I didn’t start my career in tech.
In fact, if you’d met me when I was filling out my university applications in Portugal, you probably wouldn’t have guessed I’d end up as a Head of Engineering in London.
From MySpace to “real life”
My first taste of tech wasn’t in a classroom or a computer lab. It was on MySpace.
As a teenager, I spent hours hacking together my MySpace profile with copy-pasted HTML, changing colours and layouts without really knowing what I was doing. I loved it – but when it came to university, I didn’t choose computer science. I chose International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies instead.
This was very much against my parents’ advice. But honestly, what teenager follows their parents’ advice? Not me.
I’d always loved speaking foreign languages, and International Relations felt like a way into a diplomatic career in the future – travelling, working with different cultures, being at the centre of global conversations.
And in a strange way, it did get me where I am now. If it wasn’t for that degree, I wouldn’t have moved from Portugal to London. That move changed the trajectory of my life and ultimately opened the door to my career in tech.
Realising it wasn’t for me
As I went through my degree, and even after it led me to move from Portugal to London, I slowly realised: this isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life.
You’ve invested time, money, effort, and you’re supposed to have this clear plan. Instead, I had a piece of paper, a new city, and a lot of uncertainty.
So I took about a year out, working as a sales assistant and trying to figure out what I actually wanted to do.
I tried different things, thought seriously about my strengths, and kept coming back to the same pattern: I loved working with computers. I loved problem solving. I loved building things. Those hours spent tweaking my MySpace profile were more than a teenage obsession – they were my first real steps into tech, even if I didn’t realise it yet.
The Groupon course that changed everything
My “official” entry into tech wasn’t glamorous.
It was a Groupon course in Front-End Development.
The course was basically twelve PDFs on HTML, CSS and JavaScript; no fancy platform or live instructors, just me and my laptop.
But I was hooked.
I loved the instant feedback of front-end work: change something, refresh the browser, see it come to life. I started reading books about HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The more I learned, the more I realised: I want to do this properly.
Self-study was great, but I knew I needed a more structured way to go deeper and, importantly, to be taken seriously by employers. That’s when I decided to do a Masters in Content Planning and Web Design at the University of Greenwich.
Going all in: my Masters degree
The Masters was a turning point.
I spent a year immersed in learning. For the first time, I was surrounded by people who were also serious about getting into the tech industry. Many of them, like me, were coming from completely different backgrounds. It was reassuring – I wasn’t “late”, I was just on my own path.
One of the most valuable things I got from that year wasn’t just the content, but the people.
A friend I met there gave me practical advice on how to approach interviews. She showed me how to translate previous experience into transferable skills for a tech role (who knew being a shift supervisor in a Starbucks at 19 years old demonstrates leadership and responsibility?), how to structure my answers, how to research a company properly, how to show genuine interest, and why you should always ask at least one question at the end of an interview.
It sounds simple, but it made a huge difference to my confidence.
And that confidence mattered, because I decided to start applying for roles before I’d even finished the degree.
Two interviews, one day, and an offer
When I first started applying, I expected a long, painful process of rejections and “you don’t have enough experience”.
So I was cautious. I sent a few applications, expecting very little.
Then I got two interviews. On the same day.
I went in assuming this was just practice – a warm up, a chance to get over the nerves. Instead, after my second interview, I was offered a job on the spot.
After all that anxiety about being “too new” or “not technical enough”, there I was, with an offer in hand. It was a huge confidence boost… and also the beginning of a very intense learning curve.
Learning at speed in a fast-paced development agency
My first role was at a fast-paced web development agency, where I joined as a UI Developer and Designer.
At first, my days were a mix of pixels and code: turning wireframes into responsive interfaces and bringing them to life with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. One moment I was nudging elements by a few pixels, the next I was debugging why something looked completely different in another browser.
The pace was intense. Lots of clients, tight deadlines, and constant context switching.
As I grew more confident, I started taking on more responsibility: reviewing other people’s code, pairing with juniors, and suggesting improvements to how we worked. That led to a promotion to Lead Front-End Developer, and eventually to Head of Front-End Development.
