The Year I Took Back Control and Changed Career at 46

Last week CodeClan contacted me and asked if I would write them an article for their website. Of course, I would be delighted to. Apparently, someone had been in touch and was looking to change careers, they hated their job and would like to study coding. However, they thought at 46 they were too old. Well I am 46 (old?) and I did it (I actually started at CodeClan when I was 45, but that's splitting hairs)

When Everything Changed

So almost a year ago my work life took a turn for the worse and came crashing down. My "position was put at risk". Redundancy was inevitable. I was caught up in a failing Oil and Gas industry, failing department, and failing management.

Looking back now, this was one of the biggest turning points in my life. At the time it felt frightening, uncertain, and financially risky. But it also became the start of an entirely new career, new friendships, and a completely different direction in life.

The situation gradually became unhealthy and unsustainable, and eventually I decided it was time to leave.

There I was 46, had a wife and kids to support, had a poor job market (Aberdeen), and had lots of free time. I was tired of having busted a gut for the same company for the past 22. I needed a change.

Discovering CodeClan

A few chance meetings and a conversation led me to look up CodeClan. A small education facility in Edinburgh offering a software coding boot camp. It sounded interesting. I'd heard about boot camps, it's all about coding, pizza, and table tennis.

The CodeClan course was 16 weeks of full-time study and when (if) you finish you will have a new qualification in software development. A chance for me to get out of Oil and Gas, change an industry and get into Tech.

I love Tech, and 30 years ago I learned some coding at university (Pascal and assembly language) as part of my BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. However, I have never had any proper code training. Things have moved on a lot. Being able to retrain would great and possibly a chance for a rest (I wish!).

I applied and was asked down for an interview at the CodeClan office in Edinburgh. I found a super friendly bunch of people, a real buzz, and the atmosphere was exciting. There were discussions of employee partners doing new things with code. As I looked about I could imagine I was in Silicon Valley.

I was offered a place in cohort 7 and I was lucky to be granted funding from the Transition Training Fund (woohoo! Go me). This is a fund set up to help oil and gas workers retrain having been made redundant. That's me so I applied. It paid for the bulk of my course fees.

I discussed it with my family if they would survive without me during the week for the next 16. Happily, we all agreed, and if there was a chance to improve my prospects in Aberdeen why not.

Starting Again at 46

So I accepted the place and my start date was set at a few months away. I had the whole summer school holidays with my boys to enjoy first (how many people can do that?).

Of course, summer rushed by, and before I knew it I was on a train to Edinburgh to meet the rest of my cohort and pick up my Mac Book Pro (you get one to borrow for the duration of the course). There I met 20 other cohorts all eager to get started. It was a half-day warmup session to make sure your Mac is working and meet each other. Back on the train home, I had my first chance to work on the 3 weeks of homework before the real start (that takes the course to 19 weeks in total, plus I had two two-week breaks at Christmas... So I guess it was 21 weeks for us).

The three weeks whizzed by and I was back down to Edinburgh to start for real. This time I was a commuter, up at 4am on a Monday morning, driving or train to Edinburgh and heading home to Aberdeen on a Friday afternoon. It was hard. I stayed with friends, some weeks in Edinburgh and some weeks in Stirling. I was now a student so keeping costs down was super important, I had no income.

I met up again with my cohorts and we had a day of induction and team building before we were thrown headlong into code.

Life Inside the Bootcamp

16 weeks of intense study took over my life. I had to eat sleep and breathe code. The commuting was a pain but I got comfortable in my new routine.

Coding is also hard! It's mentally exhausting. It's a journey of peaks and troughs. Peaks when you spend ages trying to get something working and it finally clicks. Troughs when you spend ages trying to get something working.

But I gradually became familiar with the format of the boot camp and coding became easier.

Lectures and code along in the morning then paired programming in the afternoon, and finally the joy of joys more coding as homework. Thursday nights were a chance to cry into your beer with your cohorts or to discuss how brilliant your code was. Thursday night was social night and homework-free.

