Making the decision to change career with no idea of what to do!

Jon Lugg is two weeks into the _nology course so far and he is loving it! Here is his story...

Written by Nology Team - 11.12.19

My career has followed a somewhat risky path. It began at a brand new start-up and over 10 years has taken me up through the world of business development. I've moved from job to job and lived all over the place. I have absolutely loved the experience, but money has been tight, and as I approach my 30th birthday my friends are getting married, taking out mortgages and having kids.

I am at the stage of my life where I want the same, but my career path wasn't providing the stability I needed...

It is time for a career change! But what to do?

I have been attempting to solve this problem over the past 2 years, but have found myself repeatedly facing these concerns which have proved difficult to overcome:

Wasting time on a new path that I may not enjoy.

The fear of failure, and being back at square one again.

I found the solutions to these concerns didn’t come easily, and so I took the decision to go back into sales. It became difficult. My life felt like it was in a perpetual state of pause, and this began to affect my confidence and motivation in both my private life and career life. Always a very social person, I was becoming increasingly reserved and anxious. In a moment of insanity, I took the decisive step to enrol onto the _nology course.

What steps did I take to reach this decision?

While I surprised myself with this bold new career change, the decision took some consideration. By evaluating what I did and didn’t enjoy about working in business development and startups, it was quickly evident problem solving, personal development and recognition for the quality of work were what I needed in a new career. Constant worry about job security and the lack of stable income assured me a career in a secure industry with challenging work and plenty of opportunity for delivering quality solutions was what I needed.

This is when I stumbled on programming…

After a bit of research, it was clear companies have a high demand for quality programmers, and in a world where technology is king, this demand is only going to increase. This ticked all of my boxes. Programming is all about problem-solving, and the job would require me to continuously develop my skills as technology evolves. Most importantly, taking pride in my work would be recognised with high pay and job security.

Why _nology?

There are plenty of free online resources which could teach me to program, but what I really liked about _nology was the opportunity to learn through working on real projects for real clients. I would be working within a team of students to deliver these projects, and this would provide me with the chance to build a portfolio and get a real feel for what a typical day in the job would be like. Plus, because the course is only 3 months, the time investment is negligible. Additionally, because _nology is linked to Opus Recruitment Solutions, who specialise in placing talent in technology, I wanted to utilise their network and expertise to secure my first job.

So here I am. Two weeks in, and I have already learned so much – and I am loving it! Time till tell as to whether this is the right career move but I am feeling really excited to see what the future holds.

If you are like me, you have to take that leap of faith. In an ever-growing industry which is showing no signs of slowing down – why wouldn’t you?

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