, but she knew she wanted to do something more meaningful and eventually decided that meant a future as a maths teacher. The people who are in secondary school today, they're going to be in charge in, well, 20 years from now. And I'd like them to be good at maths, and I'd like them to be good at everything else. And if I can play a part in that, that would be great. Who remembers what elimination is, the elimination method of simultaneous equations? I did not expect it to be that hard. So I'm slowly getting to the stage where I'm competent enough so that I can get on with the teaching. Yeah, competency is a good thing to... Competency, yes. Zed decided to try former FT columnist Lucy Kellaway's Now Teach programme. It helps address the teaching recruitment crisis in key subjects such as maths and science by attracting professionals with decades of experience. If you want to teach but you don't fancy studying theory for months, it could be for you. There's clearly a need for new teachers. In 2016, 50,000 left the profession, and there's an 18 per cent shortfall in secondary school recruitment. Aspiring teachers need to enter the profession clear-eyed. Huge workloads, pressure to hit test targets, and behavioural issues in the classroom could all lead to teacher burnout. We decided to set this up so that instead of going to university, that we would place people on existing teacher training schemes within the schools. I knew from FT readers that there were millions of people in their 50s who were doing corporate jobs, or any sort of job, but who kind of had had enough. They had risen as far as they were going to go. And I was sure they were out there. And I set out to find them. The great thing is you teach on day one. Some of the other routes that I heard about is university-led, they call it. So you're in university doing quite a bit of theory. I think teaching, you can't really learn it in theory. You have to practise in the classroom, and you have to see what works. If you're going to follow in Lucy and Zed's footsteps, you're going to have to adapt to a significant salary drop. A senior executive in financial services might leave behind a six-figure salary and substantial bonus. In her second year as a newly qualified teacher in London, Zed can expect to earn around 29,000. What's the salary adjustment like? I would not recommend it financially if that's what you're focused on. But I would say I feel richer than ever before. You also have to be comfortable with a drop in status, at least in some people's eyes. There is a massive loss of status if you're worried about that sort of thing. Weirdly, I feel my status, to myself, has gone up. I didn't want to even be a head teacher. I want to actually be the person who is standing in the classroom teaching the kids. Some of us, we've had it with responsibility. We want to actually do the job. Being junior in school is great, having no responsibility other than doing the best job you can. I have to think very hard every day. I have to figure out how to do new things. I'm learning something new every day. Every day I live with a sense of achievement. I thought I was going to be a brilliant teacher. And so it was the most massive shock to me to get into the classroom and discover I wasn't brilliant at all. I was really quite useless. It's not for the faint-hearted, definitely not. The first year is brutal. To go from something that you're very good at to something that you will inevitably be rubbish at is very, very difficult. Zed reflects that it might have been a good idea to volunteer in a school for a few months before throwing herself into teaching full time. Classroom management is a skill, and a very difficult one. And you have to learn it brutally on the job. I got into the classroom on day one, and yeah, it didn't work very well. Like how? I thought, a little naively, oh, yeah, I was good at presenting. I went on conferences. I presented to 300 people. But adults are very different in how they listen. When they don't want to listen and switch off, they switch off. They don't disrupt you. And they usually don't let you know that they don't like what you're saying. If you lose the class of teenagers, you will know instantly that you lost them. I had to learn how to present things bit by bit, be a bit more explicit. So when you want people to listen, for example, yeah, you say listen. Well, I said listen and expected them to listen. But often, it needs a bit more, like pens down, eyes this way. I feel instantly like I want to do that. Switching to teaching in your 40s or 50s has pros and cons. The children might give you an easier time because you don't look like a fresh-faced trainee teacher. I have automatically what they call classroom presence in the way that I absolutely would not have had when I was 22. It does not.. it did not help me with the technology. I was... and I'd never done a PowerPoint in my life. I had no idea how to get the slides from my computer onto the screen. I was writing on the screen with a felt pen. I was being a clown. And that undermines you so badly. Twenty-two year-old teachers, when they find they're bad at the beginning, their very being is under attack. I felt confident enough in myself that even though I did find it very hard at first, I didn't go home thinking, oh, my goodness, I'm a complete failure. I went home thinking, right, I'm going to have to try something different tomorrow. So I was much more resilient, I think. And that was hugely helpful. But it's exhausting. You can forget about going for a quick coffee break. And don't be fooled into thinking this is a job that will improve your work-life balance. You're on your feet the entire lesson, and not just on your feet. You gesticulate. You try to engage. You walk up and down the classroom. You point at things on the whiteboard. And then at the same time, you have to multitask with about 5,000 things at once, so taking register, changing the slides, explaining something. You must remember to bring the exercise books to the lesson. You must remember that there's homework to be collected. Then people want tissues. Miss, I forgot my pen. I need paper. Can I go to the toilet? Oh, and this child is off in a detention unit. And then the marking, and the lesson preparation for the next day. And so on. There are about 20 things that you must remember at any given time. And I am getting so much better at that. So I think that my reward for this is I'm terribly unlikely to get Alzheimer's. I'm not a stranger to working really hard. When I was a banker, we had transactions that sometimes you worked 18-hour days, 20-hour days. But even in the biggest stress, I always had time to switch off for, say - I don't know - a minute, maybe. Look at your phone, look out the window, take a deep breath, have a tea. You can't switch off for even one second in the classroom. It just doesn't happen. And there is no mercy. So