From Campaigns to Coding: My Transition into Tech

The Digital Dream

When I first stepped into digital marketing over a decade ago, it was hot cake as my dad would say. It was one of the most sought after industries at the time. The space was exciting, full of opportunity and momentum. There were jobs in abundance and brands were finally waking up to the power of having an online presence, so it genuinely felt like the place to be. I went on to build a digital marketing career within the private equity and investment banking space, working in high pressure environments and for many years, digital marketing served me well but fast forward to today, and the landscape looks very different.

Technology continues to dominate at an even faster pace, and if you’re not getting with the times, you’re getting left behind. Ironically, this shift brought me back to something I’d brushed past years earlier: coding.

Coming Back to Coding

Before my marketing career even began, I had learned HTML and CSS. At the time, I saw it as a “nice to have”, useful skill to tweak websites, but nothing deep. I didn’t take it seriously, and I certainly didn’t imagine it would one day become the foundation of a whole new career path for me.

My decision to pivot into software engineering is both practical and personal. The demand is undeniable, the opportunities are global, and the flexibility to work remotely matters a lot to me. The world is moving deeper into tech, automation, and AI, and software engineers sit right at the centre of that evolution.

I also wanted to stretch myself again and feel that sense of learning something new that I hadn’t felt in a while and yes, I won’t pretend the salaries weren’t appealing too.

By 2023, I was falling out of love with my job and although I was earning well, settled, and secure, I felt really stagnant. But I was worried about starting over and got very comfortable where I was especially after building a respectable career. Deep down though I knew God was prompting me to make a move and my husband also encouraged me to follow my interest in tech but I kept saying I’d leave when the time was right.

Then came December 2024, and I was made redundant. What initially felt like a setback left me with no choice but to be intentional with my time. So instead of rushing into the next familiar role, I purchased Codecademy’s Full-Stack Engineer course and to no surprise, I loved it.

At the same time, I had my eye on Code First Girls Software Engineering bootcamp. It was something I considered doing for a while but didn’t feel brave enough to apply for. Eventually I did and by God’s grace, I was accepted on my very first application with the course starting in September.

Learning to Begin Again

Sixteen weeks later, I’ve completed the programme, learning Python, APIs, object-oriented programming, MySQL, databases, and so much more. The journey was intense and definitely not easy but worth it? Rewarding?? Absolutely! So now, it is official. My software engineering journey has begun.

I’ll be sharing more about my experience with the CFG application process and bootcamp in a separate post but in all, this experience reminded me that growth often requires discomfort and sometimes looks like starting again from a different place.

This time last year, I thought I was experiencing a loss when in reality I was being redirected. What felt like a setback turned out to be preparation and I’m grateful for the courage to pivot and the growth that came from trusting God through all the uncertainty.