Do you catch yourself daydreaming about a better life? A job that would make you excited to wake up each morning? But you have to come back to reality because you’re afraid of losing your comfortable yet, at times, frustrating job.
From a dead-end job in a call center to a motivated student learning no code and hairdressing — Telma’s story is unique and inspiring. Our student shared her experience of going from only daydreaming of something different for herself to taking the first steps necessary to change her life within weeks.
For years, Telma was working in the same job, talking with clients from the same script, day after day. And while it was a secure position that brought a paycheck at the end of each month, she knew something was missing.
Seeing her colleagues stuck for years and bosses who didn’t care about their staff motivated Telma to write a resignation letter. Without wasting any more time, she allowed her passion to lead her. Now, you wouldn’t recognize Telma. From being unmotivated and discouraged to constantly learning, building her future on her terms, and taking every opportunity that comes her way — Telma doesn’t look back.
The same career for 15 years
From a young age, Telma was a risk-taker. She was the first in her family to graduate from university and continue learning after school. But, like many of her peers, she wasn’t sure what degree to choose. She picked sociology, and while she enjoyed learning the subject, she couldn’t find a job after graduation. As she also worked in a call center during her studies, she decided to stay there to see what life had prepared for her. As she said, it was easy to find a job in a call center at the time. They offered a flexible schedule, which appealed to a student trying to provide for herself while studying.
But a temporary position in a call center turned into 15 years. During this time, Telma didn’t have to worry much about her professional life because everything was familiar and comfortable. But it reached a point where the comfort zone became suffocating. She started questioning her life and career, thinking — is this it? Is this how my life will be forever?
It encouraged her to look for things to help her feel more like herself.
For most of her life, she loved taking care of hair, especially curly and kinky hair. Telma found a way to combine her day job with a hobby, and together with her best friend, she started a Youtube channel where they shared techniques and secrets of how to take care of curly hair. “It allowed me to explore my creativity and do something I loved. It was good for me, for my self-esteem. It was important to have something else. Even if I had to work in a call center for the rest of my life, at least I had this. It was my bright side and the best part of my day.”
But even with a new hobby, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was more in life for her. She felt unappreciated at work. Her bosses didn’t care about their staff’s recommendations to improve the work and customer service. Without being able to express her ideas and opinions to make work more efficient, she couldn’t find a reason to work in a company like that. But she wasn’t sure what she could do differently at that moment. Her plan was to quit her job and start a hairdressing course. But soon after, she realized she needed a plan B to give her more stability.
From no tech experience to building apps for real clients
Before No Code Institute, Telma had never heard about no code and didn’t even think she could do something like that. But her boyfriend thought it could be a valuable skill to have in the current job market. She was curious to try it but, at the same time, a bit unsure where this would lead. When the course started on the day of her birthday, she took it as a sign that this was a way to go. And sure enough, it was a gift and a great start to her year.
In the first lessons, she had to build a landing page and immediately learned how much you could do with landing pages alone. So, it led her to want to learn more from each lesson. And while she had to do hairdressing and no-code courses at once, her newfound motivation pushed her. “Sometimes it’s hard to do two things at once, but I’m so motivated to learn more, to see more, to build more, and to show it to my friends, family, boyfriend, everybody — “look, this is what I can do now.” It can be a lot of work, but why not? I was stuck for so many years, and now I want to do everything.”
Telma has already learned a lot and is working with real clients to build new functionality for their website. “Now, I’m doing my last project, building a loan calculator for a marketing company for dentists. It wasn’t easy because I’m bad at math, it was definitely a challenge, and I’m still working on it, but I have the help of Miguel and Nelson.”
After just a few weeks of studying no code, Telma is eager to finish both courses and start something of her own. She believes that there are so many great hairdressers that don’t have the skills or resources to build their websites to provide a better service to their customers. With her new no-code skills, Telma is motivated to combine hairdressing and no-code development to offer her services to people in the beauty industry.
When asked what she would recommend to someone who’s unsure about their professional future and feels stuck in life, Telma said that it’s important to listen to yourself. “I think deep down, we all know our passion, but sometimes we’re so deep in our comfort zone, it’s very hard to put this outside. We’re afraid of what people would think about it, we’re afraid to risk a comfortable position or lose money. You need to listen to yourself. Sit in a quiet room and ask yourself — what do I love, what do I want to do?”
You can take control of your life at any point
After many years in the same job, getting out or changing something might feel impossible. However, our student Telma showed us that no matter how long you work at the same job or how comfortable it is, change can bring a new sense of joy to your life.
And it took her only a few weeks to completely change her mindset and career path. And we want to encourage you to do the same.
No matter where you’re right now or what you are doing, you can easily transform your life and learn new skills. The No Code Institute program is designed for everyone, even people with no tech experience. In the course, you’ll learn the most useful tools, techniques, and methods to build websites, apps, databases, workflows, and other functions necessary in this day and age. You can easily combine the course with your other activities, so you don’t need to start from scratch. All you need to do is to take the first step. Are you ready? Register now!