the bell goes, and you just have to stand at the door. And they come in, and you have to teach. I'm not suggesting other jobs are easier, but I would say there's maybe a little bit more flexibility and time to get into it if you're having a bad day. Did you ever think you wanted to quit? Yes, and everyone does. Part of what we're trying to do at Now Teach is put people off as much as encourage them. People are just simply bored with what they're doing and want to change. And they think, oh, this looks exciting. No way. That's not enough. It's not going to work if you don't like being with kids. You have to treat them with respect. You have to show them that you like them. And only then will they be motivated to actually learn from you. And even though this might be the most difficult job you ever do, which will leave you physically and mentally drained every day, the rewards can make it all worthwhile. So you get minus 1 minus minus what? Let's do it. Minus 1 minus minus y is plus y. I just love the meaningful nature of it. It's really rewarding when the students come up to me and say, ah, I get it now, especially if it took a while. I wanted to be useful. Writing a column, is it useful? Making people laugh, I suppose, week after week, has a purpose. But I wanted to do something tangible where you could actually say, this child now knows something that they didn't know this morning. I was really keen on the idea of that. I'm surrounded by young people who have all their lives in front of them. They have lots of potential. Every one of them can do anything they want to. It makes me happy to be part of that. Lots of my friends and contemporaries, as they turn 60, are feeling truly washed up. And I feel the opposite of washed up, because I'm just starting. And that is truly exciting to be at the beginning, and you're learning new things. And expectations of me are so low because I'm a newly qualified teacher. I'm not expected to be any good. So if I do give the odd lesson that I consider really is rather good, then I feel a genius. So if you're thinking of ditching a career in banking in pursuit of something with a higher purpose like teaching, consider the following. Don't try teaching just because you're bored. You might have nowhere left to go in your current job, but this isn't an easy way to spend the final decade or two of your career. Leave your ego at the door. You're going to have to be happy with a big drop in status and salary. Don't be fooled by the promise of long holidays. Whether it's marking or lesson prep, you'll work evenings, weekends, and holidays. You're on your feet all day, and you'll need to learn new skills on the job and fast. Do you actually like children? If you don't enjoy their company, you might be better off trying something else.
How To Retrain As A Teacher?
Are you a senior executive with decades of experience? Maybe you have a high powered, well-paid job but you want work with more social value. The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to know what it’s like to leave a successful career behind to retrain as a teacher.
How To Retrain As A Teacher Transcription:
How To Retrain As A Teacher:
Are you a senior executive with decades of experience? Maybe you've had a high powered, well-paid career in finance, but you want to have a job with more social value. I want to know what it's like to leave a successful career behind to retrain as a teacher. I'm Zed Holmes. For 20 years, I've been a banker. The last 10 years of that, I was a senior executive. After a long and successful working life, Zed didn't think there was anywhere left to go in her profession, so she quit and went travelling to give herself time to work out her next step. And did you leave without knowing what you were doing next? Yes, more or less. I had a vague idea, but I didn't have the time to actually figure it out. Was that a risk? I'm kind of the age where I don't have to worry that much about having no work for a while. I knew that I had to do something eventually. The risk of finding the right thing was worth it. Zed has an MBA. She had an important role at a credit rating agency, but she knew she wanted to do something more meaningful and eventually decided that meant a future as a maths teacher. The people who are in secondary school today, they're going to be in charge in, well, 20 years from now. And I'd like them to be good at maths, and I'd like them to be good at everything else. And if I can play a part in that, that would be great. Who remembers what elimination is, the elimination method of simultaneous equations? I did not expect it to be that hard. So I'm slowly getting to the stage where I'm competent enough so that I can get on with the teaching. Yeah, competency is a good thing to... Competency, yes. Zed decided to try former FT columnist Lucy Kellaway's Now Teach programme. It helps address the teaching recruitment crisis in key subjects such as maths and science by attracting professionals with decades of experience. If you want to teach but you don't fancy studying theory for months, it could be for you. There's clearly a need for new teachers. In 2016, 50,000 left the profession, and there's an 18 per cent shortfall in secondary school recruitment. Aspiring teachers need to enter the profession clear-eyed. Huge workloads, pressure to hit test targets, and behavioural issues in the classroom could all lead to teacher burnout. We decided to set this up so that instead of going to university, that we would place people on existing teacher training schemes within the schools. I knew from FT readers that there were millions of people in their 50s who were doing corporate jobs, or any sort of job, but who kind of had had enough. They had risen as far as they were going to go. And I was sure they were out there. And I set out to find them. The great thing is you teach on day one. Some of the other routes that I heard about is university-led, they call it. So you're in university doing quite a bit of theory. I think teaching, you can't really learn it in theory. You have to practise in the classroom, and you have to see what works. If you're going to follow in Lucy and Zed's footsteps, you're going to have to adapt to a significant salary drop. A senior executive in financial services might leave behind a six-figure salary and substantial bonus. In her second year as a newly qualified teacher in London, Zed can expect to earn around 29,000. What's the salary adjustment like? I would not recommend it financially if that's what you're focused on. But I would say I feel richer than ever before. You also have to be comfortable with a drop in status, at least in some people's eyes. There is a massive loss of status if you're worried about that sort of thing. Weirdly, I feel my status, to myself, has gone up. I didn't want to even be a head teacher. I want to actually be the person who is standing in the classroom teaching the