The rest is a bit of a blur and thankfully I did a weekly blog (encouraged by CodeClan) to record my time.

Week 1 - Code Clan

Week 2 - and we are putting the band back together

Week 3 - Program like Efen Reys

Week 4 - Frank Sinatra

Week 5 - Training the Dragons

Week 6 - They put Java in my Ferrari!

Week 7 - Java + Android = Cool Apps

Week 8 - Android - Like putting your pants on two legs at a time!

Week 9 - Happy 1st Birthday CodeClan!

Week 10 - JavaScript... use a semicolon if you want!

Week 11 - Meeting the DOM...

Week 12 - Worshiping at the Cathedral of code

Week 13 - Group Project Week

Week 14 - Speed Dating with potential Employers

Week 15 - This baby corners like it's on Rails

Week 16 - The Gladiators have been thrown into the pit!

Before I knew it I was graduating and had a new SQA qualification in software development. More important than that I'd had a ball and I'd gained 20 brilliant new friends. This was a surprise but so glad, and it alone made it all worthwhile.

What surprised me most was how energising learning something completely new could be.

Back home in Aberdeen at the end of January, it was all over and I was back to having lots of free time and spending time with my family.

I had my new bit of paper with my SQA on it.

It was time to start thinking about working again. I was refreshed and ready to get back to it.

From Oil and Gas to Web Development

I was keen on web development so applied for some jobs in Aberdeen and at the same time started putting myself forward for some freelance work under the guise of www.udnysolutions.co.uk

I'd say my friends in Edinburgh had it easier (don't tell them) as there is a tech boom down there and plenty of CodeClan employer partners to choose from.

Aberdeen doesn't yet, but it's trying. I expected a long wait and many rejections.

While I applied for a few jobs I received a freelance contract to update and refresh a local business website. That kept me busy. Udny Solutions had its first job.

I was then thrilled to be invited for an interview with Aberdeen City Council as a Web Developer (perfect!). Suit and tie on I went for an interview with some super nice people and it must have gone well as I was offered the position the following day.

I was chuffed to bits to accept. I am now a Web Developer and I have a shiny new badge with my picture and big bold letters "Web Developer" on it.

I'm loving my new job.

Looking Back on the Decision

So do I miss my old job? Not really, I miss some of the people. It ended up being more about faff than engineering.

Was being made redundant a bad thing? For me I'd have to say in hindsight, No, I needed a change. I was stuck in a rut. I had spent too long with one company and got little back for it.

Was going to CodeClan worth it? Definitely. Well worth it in fact. I now have a qualification, I had a great experience and gained lots of new friends, and now a new job in tech.

Looking back now, it’s strange to realise how much of my later career started from that single decision to retrain. The path eventually led into web development, accessibility, digital services, automation, civic technology, AI, and many of the systems and projects I still work on today.

So yeah I'm a Web Developer with a newfound passion for tech.

Big thanks to CodeClan and my fellow cohorts. I miss you guys.

A lot of the same themes around learning differently and problem solving also appear in my reflections on visual thinking.

Changing career also eventually reshaped how I think about work, flexibility, and balance in posts like working from home.

The same curiosity that pushed me into coding also led to personal projects like my browser-based text adventure game Redcastle.

Looking back, many of the same ideas around creativity, systems, and building things also connect closely to my posts about the maker mindset.

Changing career at 46 felt risky at the time, but looking back it completely changed the direction of my life.

A lot of the same curiosity, problem solving, and love of technology that started during this period still shapes the systems, projects, and digital work I do today.

If you'd like to explore more of my work and projects, you can find out more here.

Could Aberdeen Become Scotland’s Next Tech Hub?

Looking back now, this post captured a moment when Aberdeen was starting to think seriously about what might come after oil and gas.

At the time, Scotland’s tech industry felt exciting, fast-growing, and heavily concentrated around Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow.

