Look at me go! Here I am, writing a blog!

This may not be a big deal in the tech (or even not-so-tech) world but I'm still pretty pleased with myself, for reasons which will become clear if you bear with me to the end of this 3-part series. As the title suggests, my journey from Occupational Therapy to Cloud Engineering was neither obvious nor straightforward. And, of course, it is still ongoing.

Why Am I Writing This?

I decided to start this blog to share my unorthodox journey into Cloud Engineering for 3 reasons:

1. Inspiration: To encourage anyone who needs that nudge to take their next step into tech, even if the path seems unclear.

2. Learning and Articulation: To share my learning process and improve my ability to articulate what I’m learning and doing. 3.

3. Reflection and Motivation: To reflect on my progress and stay motivated in my ongoing learning.

My First Love Was OT

So let's dive in and start at the beginning. With my first love, OT.

'What's an OT?' you may ask. Let's discuss...

The first love-of-my-career was Occupational Therapy, or OT as those in the know refer to it. (Yes, you guessed it, it's mainly other OT's!) Occupational Therapy is an awesome career.

You actually make a positive difference in people's lives every day, be they children with severe disabilities or elderly people with physical or mental health problems. Or anyone in between that needs help to live their lives safely and with as much independence and dignity as they can.

OT's See the Whole Person

OT's see people holistically, considering all their roles and activities of daily life and helping them to achieve what they deem are important. (Little things, you know, like getting out of bed without breaking a hip or getting off the toilet without needing someone else to help you.)

OT's are creative, resourceful, empathetic. They excel at problem solving with people instead of problem solving at them. They work well in teams and are great at managing projects with multiple stakeholders, yet they always advocate for their clients. As you may have gathered, I loved being an OT and even more, I loved working with other OT's.

Clueless Student to Multi-Disciplinary Team Manager

From my first lecture as a clueless first year student at the University of Pretoria in beautiful South Africa to my final role as an OT Team Manager in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in fabulous London, I felt like I had never stopped learning and growing.

If you want learn more about the career with the confusing name, you can click here : Occupational Therapy or reach out to me!

Isn't This Blog About Tech?

Yes. Yes it is. But not just yet.

Forward some years and I felt like my world had shrunk to that unique realm, both relentlessly repetitive and incredibly rewarding, that exists where small children reign. Add a change of country from England to the Netherlands, developing a new social network, learning a new language, navigating a new culture and exploring my career options with increasing frustration, all while severely sleep deprived over many years, and we arrive to sometime last year.

I felt like my career was in the Pit of Despair (insert creepy Pit-of- Despair-man's voice here. You know the one, white hair, big mole, likes to torture swashbucklers!)

3 Reasons I Started This Quest

1. Registering with the Dutch governing body for allied health professionals is cumbersome and slow. It would require me to find someone willing to supervise me until I've completed enough hours to qualify for registration.

2. I would need to start at the bottom of my career and work my way back up, despite having 16 years of experience, including 10 years in leadership positions.

3. I could not find a role that allowed me to use my expertise in management, safeguarding, occupational therapy, and social work. The available roles were very much 'old school' OT, focused on issuing equipment.

And of course, all of the above required professional level Dutch...

I knew I didn't want to spend my time and energy proving my competence, only to end up in an entry-level position with unclear and apparently limited growth potential. I felt truly stuck.

The Million Pound Question...

And then I had a call from my BFF back in South Africa: 'How would you like to win a million pounds?' she asked.

Well, how would YOU have answered that question?

Next Time...

I'll tell you about how The Longitude Prize changed my world (spoiler alert: we didn't win!), the motivational power of elderly Dobermans and how I 'discovered' many things Cloud.

To Summarize:

• OTs rock.

• It’s tough giving up a career you love.

• It’s even tougher finding another career you can love.

• There are actually prizes out there where you can win millions of pounds! Who knew?

Top Tips and Resources

• Reflection: Reflecting on what I loved and didn’t about my previous career and what I wanted going forward.

• Facebook Groups: Joining groups like Amsterdam Mamas and Amsterdam Business Mamas for support and inspiration.

• Networking: At this stage in my journey, talking to people in my local area (read: mothers in playgrounds and at school), which even led to a volunteering role at a coaching startup.

Until next time as I continue on my career quest!