kids. Some of us, we've had it with responsibility. We want to actually do the job. Being junior in school is great, having no responsibility other than doing the best job you can. I have to think very hard every day. I have to figure out how to do new things. I'm learning something new every day. Every day I live with a sense of achievement. I thought I was going to be a brilliant teacher. And so it was the most massive shock to me to get into the classroom and discover I wasn't brilliant at all. I was really quite useless. It's not for the faint-hearted, definitely not. The first year is brutal. To go from something that you're very good at to something that you will inevitably be rubbish at is very, very difficult. Zed reflects that it might have been a good idea to volunteer in a school for a few months before throwing herself into teaching full time. Classroom management is a skill, and a very difficult one. And you have to learn it brutally on the job. I got into the classroom on day one, and yeah, it didn't work very well. Like how? I thought, a little naively, oh, yeah, I was good at presenting. I went on conferences. I presented to 300 people. But adults are very different in how they listen. When they don't want to listen and switch off, they switch off. They don't disrupt you. And they usually don't let you know that they don't like what you're saying. If you lose the class of teenagers, you will know instantly that you lost them. I had to learn how to present things bit by bit, be a bit more explicit. So when you want people to listen, for example, yeah, you say listen. Well, I said listen and expected them to listen. But often, it needs a bit more, like pens down, eyes this way. I feel instantly like I want to do that. Switching to teaching in your 40s or 50s has pros and cons. The children might give you an easier time because you don't look like a fresh-faced trainee teacher. I have automatically what they call classroom presence in the way that I absolutely would not have had when I was 22. It does not.. it did not help me with the technology. I was... and I'd never done a PowerPoint in my life. I had no idea how to get the slides from my computer onto the screen. I was writing on the screen with a felt pen. I was being a clown. And that undermines you so badly. Twenty-two year-old teachers, when they find they're bad at the beginning, their very being is under attack. I felt confident enough in myself that even though I did find it very hard at first, I didn't go home thinking, oh, my goodness, I'm a complete failure. I went home thinking, right, I'm going to have to try something different tomorrow. So I was much more resilient, I think. And that was hugely helpful. But it's exhausting. You can forget about going for a quick coffee break. And don't be fooled into thinking this is a job that will improve your work-life balance. You're on your feet the entire lesson, and not just on your feet. You gesticulate. You try to engage. You walk up and down the classroom. You point at things on the whiteboard. And then at the same time, you have to multitask with about 5,000 things at once, so taking register, changing the slides, explaining something. You must remember to bring the exercise books to the lesson. You must remember that there's homework to be collected. Then people want tissues. Miss, I forgot my pen. I need paper. Can I go to the toilet? Oh, and this child is off in a detention unit. And then the marking, and the lesson preparation for the next day. And so on. There are about 20 things that you must remember at any given time. And I am getting so much better at that. So I think that my reward for this is I'm terribly unlikely to get Alzheimer's. I'm not a stranger to working really hard. When I was a banker, we had transactions that sometimes you worked 18-hour days, 20-hour days. But even in the biggest stress, I always had time to switch off for, say - I don't know - a minute, maybe. Look at your phone, look out the window, take a deep breath, have a tea. You can't switch off for even one second in the classroom. It just doesn't happen. And there is no mercy. So the bell goes, and you just have to stand at the door. And they come in, and you have to teach. I'm not suggesting other jobs are easier, but I would say there's maybe a little bit more flexibility and time to get into it if you're having a bad day. Did you ever think you wanted to quit? Yes, and everyone does. Part of what we're trying to do at Now Teach is put people off as much as encourage them. People are just simply bored with what they're doing and want to change. And they think, oh, this looks exciting. No way. That's not enough. It's not going to work if you don't like being with kids. You have to treat them with respect. You have to show them that you like them. And only then will they be motivated to actually learn from you. And even though this might be the most difficult job you ever do, which will leave you physically and mentally drained every day, the rewards can make it all worthwhile. So you get minus 1 minus minus what? Let's do it. Minus 1 minus minus y is plus y. I just love the meaningful nature of it. It's really rewarding when the students come up to me and say, ah, I get it now, especially if it took a while. I wanted to be useful. Writing a column, is it useful? Making people laugh, I suppose, week after week, has a purpose. But I wanted to do something tangible where you could actually say, this child now knows something that they didn't know this morning. I was really keen on the idea of that. I'm surrounded by young people who have all their lives in front of them. They have lots of potential. Every one of them can do anything they want to. It makes me happy to be part of that. Lots of my friends and contemporaries, as they turn 60, are feeling truly washed up. And I feel the opposite of washed up, because I'm just starting. And that is truly exciting to be at the beginning, and you're learning new things. And expectations of me are so low because I'm a newly qualified teacher. I'm not expected to be any good. So if I do give the odd lesson that I consider really is rather good, then I feel a genius. So if you're thinking of ditching a career in banking in pursuit of something with a higher purpose like teaching, consider the following. Don't try teaching just because you're bored. You might have nowhere left to go in your current job, but this isn't an easy way to spend the final decade or two of your career. Leave your ego at the door. You're going to have to be happy with a big drop in status and salary. Don't be fooled by the promise of long holidays. Whether it's marking or lesson prep, you'll work evenings, weekends, and holidays. You're on your feet all day, and you'll need to learn new skills on the job and fast. Do you actually like children? If you don't enjoy their company, you might be better off trying something else.
