Explore Suwanna’s inspiring journey from a supply chain expert to a charitable tech maestro.
Tech is a notoriously difficult industry to break into. And it can be even more difficult for certain groups, like career returners, women, and minority groups.
So when a returner comes back into the world of work and starts making a mark in tech, it becomes a story that’s truly worth sharing.
Join us as we speak with Suwanna, a former supply chain expert turned tech wizard, and learn about her journey, and how TechSwitch helped enable a charitable future.
A global pandemic sparks change
Before kick-starting her journey in tech, Suwanna had been working in the supply chain industry for more than 12 years in a variety of different roles across Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK:
“In Japan, I did several event management and charity events for Tokyo American Clubs and The British School in Tokyo. For example, at the International Bazaar event, I was able to apply my knowledge in the event co-chair role – screening the vendors, organising supply chain and event planning, things like that.”
But after securing a job in the UK, Suwanna left her home in Thailand to move back to England in 2020 – just in time for the start of the global pandemic:
“I moved back to England as COVID struck, so I didn’t have a chance to get to know anyone before we went into lockdown. Plus, the job that I applied for was cancelled because of the pandemic.”
Now stranded in England with no support system or job, Suwanna started to make a plan:
“I had a computer science degree, but that was decades ago. Even though I’d never actually worked in that field, I still wanted to try it out, and I thought: ‘This is the time.’ But I soon realised that as the technology world had moved on so much since my studies, I’d have to completely retrain myself from the beginning.”
But not one for giving up easily, Suwanna knuckled down and started from scratch:
“I took the time during lockdown to start relearning through self-study. Starting to relearn coding reaffirmed to me that it was what I loved to do.”
And that was when she found TechSwitch.
A new beginning
Suwanna applied to TechSwitch and was delighted when she was accepted, despite her fears about being a career returner:
“The first thing I looked for was whether there were any organisations or any places that would welcome returners, because I hadn’t been working permanently for a long time. And at Women Returners they had an advertisement about TechSwitch, and I thought, oh, this is interesting. So I contacted them and I asked, ‘Am I too old? Am I underqualified?’ And they said, ‘No, just send in your application.”’
But TechSwitch wasn’t Suwanna’s only choice – she tried out a number of courses before deciding TechSwitch was the right one:
“I did some remote learning, workshops, and webinars. I tried a couple of two-hour webinars and other bootcamp programmes. But I found that the difference with TechSwitch is they don’t just teach you how to code; they simulate project work, which teaches you what it would be like in the real world, and how to work on your own – they know exactly how to train people to work in the industry. So that’s why TechSwitch was quite interesting to me.”
Thanks to Suwanna’s background in computer science and the work she did in lockdown, the course got off to a great start and a lot was learnt. But it wasn’t until after the course that things really changed.
Once she had graduated, Suwanna had a brief stint working with a team of developers for an eCommerce company. After some time, TechSwitch got back in touch and asked if she was interested in meeting with Zurich Insurance:
“After a year and a half, TechSwitch came to me and said that there was an opportunity to work with Zurich Insurance, and they wanted someone who understood the business. Honestly, I wasn’t just itching to properly start coding, I was aching for it. Having watched the video about the DevOps team at Zurich, ‘Maker Stories’, I was very keen on the job – and fortunately, the interview went well.”
Suwanna immediately felt at home in her new role and was finally being given the opportunity to put all of those new coding skills to the test:
“At the time, I just felt so connected to these people, and it seemed to be the type of company where they were open for people to just jump in and get on with it, which perfectly suited my personality. I don’t like people to tell me, ‘Here’s step one, two, three.’ I just want people to tell me, ‘This is what we want, go do it.’ So I thought, ‘Yes, this is it.’ Having been in the role for a while now, the team’s values and team members are just as I expected - and they were fantastic at teamwork and collaboration. And I most value their strong support in fostering a growth mindset.”
Giving back to the community
With Suwanna settled in her new role, the opportunity to give back to the community presented itself. As someone who understands how difficult it can be to break into the industry, Suwanna knew that she was now in a position to help others do the same.
Luckily, she found a charity that does just that:
“codebar is a charity that facilitates the growth of a diverse tech community by running free regular programming workshops for minority groups in tech. I started to be a volunteer before I even joined TechSwitch. I didn’t know any code but I knew how to organise meetings, so they allowed me to join as a volunteer to organise the Oxford chapter.”
But now, thanks to TechSwitch and Zurich Insurance, Suwanna has the coding knowledge to contribute far more to the charity:
“I’ve seen people who should be confident but aren’t, and there are so many ladies in codebar who I think are coding super-ninjas already, but they still don’t apply for jobs because they think they’re not good enough. So I want to give them the confidence that they can do it. Someone has to encourage these talented people – it’s like a wave, isn’t it? Someone has to pass it on. So that’s what I do.”
As part of Suwanna’s initiative, she collaborated with both codebar and Chingu, a global job simulator that helps Developers, Product Owners, UI/UX Designers, and Data Scientists transform what they've learned in courses, bootcamps, and university into practical experience. This initiative provides codebar students with the opportunity to gain experience working on remote group projects:
“I believe practice makes perfect and experience boosts confidence. That is why I came up with this initiative and I thank codebar and Chingu for supporting this programme. The programme not only benefits new developers and learners but also experienced developers, who join as coaches and mentors, developing their leadership and soft skills while strengthening their tech skills. A key to developing a growth mindset is to be inspired by the success of others, which I would like to encourage everyone to take part in.”
