About Me

Not Your Usual Tech Backstory

I didn't grow up with tech. I didn't have one of the first computers, and didn't take apart appliances and gadgets to see how they work. The first computer I used was a Windows 1998 PC at school. For about 2 minutes, before it was usurped by the boys who all had one at home šŸ™ƒ. My family didn't own a PC until Windows XP, when I was around 13. And I wasn't a boy, so it was out of the question that I could be "good with computers", which kind of instilled in me an irrational wariness, if not fear, of tech things.

And that mindset stayed with me for a long time. Even as I gradually learnt a lot of nifty tricks in Word, Excel and other software taught at school.

Humanities and Admin Instead

I knew I was ok with languages though. I started taking French and German lessons on top of the mandatory English, still in primary school. It didn't really last, sadly, but I got good enough at English (mostly by translating my favourite songsā€™ lyrics for myself with only a pocket dictionary) to earn a spot at a translating and interpreting course at university.

After uni, I ended up working as an office assistant, along with some short hospitality stints. A few years later, a loved one with some technical background suggested I try coding. Naturally, I laughed in their face. ā€œHow could you possibly think thatā€™s an option?ā€ I wondered.

I tried anyway; started with some Wordpress site editing, HTML and CSS. And after realising the self-taught route is not a good fit for me, I took a coding bootcamp, despite my better financial judgement.

Turns out, coding is a lot like learning foreign languages! And my general curiosity about life and other disciplines is also helpful, because then I build things that are usable.

Now

Currently, I'm working on adding examples of the work I've done to the site. If you'd like to know about them before they're published, feel free to get in touch.

"Fun" Facts