How To Deal With Redundancy?
Have you ever lost a job you loved? Maybe you’ve suffered a crisis of confidence after a long and successful career at a great company was brought to an abrupt end. The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to know what it’s like to bounce back when it feels like your world is falling apart.
How To Deal With Redundancy Transcription:
How To Deal With Redundancy:
Have you ever lost a job you loved? Maybe you've suffered a crisis of confidence after a long and successful career as a great company was brought to an abrupt end. I want to know what it's like to deal with redundancy, and bounce back when it feels like your world is falling apart. My name's Kimberly, and I used to work for Sainsbury's. I worked straight out of university, did their graduate training scheme, and worked for them for 22 years. Ending up as marketing and PR manager for beers, wines, and spirits. I was made redundant, and it came as a complete shock to me, and just saw me ending my career there, because I really enjoyed what I did. I had a call from my boss. Sadly she told me that I was one of the ones at risk. How did you feel? I burst into tears. I hadn't long been back from maternity leave, so I had a small baby. We'd just done an extension to our house and remortgaged, I was just trying to think, what am I going to do for money. I need to pay the bills, couldn't see a future outside of Sainsbury's. Maternity leave can sometimes knock your confidence. Did you feel confident at that point? No. I'd been out of the game for a year. So it there's a lot to come back to, a lot to learn. Yeah, I was just probably at my lowest confidence level anyway, and then it was a big knock. It isn't unusual to feel helpless in a situation like this. Writer and broadcaster Christina Patterson was made redundant after a 10 year career at the independent. In her book, The Art of Not Falling Apart, she examines how to cope when life goes wrong. I've lost people very close to me, and I've had breast cancer twice, and I'm afraid to say it sounds awful to say it, it felt like the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life. There was a moment when I talked to the editor, and he told me he wanted to freshen the pages up, which is not a phrase that is ever going to gladden your soul. And I literally felt as if I was falling off a cliff. And I walked out of that office, and I didn't stop shaking for two weeks. I lost eight pounds in four days. I mean normally I'm thrilled to lose a pound or two, but when you lose eight pounds in four days you think oh my god, something's really wrong here. It's a trauma, and that's how the body reacts in trauma. So I think you shouldn't be surprised that happens to you. Kimberly cancer s lucky that the Sainsbury's redundancy package provided her with lots of support. Mel Barclay is head of career transition at LHH Penner. She helped Kimberly when she was at her lowest. She was feeling very vulnerable, and I think she was unaware of what the job market held for her personally. So she came to us for programme support where she had coaching, one to one coaching with a career transition consultant. She joined in workshops and virtual classrooms and general networking events to build her confidence, and through that she then decided to go down the self employment route, and set up her own business. Feel free to take notes. They were so useful. You could choose what courses and what sessions you wanted to attend, so I did lots on setting up your own business, things about social media, how to do a website, how to be on Facebook. Tax, that-- you know, quite practical things. And also things about building confidence, again. Because it really, really suffered. I was also offered counselling which I'm very glad that I took up. I wasn't going to, but I thought it was extremely useful, and really helped me change my mindset about coming out of redundancy positively rather than feeling very negative about it. There is something amazing about talking to someone who is very clever at the end of the phone, and always has an answer for what you've got to say. I could have seen someone face to face, but I quite liked the fact that he didn't see me. My first session I pretty much spent in floods of tears. It was just very, very cathartic, and very, very useful. You kind of go through this arc of emotions. Why was it me? And it's anger, then you're upset. And it just helped me to talk to somebody about it, and that it's not me, it's just a massive business, and they have to do this. And there are brighter things on the other side. The first thing you'll need to do is to kind of get a grip, and get some support. And make sure that you don't allow yourself to feel crushed, because if you're wandering around looking absolutely miserable, nobody's going to think, I know exactly the person I need to help me with my project, or a job, or whatever. It's going to be that I'm really miserable person who looks as though they're about to slit their wrists. You need to be kind of as energetic and positive as you can be in the circumstances, while also acknowledge that you are going to be feeling pretty awful. There's a lot of fear around age discrimination, and a lot of people coming in who are sort of perhaps not that far off what they anticipated to be retirement feel quite so fatalistic about their chances in the job market. But what we will do is we'll try and focus on their strengths. As a result of being in an organisation for 25 years, you've acquired a huge amount of skill and experience which another organisation would like to have. And they will find you a role for you, because a younger person hasn't got that. Redundancy can also leave you feeling like you've lost part of your identity. It is like the worst