I remember wondering whether Aberdeen could reinvent itself as part of that technology shift.

So is Aberdeen missing out on the tech industry boom?

Scotland’s Growing Tech Industry

The tech industry in Scotland is reported to be worth £5 Billion! The bulk of this is scooped up by Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow... Skyscanner, FanDuel, and FreeAgent plus more in Edinburgh, the Thriving Games industry in Dundee, and a new Tech hub in Glasgow.

There is a real buzz right now around tech companies and startups.

Is Aberdeen being left behind and missing out? Aberdeen could do with a boost at this time. In 2016 Scotland employed 84,000 people in tech. And this year there is even more demand. There was huge demand for developers and digital skills at the time, especially around web and mobile technologies.

Could Aberdeen Compete?

What does Aberdeen need to do to get more of a share? It doesn't need any natural resources (sorry oil!) it doesn't need to be geographically located anywhere. It doesn't need a huge investment, It doesn't even need good weather and sun.

It needs clever people, space, and ideas. We have the people, We have plenty of space (the shiny new Aberdeen International Business Park is two-thirds empty), And ideas that are free.

So what is being done in Aberdeen to get more into this tech boom.

We have the Business Gateway and its elevator program. A brilliant scheme. There is also talk of a Grey Matters program to get business folk together and identify and create new businesses. There are tech meetups including the Entrepreneurs Club.

CodeClan, Startups, and New Opportunities

I met this week with the guys from CodeClan who were up north on a jolly to Aberdeen to see if there is a demand for people wanting to learn to code. They met with potential employee partners (who need coding graduates) and potential students (skilled people let down by oil looking to retrain). Putting the two together makes so much sense.

I mentioned CivTech North, something I'm eagerly awaiting to find out more about and what the 8 tech challenges will be from the public sector.

Early Signs of Digital Transformation

I mentioned in my blog last week I have started with Aberdeen City Council. And two weeks in and there is lots of talk of tech there. ACC seems very tech-savvy. I've been in meetings and presentations where Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and even robots have been discussed. (Count me in...)

ACC also rolled out last week its new (free) city wifi which covers Union Street and other parts of the city center. A real boost for tech buzz and I am happily uploading this free via the city center scheme as I type.

Imagining a Different Future for Aberdeen

So it would be good to see a CodeClan office opening in Aberdeen city, and possibly a CodeBase like Edinburgh. CodeBase Edinburgh is an old council building filled with tech startups. Aberdeens Code Base needs to be in the center of the city rather than the outskirts. It will give the pubs, restaurants, and shops an added boost of more people in the center, and as the startups flourish (Skyscanner-like) additional premises in the city center can be occupied boosting business further.

I think Aberdeen needs more though.

So come on Aberdeen let's bring some of the £5 billion to the northeast and give Aberdeen an additional business beyond oil and tourism. I for one am trying to be part of it.

Looking Back at Those Predictions

Reading this back now is interesting because many of the themes discussed here did gradually become reality.

Aberdeen has continued investing in digital services, technology, innovation, and diversification beyond oil and gas, although probably more slowly and unevenly than many people hoped in 2017.

What stands out most to me now is the optimism around technology, learning, and the idea that entirely new industries could emerge from periods of uncertainty.

In other news, the first website I created through Udny Solutions went live that week. It was bright, colourful, and aimed at a local playgroup, and at the time I was incredibly proud simply to have built something real for a client.

Another week and ACC's newest Web Developer is finishing his second week and is settling in well

This was all happening shortly after my own decision to retrain and change career through CodeClan.

At the same time I was also rediscovering how much I enjoyed meaningful technical work again in From Meetings Back to Meaningful Work.

Looking back, I was fascinated by how technology, digital services, and new ideas could reshape both careers and entire cities.

Nearly a decade later, I still find myself thinking about many of the same themes — civic technology, digital transformation, automation, accessibility, and how systems can genuinely improve people’s lives.

You can explore more of those reflections and projects throughout the blog here.