When Cloud DevOps Engineer Nawal joined CodeYourFuture (CYF) — a training community and non-profit organisation that helps socially excluded groups, such as refugees, find a route into tech sector employment — she embarked on a career journey that was to change her life. Within three months of completing the programme she successfully joined Capgemini UK’s team focused on cloud infrastructure services, where she has been working ever since.
How did your background lead you to challenge your perception of yourself?
I was born and brought up in Saudi Arabia by Sri Lankan parents. I went to international schools, and even though I struggled with education due to dyslexia, as a teenager I dreamt of independence. I learned basic ICT at school — however, I was married off as soon as I finished Year 13 and went to live in Sri Lanka so I couldn’t continue with that. After moving to Sri Lanka I discovered the expectation of me was to be a wife and mother, and that studying was not a priority for women in the community I was living in. A year after the birth of my son though, I knew I needed to do something. I managed to complete a teacher-training course. After six years, when my son was five, I escaped my marriage and went back to Saudi where I started work as a teacher and began an English degree with the Open University. I was under pressure to get remarried again though, and I decided to come to the UK on holiday in 2012 with my son, which gave me a real taste of freedom. Here, I realised it had become unsafe for me to go back, so I claimed refugee status. It took four years to be granted, and I volunteered for a variety of non-profit organisations while I waited.
How did you find your way to the CYF programme?
Through my volunteering, I began to realise I had talents and transferable skills. People would ask me to do all sorts of things and I’d have a go. I updated a website for one organisation and taught myself WordPress to create an event website for another. I’d spend nights working out HTML on my own, so, when I first heard about CYF in 2016, I got in contact. I was in transition at the time: I was in my late 30s, waiting for refugee status and there were so many new things to learn that I’d never done in my life, such as paying my own rent. I completed the course, but I wasn’t ready to do anything more with it at that point. Then, in 2019 when my son started looking at universities I thought, ‘What am I going to do when he leaves home?’ and my idea that I survived just for him came crashing down. I went back to CYF and asked for another chance, and they welcomed me back.
What was your experience of the CYF programme?
It was good to be around like-minded people with similar aspirations and where my age and gender didn’t seem to matter. We concentrated on full stack development over the 10-month programme, learning JavaScript, with weekly assignments. It was challenging, especially since a lot of us were mums and some were working part or full-time while also in education. I asked whether anyone was interested in joining me in the evenings or at weekends to go through the assignments, and the group that grew around this was able to challenge and move others forward to feel that yes, we could have a career in this. Hearing positive stories from other people who had gone through the programme made all the difference. You think, ‘They can do it, so why not me?’. The people who volunteer within CYF are amazing too and our mentors would always be there to help if we needed it. Once I feel confident enough, I’d like to give back in the same way.
Were there any particular challenges for you in taking up the CYF opportunity?
I wasn’t used to working with men, and I was very shy when I started the course. The first time the CYF founder came to Manchester he asked me why I didn’t say anything. I replied that I was not used to working in mixed gender settings and that felt very overwhelming. When I found my group of women and we worked online together in the evenings, the CYF Founder would join us and try to encourage me to talk, which started to rebuild my confidence. Tech is a male-dominated industry though and I have taken myself totally out of a comfort zone with this. At my first social event, I initially felt out of place as a hijabi among a group of men attending. However, I’ve now become more comfortable with this.
Joining Capgemini, how did reality match your perception of working in a corporate environment?
At the end of 2020 Capgemini UK came to CYF to talk about its different business areas and cloud infrastructure fascinated me. At that point, I didn’t know if I could do it, but I thought I’d try so I put my CV in — and received an interview date. My laptop microphone failed during the interview, and I was very nervous, but they gave me an offer, which was terrifying and exciting. I kept thinking, ‘Wow, will they find out I can’t really do this job?’. I didn’t know what to expect but every person I met at Capgemini was so nice and very patient in helping me to get to the point where I could get the work done. I completed an intense six-week programme where I learned some of the cloud tools and a week after it finished, I had the chance to start working on projects.
What was your early perception of the corporate world?
I’ve been at Capgemini for 21 months, which feels like a bit of a dream, but the fact is, I am here! The CYF programme also involved sessions around presentation and speaking alongside the technical input. The community is not only about learning to code but building soft skills in a safe environment to support us into work, and the language and the professionalism of the corporate world has been a learning curve. I could go into a meeting and not understand a word sometimes in the early days, but since then I’ve learnt that it’s okay not to know everything as long as you’re open to learning.
What’s the biggest change in yourself through this process?
That I now know I’m worthy of change. And if I put my mind to it, I can do anything. Not so long ago I didn’t think I would be able to choose where I wanted to live or be a role model to my son. So many positive things have come out of this journey, from the trust and openness of the people I’m working with to the creation of a different narrative in my mind and a brighter future. It’s never too late to learn if you have the right mindset and find the communities that will support you in growing.
What advice would you give to someone from a socially excluded background about forging a career in tech?
Learn to code if you’re interested, but if coding is not your thing – find something you enjoy is the most important advice I can give someone. It’s going to be challenging, but the more you put in, the more you see the possibilities are endless. Find people who can share knowledge with you and motivate you to get there — we all need cheerleaders. There is so much support around. Reach out to people on LinkedIn and through the different communities that have been built for coding. Finally, see what appeals to you – from cloud DevOps to software engineering, building applications, websites or testing. There is something for everybody if they want to enter the tech industry, you won’t know if you don’t take the first step.
CodeYourFuture is a non-profit organisation that trains some of the most deprived members of society to become web developers and helps them to find work in the tech industry. You can find out more about how CodeYourFuture and Capgemini UK work together here.