breakup ever, because it's been part of your life. All my friends know me as working at Sainsbury's. It's where I met my husband. So yeah, just suddenly to be without that huge chunk in your life was really sad. But it can present an opportunity to reinvent yourself. Did you know what you want to do when you were about to leave? I was going to set off on my own. And so those lost 12 weeks, even though I was still working, was sort of prepping for going out there into the big wide world. At Sainsbury's I used to run any wine events, wine tastings, write copy for magazines, and on the backs of the wine labels. I do similar things now for other companies. I had managed to line up a job while I was still at Sainsbury's, and I started work on that the following week after I left Sainsbury's. Kimberly received a generous redundancy package, which she could have lived off for a year while she worked out what to do next. But she didn't want to touch her lump sum, so she didn't waste any time. Lots of people hurry to get a similar role to the one they had before. If you can financially take time out, it could be worth considering your options. Yeah? Wherever possible we encourage people to take some time out between leaving a role and starting something else, mainly because it helps them to sort of settle any feelings of resentment or anxiety they've had. And most people just need time out to sort of recharge the batteries. It is a very emotional process, and most people really need a bit of restorative time to be at their best for the next role. As much as it's important for people to get another job, particularly to pay their mortgage and to keep their families together, we also think it is an opportunity for them to explore things. Because if they don't, and they don't actually satisfy that particular career itch, they may regret just jumping into another role too quickly, and potentially be at risk of trying to find something else again in a short period of time. And if you take that extra time out, it can be a chance to truly reinvent your working life. I was very clear. I didn't want to get another job job. You know, I wasn't interested in climbing some corporate ladder. I wanted to piece together a portfolio of different things. A public service strand, which is unpaid. I have a creative strand, which is book writing. I have a commercial strand, which is consultancy. And I think it's almost a kind of millennial approach. How can I piece together a work life that for me ticks the different boxes of a bit of money here, a bit of status there, a bit of creative satisfaction there, a bit of public service there. And everybody will have their own response to that. And for some it will be a different job. It might be retraining for a new career, or it might be putting together a package. Larva coming out. Redundancy you can also present an opportunity to redefine your work life balance. Kimberly works from home now, and sees much more of her husband and children. She doesn't miss waking up at 5 AM every morning, or the long commutes into London. My alarm goes off at 7:00, so it's quite nice to have a lie in, and get the kids up, and able to spend time with them, give them breakfast. So much more of a nice sort of family morning. And take them to kid-- to school and nursery, and come back and start work. What are you doing, you monkey. They love it. They love having mommy around more. In the past they've not known who's going to be there when they wake up. Now it's always me, so they just love it. Well, my husband works from home as well, but pretty much we don't see each other during the day. But it's nice because he go to spend more time with the kids now. He's having loads more family time. Kitchen table. You've done good. Yes. Say it. I used the word proud, but I mean had I gone through that same thing, I know that I would have probably kind of inside freaked. What the hell am I going to do? I'd have gone out, probably gone to another big company, look at the security of that role, I think, is incredibly brave. He's never said anything like that to me before. It's like Mister and Missus. I'm glad I was a service. Kimberly loved her old job, and was devastated at first, but she advises anyone in a similar situation to try to stay calm. Take as much advice as you can from your friends and family, anyone in the same business that you're working in, and just take the time to work out what's going to be best for you. Take a leap. Take a leap of faith if you want to go alone, because it is extremely rewarding. But obviously do your research first. I love the job itself, I know, I really, really used to enjoy going into work. I enjoy spending time with my colleagues. But I say my life is so much better now that I don't miss it. So if you've just been made redundant, you feel like your life has been turned upside down, and you don't know what to do next, consider the following. Take professional advice, whether it's counselling or career coaching, it'll help focus your mind. Try to stay positive. You may feel like you're falling apart, but that isn't an image you want to present the rest of the world when you're networking. Take time to consider your options. If you rush into something, you may live to regret it. And don't panic. You might be in a state of shock, but things will get better. And who knows, redundancy may be the catalyst you need to build a better career.
How To Launch A Career After Years As A Stay-at-home Parent?
The FT finds out how to return to work after a long period away. Are you at home with children at your feet, braying for your attention? They've become your full time job. So how could you ever go back to a career? The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to find out how to return to work.
