If even the About Me page wasn’t quite enough, here is where I lay my past bare and tell you what led to me doing silly and wonderful things like blogging, chatting to people online and owning cats. Okay, maybe not the cats.
After thirteen years at this school, where I picked up A Levels in English Literature, Theatre Studies and Religious Studies, I spent three wonderful years at University College, London, reading, writing and learning to argue. At the end of it, they gave me a rather smart bit of paper that announced to me and the world that I had turned this into a BA in Philosophy (2:1).
I then went on to start a PGCE, training to be a primary school teacher at Roehampton University. This left me with two very important pieces of knowledge:
1) A good teacher is absolute gold dust, and to be seriously respected
2) I can teach reasonably well, but don’t enjoy it that much
Still, I was as interested in education as I’d ever been, and passionate about learning and communication.
So, I started working for 2Simple Software, an innovative educational technology company. At first, I was technical support. Unable to keep myself away from writing for long, I quickly wiggled my way into the web team and became a web content editor. I was also drafting press releases, scribbling short and long articles for teaching publications and editing the first charity website I worked on: that of the Jack Brown Appeal. Two years went by, and I was ready to dig my teeth in and build on the writing and editing I’d done. So I jumped out – tantalisingly unsure if it was a parachute or a knapsack on my back – and delved headlong into freelance web writing.
Or, I would have done if my first freelancing gig hadn’t kept me as a full-timer for a year. That was when I became part of the Shiny Media team as a professional technology blogger. I left mainly because it was time to stretch myself and broaden my role, but also because I was interested in working in the charity sector. I now spend my days helping to take care of a clutch of websites for Dogs Trust, as well as doing all that exciting community management / social media communications stuff.
Turns out that’s what I was born to do; at least it feels that way.
Oh, and when I’m not living on the Internet, I read lots, try and bully myself into going to the gym, coo over the kittens, bake, accidentally tear holes in my husband’s kites and buy dangly earrings.
Anything else you’d like to know? Want a proper CV? Just drop me a line.
