I officially made a career change into tech in 2016, after being a hobbyist coder for a few years. Sad to say, before I took the plunge I had a lot of misconceptions about tech which turned out to be quite unfounded, and many of the things I worried about actually turned out to be some of my favourite things about tech!

Here's what I discovered...

1. Coding is not boring. It's actually super fun.

Before getting into web development (which I started looking into as a sort of hobby originally) I thought anything to do with programming or IT was totally boring. Blame my uninspiring IT lessons in school where we learned how to enter data into a database (yawn... although I actually love databases now!) and use Microsoft Publisher.

But how wrong I was. Programming is solving problems, and as such it engages your brain. It also requires you to work closely in a team and collaborate. Which is all the complete opposite of boring. Frustrating, occasionally, sure, but those moments where you get to a solution more than make up for that. If you've ever been bored in a job, hopefully you can appreciate how great it is to be fully engaged and challenged at work. Plus, there's always something new to learn, and I love learning!

2. It's creative!

Coding is creative, because you're solving problems and there's no one way to solve them. I thought it would all be logical and mechanical, but not at all. Of course, computers have a logic of their own which needs to be understood but within those parameters there's endless room for creativity and craft... for findign the simplest, most elegant solution to a problem, and for thinking outside the box when problems present themselves. Creative thinkers will go far in this industry, and if you have an interest in the more visually creative side of the work then there are all sorts of roles around user experience, design and front-end development which might suit!

3. Tech is everywhere

I thought tech would be super corporate, and when I pictured someone in IT I pictured a guy in a suit with a briefcase, which is kind of sad and demonstrates how vital it is to having diverse role models and representation in tech. But in fact, tech is not necessarily corporate at all, if that's not what you're looking for.

Every sector is a tech sector these days, so you can find roles anywhere that interests you - fashion, finance, government, charities, music, education, healthcare... almost all businesses need to embrace digital transfromation these days to survive, so there are opportunities everywhere!

So if any of the above sounds interesting to you - a stimulating, interesting and creative career which can take you to all sorts of places in all sorts of sectors, and provides endless opportunity for growth and learning - tech might be up your street!

If you want to have a go at coding and see how you find it, I recommend the courses on Codecademy which are free and give a great introduction. HTML and CSS are great places to start if you want to give web development a try, as you'll learn how to build webpages. If you're interested in diving into some logic, choose a programming language such as JavaScript, Python or Ruby and see how you find it.