How To Launch A Career After Years As A Stay-at-home Parent Transcription:
How To Launch A Career After Years As A Stay-at-home Parent:
So, you're trying to watch this video from home with children fighting for your attention. They've become your full-time job. How could you ever go back to a career? For a stay-at-home parent, returning to work after a long period can be daunting. I want to find out how to do it. My name is Emma Callaway. And I've had a 20-year career working in the telecoms industry. My last role was for BT, and I was a senior marketing manager. And I was there for 13 years. What does the tooth fairy do with the teeth? That's a weird question. Oh. It's a weird question. I had my son, and I was balancing my career and putting Daniel into childcare. I thought he needed more support. I didn't think it was the right time for me to be travelling and having Daniel starting school and only being four. And I wanted to be at the school gate for him. Yay! Mommy! Brilliant. Another yay. How was your day? Emma's son Daniel is happy. He is settled in at school and loves his after-school clubs. She's ready to go back to work, but jobs have been hard to come by. I've applied for 24 jobs. I've had 10 interviews. It's been a bit disheartening. I did have one agent who told me to take off the fact that I had 20 years' experience because that wouldn't be seen as a positive thing. Not working kind of erodes your confidence because work is such a big part of your life. If you don't have it there, then what do you say when people ask you what you do or what you've been doing? What do you say? Well, sometimes I talk about what I did in the past. It is a big part that's missing out of your life. Shocking to go to a dinner party and talk about the fact that you're a mother. I didn't feel that I could have a go and just do a job sort of at 60 per cent in order to also do the mum bit because I really like to do things well. In retrospect, maybe if you'd given it 70 per cent and still kept a hand in the workforce... Do you think you could have done that? Yes, I could have done that. It'd have been hard, but I could have done it. Yeah. I hadn't really realised how disconnected I might feel once I stopped working. Because you don't go to work, you don't connect with people... and like I know the person really well. That's the biggest thing that I miss, and that's one of my key motivations for getting back into work. Is to have more connections with people. Otherwise, you get this feeling of - we call it postcode fever in our house - if you only have been in your little postcode, and you haven't had any stimulation or humour or discussions. Employers can be put off by gaps in your CV, but you should show recruiters that they're not empty years. Executive coach Geraldine Gallacher runs a programme for people returning to work after a significant break. I think it's really important to counteract that idea by pointing out how full those years are. But, actually, in terms of developing you as a leader, it can be incredibly helpful to have navigated a number of different areas of your life. For example, if you've ever worked anywhere near a parent-teacher association, you get to realise the kind of politics and the navigating that is actually quite complicated stuff, as well as which, you might well have taken over the treasury over, or you might well have... Very often, the people that we coach have helped with running a family business. So there are very rarely empty years. For professional people that we coach, I would say the majority of them do something as well as looking after the children. So it's worth trying to capture that and presenting it in a constructive way. Finding work after three years at home with a child has been challenging for Emma. For others, a lengthy period out of work might involve a complete change of career. I'm Collette Altaparmakova. I studied natural sciences at Cambridge and then did a PhD, where I was doing cervical cancer research. By the time I graduated from my PhD, I had two children. And from 2008, I was a full-time mother. And so was your ambition to be a stay-at-home mother? My ambition when I was studying was, certainly, to have a career, probably in research. After more than a decade as a stay-at-home mum, Collette wanted to launch a new career. But she doubted whether she could do it. I can remember saying to my husband, oh, I'm too old, no one will employ me, and him saying, well, you can still think the same way as you did, and you've still got all the abilities that you did. So don't decide that for them. Collette counts herself lucky that as a Cambridge University alumna she was able to make good use of its career services. They run a number of workshops and talks. And I got a better idea about the legal world, the world in the City, what the different firms in the City do. Hi, Ben. Hey. How are you? Good, thanks. Talking to people was crucial. It gave Collette the confidence to start thinking about a new life as a corporate lawyer. I talked to everybody. There was nobody safe. When we bought a house, I was quizzing our solicitor on what they did. When we did our wills, it was similar. I did work experience with a barrister. I did some work experience volunteering at Citizens Advice Bureau, attended no end of workshops at the career service, but also open days and evening presentations at law firms. Her research paid off, and today she's a trainee lawyer at Linklaters. The long hours with early starts and late finishes means she often doesn't see her children during the week at all. So weekends have become more important. Well, we have better weekends. Do you notice the difference? Yeah, definitely. I think now that you're at work, we try to get our homework done before the weekend whereas before we'd leave it all for the weekend so that we can do other stuff. That's a nice thing to say. It's true. She's bored at home. Like the most excit... Was she doing your homework with you before? Well, the most exciting thing would have been my year 5 maths homework. And that was really boring for us. And quite sad for her? Yeah. One of the hardest parts of switching from being a stay-at-home mother to a trainee lawyer has been letting go of being in charge of domestic affairs. Before, I would know exactly which socks belonged to everybody and what the state of the washing was. Probably, at the beginning, I found quite difficult to sort of let go of control over some of those things. I don't miss them now. Were you trying to do both? Were you trying to be a sort of de facto stay-at-home mum and work a full-time job? I don't think I was trying to do both, but I think I was trying to be in charge of both. That's not fair on anyone. My husband goes to work, and I do everything. So it's like PA for Daniel, holidays, cooking. I do the whole thing. Redefining your role at home can sometimes be as difficult as starting a new job. The big challenge, actually, when you go back to work is that you've really clarified to the family that you're not going to be there providing the same care. And that really is the biggest challenge, actually, is renegotiating with them about how this is going to work. So, for example, if you've been at home, and for 10 years you've done the vast majority of the kind of domestic workload, when you go back to work, especially as some people go back full time, that's just not going to be