Those roles were my first taste of leadership. I was:
- Setting standards for front-end quality and accessibility
- Helping to plan work and shape technical decisions
- Supporting and mentoring other developers
- Still writing a lot of code, but increasingly thinking about how the team performed
Looking back, that environment taught me resilience, focus, and how to learn on the job – but it also laid the foundation for my next move.
Moving into product: joining Rightmove
After several years in the agency world, and having led front-end development there, I wanted to understand what it meant to own a product: what happens when you look after something long term, how you decide what to build next, and how you measure impact beyond “we shipped it”.
That curiosity led me to join Rightmove as an Engineering Manager, my first role where I was responsible for a team rather than just my own output. I owned features and systems and focused much more on the why behind what we built, not just the what.
Rightmove was where I really started to understand what it meant to build and lead healthy, effective engineering teams.
From individual contributor to Engineering Manager
Although I’d already led the front-end team at the agency, Rightmove was my first dedicated Engineering Manager role. It shifted my day-to-day focus from solving problems myself to creating the conditions for other people to solve them instead.
I realised how much my earlier experience helped: my degree in International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies gave me tools for understanding stakeholders and navigating disagreements, and agency life had trained me to communicate clearly and stay calm under pressure.
As an EM, my work became less about commits and more about conversations, helping engineers grow, unblocking teams, joining the dots between product and tech, and making decisions with both people and systems in mind.
Stepping up: Head of Engineering
A few months ago, I took a big step in my career: I started a new role as Head of Engineering.
It feels like a natural progression from my Engineering Manager role, but also like stepping onto a bigger stage. I’m moving further away from individual delivery and deeper into shaping how engineering works at an organisational level.
Even though I’m still at the beginning, I know this role is about:
- Defining and communicating engineering strategy
- Shaping culture and ways of working across multiple teams
- Creating structures where managers and engineers can do their best work
- Hiring, supporting and developing diverse talent
It also brings a heightened sense of responsibility around representation. I didn’t see many women in senior engineering roles when I was starting out. Stepping into a Head of Engineering role makes me very aware of how visible that is – both inside and outside the organisation.
I don’t think of my journey as “making it”, because careers aren’t finish lines. But I do think a lot about how I can use this position to make things a little easier, clearer, and more welcoming for the women coming after me.
My journey wasn’t linear (and that’s the point)
From the inside, it’s been anything but linear. It was:
- Realising a degree I’d worked hard for wasn’t right for me
- Taking time out, working in retail, without a clear plan
- Signing up for a random Groupon course
- Reading PDFs and books late into the night
- Taking a risk on a Masters
- Applying for jobs before I felt “ready”
- Learning fast in environments that stretched me
And that’s really what I want to share, especially with women thinking about moving into tech:
You do not need a perfectly straight path to have a fulfilling career in this industry.
Advice for women considering (or early in) a tech career
I’ll end with a few things I’ve learned along the way.
1. Your past is not a mistake – it’s your edge.
International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies wasn’t “wasted”. It gave me communication skills, critical thinking, and comfort with complexity; all of which I use daily in engineering leadership. Whatever you did before tech, there are strengths you bring that others don’t have.
2. Don’t wait to feel 100% ready.
I applied for roles before I’d finished my Masters, assuming nothing would happen. That’s how I got my first job. Growth often happens after you say yes, not before.
3. Find your people.
The friend who helped me with interview prep changed the trajectory of my career. Surround yourself with people who share knowledge, encourage you, and celebrate your wins. Join communities, meetups, online groups – you don’t have to do this alone.
4. Invest in soft skills, not just tech skills.
Writing, communication, listening, giving feedback, managing conflict – these aren’t “nice to haves”. They are what enable you to lead, influence and create impact, whether you stay hands-on or move into management.
5. Work with the right people.
The environments and leaders you choose matter. A supportive team can accelerate your growth, while a toxic one can make you question your worth. You deserve to work somewhere that respects you, challenges you, and believes in your potential.
If you’re reading this as a woman wondering whether it’s “too late” to move into tech, or whether your non-technical background disqualifies you, I hope my story shows the opposite.
Careers in tech are rarely neat, straight lines. Mine definitely wasn’t.
And that’s exactly what made it interesting.
