Charlotte

Before lockdown, I’d been working at McDonald's for 10 years. I enjoyed working there but knew it wasn’t a forever job, and the pandemic made me think it was the year to look for something different, especially as I had so much free time when I was furloughed.

I’ve always been interested in tech products and liked the idea of being part of an exciting new industry. I started looking for adult training courses at the start of 2020, and the pandemic meant there were more courses available.

I applied for The Prince’s Trust and Generation Amazon Web Services (AWS) Re/start Course because I didn’t know what skills were required for a tech job. The course covered such a wide range of skills and covered lots like multiple programming languages – often courses just cover one. I got a laptop from The Prince’s Trust to learn from too.


Other people on the course had no tech industry experience either so we all learnt together. At the end we sat an exam and I gained an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner qualification.

We also did a lot of employability sessions on the course about confidence, practice interviews and how to set up a LinkedIn account. Those were just as valuable as the tech skills. I felt confident in myself and that was the most important part. I changed my mindset, alongside learning lots of technical skills.


After setting up my LinkedIn, I posted about my new qualification. I received a message that a cloud tech company Matillion was hiring. At first I was nervous because I didn’t know everything required for the job, but they understood my skill levels from the course and I am now working as an associate solutions engineer.


At one point I didn’t think I’d find a job so quickly after the course, but I realised the high demand in jobs in the tech industry. I am pleased to now have started my future career in tech and hope to continue to learn and gain more certifications in the future.