feasible. And, actually, when you've got teenagers, you really do need to actually enrol them. Look, you know, this is a joint decision. We're all getting in for this. So how are we going to recontract about how we do things? As more parents choose to return to work, some firms are adapting to meet their needs in order to recruit and retain talent. In some cases, the route back to employment could be better served by avoiding recruiters and going direct to the employer. Organisations are now beginning to recognise that there is a pool of talent that's largely untapped. And so rather than going through recruitment consultants, where the recruitment consultants themselves can be a bit sort of transactional in the sense that they just want to have someone with recent experience, the actual companies, like the banks and the law firms, they themselves are actually doing direct entry for people who've actually been out of work for a period. So I guess the first thing is to be reassured that, actually, this is a pool of talent, and you're in a pool of talent that people are looking for. I think there is support out there that people can use and networks out there that can be found. I would really encourage people to think about what would make them feel fulfilled and what they want to do and to try to make that happen and to remember it's gradual, that you don't wake up one morning a stay-at-home mother and then the next morning, a lawyer somewhere in the City like this. You don't become less clever. You don't have fewer skills after time at home. You're still the same person. You've done different things. You've gained skills. I just thought it was important to throw things away. Rejection can be hard to take, but Emma didn't let it get her down. She's since successfully applied to a government backed return-to-work programme, and she would encourage other people to do the same. At the end of the programme, there's going to be some companies or HR directors who are keen to take a return-to-work person. And we're going to do a speed dating session. We get to learn about the company, and you get to say what your strengths and weaknesses are. And then if there's a spark of interest on both sides, that might lead to a placement. I think it's really going to help me just even connecting with other people that are having the same issues. There's some people that have been on the programme and have got jobs are coming to tell us about it. And if someone inspires you to think of a different way of doing things differently or look at another aspect or go and find a job elsewhere in a different sector, that's great. So if you're a stay-at-home parent longing to launch a new career, or you're worried about returning to work, consider the following. Do your research. Build your network. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Attend workshops, or try return-to-work schemes. Don't be afraid of gaps in your CV. There's a good chance you've developed skills worth highlighting while looking after children. Draw attention to any volunteer work you might have done. Go directly to employers. You might get ahead if you bypass recruitment consultants and go straight to the company you want to work for. And try to stay confident. You'll almost certainly have to deal with rejection.
How To Switch Your Career To Coding?
Are you stuck at your desk dreaming of another working life? Many consider switching careers but few are brave enough to do it. The FT's Emma Jacobs wants to know what it's like to leave a job as a teacher and enter the very different world of coding or software programming, and how to do it.
How To Switch Your Career To Coding Transcription:
How To Switch Your Career To Coding:
Are you in a steady job but have itchy feet? Maybe you're tempted by a career in tech, but feel intimidated by terminology like full stack, Java, or Scala. Maybe you fear vying for jobs with people who've been coding since they were a child. I want to know how to make a switch from a traditional career, such as teaching, to the mystifying world of computer programming. If you said to me 10 years ago, when I was 17, that I would become a computer programmer, there's no way I could have believed that. It was still something I thought weirdos did. Twenty-seven-year-old Martha Chambers now works for British broadcaster ITV as a software engineer on its TV interface. But a year and a half ago, she was an English teacher in a challenging state school in northeast London, having studied politics and philosophy at Edinburgh University. My mum was a teacher, my granny was a teacher, my great-granny was a teacher. So it's something I always thought I'd probably go into. So I signed up and did the Teach First programme, which is pretty gruelling. Started teaching in Ponders End, which is a fairly poor area in Enfield. So yeah, it was a shock. And not long into the teaching, she began to consider another career. Martha stays in touch with Ruby Venning, who taught at the same school as her, and now teaches English and maths in East London. I'm really missing the school, you know. I've only got 10 days left for the whole year. Oh, dear. Why did you want to leave teaching? I can't remember. I think, I wanted a change. Teaching, you know, absorbs so much of you, you know. It's so difficult. But, I think coming straight out of university and going into teaching is really hard. I think it'd be something I'd love to go back to once I've got a bit more to offer. Right. And I wanted to... yeah, I just wanted to start learning again. Problem-solving myself the whole time, rather than trying to get the kids to do the solving. So Martha started to strongly consider software programming or coding. It was a radical switch from her humanities background, but she already knew she had an interest in logic and maths, and was good at it. Before I went to university, I was teaching in China. And I met a guy on a hike. We were just chatting and we were doing riddles because we were walking for a pretty long way. And he gave me a maths riddle. And he was a computer programmer. And he was quite impressed with how I solved it and my talking through. And he said, you know, you should give this a go. I sort of ignored it at the time. I'd just done my English, history, and philosophy A levels. So again, really artsy, and was about to go and study those things at uni. I suppose it was when I got to uni and I started studying the philosophy side of things, I took lots of logic-based modules, computational logic, and loved it. And a couple of people over the years have said I should go for it. So go for it she did. But how to get in? It's no easy option, and most employers want to see some formal training. That's available in many forms: online courses with technical tests, evening classes, or full-time degrees with universities. And now, intensive courses run at coding schools, which have sprung up in recent years. Tech recruitment veteran Nadia Edwards-Dashti has this advice. If you can, go back and get yourself a degree within computer science. The computer science degree will teach some of the pure fundamentals. And when we look at the complexity of systems that we're all using today, you can't have mistakes within those. If you can't, then you do as many courses as you can. On top of that, you go to technology events where you can meet with people. And you start collaborating outside of a work environment. When you do get to interview, you can say, actually, I've got the theory, and I've got a bit of practise, as well. In the end, Martha decided to go for a shorter, three-month course at a coding school in London run by General Assembly, rather than a year-long degree, which would have meant losing a year's salary. She said it was 12-hour days six days a week in classes, plus homework. Had you ever been somebody that had been sitting in their bedroom coding away, kind of trying things out? Had you ever done that before? No. And I think that the great thing about the course is it's a way of getting into it even if you're not one of those types that has spent hours in their bedroom. Did that put you off at all? You know, in the beginning of the course, when you just can't get your head around something, it is so frustrating. You sort of look around the rest of the class and think, oh my God, everyone else gets it. And that is really scary and daunting, and you can get really stressed and over-worried. But then after class or in break times, or even halfway through a class, you know, you have a quiet chat with a friend and you realise everyone's going through that struggle. But to really succeed on a course like this, it's crucial to know this really is the job for you. Martha did coding exercises on her own as a way of finding out what was involved, and she knew her enjoyment of logic puzzles showed her interest, even the ever popular Sudoku. It's quite a lot like programming. You get to that point where you think, oh my God, have I ruined this? Am I not going to get a solution? And you have that moment of battle. And then when it all comes together and you've completed it, it's very, very satisfying. The hard work of three months intensive training was only the beginning. Then Martha faced the scary prospect of actually finding a job. How did you find the job search? The job search, well, it was great the first two weeks because you're like, yes, don't have to get up, this is fantastic and a bit of a relief. And then very, very quickly, you are plunged into, oh my God, I don't have a job, I'm not going to get a job. But you just start applying, and just sort of view it as keeping up and improving your code skills, practicing tests. We all still went back into General Assembly, so we were allowed to use their offices as a sort of collaborative workspace. Courses like Martha's aren't cheap. Switching to coding is a real investment of money and time. It was £8,000 which is a huge commitment. That's why you have to really, really be aware that that's what you want to do before signing up. I think that's another great thing about the pre-work. I think just as much as them deciding whether you're right for the course, it's actually you deciding whether you want to, you know, invest. Martha passed her interview with ITV, and she's been working as a junior developer on their TV interface, working in JavaScript, controlling what you see on screen. A typical day for a new coder might be a new project, debugging, or improving existing code. So I think that's being reviewed. It may or may not be used. It's a totally different work/life balance and salary to that of a teacher. As a teacher, your job is never over. Some teachers get four hours sleep a night. It's really, really all-consuming. My day here, I turn up, I'll pick up a ticket, we have stand-up each day talking about where everyone else is at with their work, and then either continue working on your own or pair programme together. Then, at the end of the day, when the day is done, sometimes you find yourself staying later because you just can't let go of the problem and you really want to keep solving it. But mostly I can go home and put that work to bed. It's a contrast to her teaching career, but there are some things she misses from her days in the classroom. What do you miss the most? I really miss the kids. You really miss the kids. Yeah. Our year 11s? Yes. Oh, they were the best. I mean, they weren't in lots of ways. No. Lots of challenging lessons. Yes. But they were great. And they all did so well. So what are the hours like compared to what we used to do? Oh, so good. So we have sort of flexible hours. So I'll leave the office and I don't have to think about it, which is a huge difference. Rather working on the weekend or feeling guilty for not working on the weekend. I remember calling you most Sundays being like, I haven't done the marking for Monday. Yes. And it was really... yeah, really stressful. What Martha also enjoyed about teaching was the sociability. But what surprised her about the coding work is that, unlike the stereotype of an isolated nerd, it's sociable, too. I really get on with my team. I really enjoy working here. And I'm loving learning. Really, really loving it. That does go hand-in-hand with the struggle. It's exhausting learning something new. I think the great thing about my team is they're very good at explaining things in a way that is understandable. And if you have doubts about whether you'd make an actual coder, don't be put off. Martha's manager, Huw, himself switched from a career in social care, and says people skills count just as much as an aptitude for coding. When we're looking at people's aptitude, there is a certain level that we expect people to be at. That level is probably not as high as people assume because we can see, once you reach a certain level of aptitude, people can always learn. The assumption that we prefer computer science graduates doesn't necessarily hold true. We prefer people with more life experience, who are clear about what they want. They might be better at working within a team. They may have a slightly different outlook on problem-solving. Commitment and enthusiasm go a long way. Martha hasn't given up her enthusiasm for education. At ITV, she's volunteered to mentor young women about routes into the sciences, technology, and coding, like Hanshikaa Shyamsundar, who goes to school in south London. So you've been involved in programming since you were 10. What sort of things do you want to draw out to evidence that? What are your main areas? I do a lot of, like, HTML for websites. So I think... I really miss working with the kids. I really struggle with the fact that I'm now another newly qualified teacher that has left teaching within two years. And I hate the fact that I'm one of those statistics. And so I suppose I do feel a little bit guilty for that. I hope, however, to sort of marry up those two skills in the future, either going back into teaching or working for a charity. So if you want to take the plunge into the very different world of coding, remember that, while it's more accessible than ever, it's not an easy option and consider the following: know you want to do it and have the right mindset. You need to enjoy solving problems, and to be logical, flexible, and creative. Be prepared to make a big investment of time and money. Consider carefully the pros and cons of an intensive coding course against a university degree or postgrad qualification. Accept a change in status and salary, as you will start, inevitably, as a junior developer. Be prepared for robust criticism. It's part of the process. You need to be collaborative. And never stop learning. Keep up coding projects outside of work. And remember, computer languages are constantly changing.
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