Here We Go…

The start of my 2 year journey through the MA Creative App Development (MACAD) online distance learning course with Falmouth University. 

If I start off with a few biographical highlights, it might help to give you a bit of context:

I graduated from Thames Valley University with a BA(Hons) in Accountancy in 1993, and spent the next 3 years working in marketing with The NatWest Group, in London. I also achieved The Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma in 1995. I was fortunate enough to receive a redundancy payout. I spent some of it on a backpack and set off on a round-the-world ticket for 18 months. I settled in Brisbane, Australia for a year of that time. Initially, the closest I came to finding a “marketing job” was handing out flyers for an earlybird parking scheme, dressed in a chicken costume – which I politely declined (true story!) . Instead, I strategically re-worked the emphasis on my CV and quickly found work as a Management Accountant for a Telecoms company. I then spent a few years back in London doing contract work, which was mainly Microsoft Excel based management accounting, reporting and analytical projects. I taught myself VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) for Excel in that time. Then the opportunity arose for me to move back to my home city of Plymouth in 1999, and I became The Commercial Manager for The Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society. 3 years later, I set up as an independent consultant, providing Excel/VBA services (financial/business modelling and bespoke automated reporting systems ) to public and private organisations ranging from startups to multinationals and British Government Agencies. I covered a broad range of industries, including Retail and Defence.

For various reasons, it’s now time for a bit of a career change for me. I have been working on a plan to start a new business venture, and an app is the central asset. I have identified some personal development needs that need addressing before I can properly get going with it, and so I am embarking upon this course in order to fill many of the gaps.

Having been through the “Android Basics” and “Advanced Android App Development” Nanodegree programs from Udacity (on Google backed scholarships), I’m bringing a modicum of technical experience to this MA in Creative App Development, but I don’t feel that I have yet achieved any significant level of technical confidence or competence as yet. I fully intend to change that.

It’s been a long process just getting to this point.  From initially being made aware of the course, and right up to the point of an in-depth video chat with course co-ordinator, Al Parker, I was in two minds as to whether this course was the right path for me. Having gone through the course content in some detail with Al, I could see that the course offers a great opportunity for me to gain a much broader understanding of the wider spectrum of possibilities for developing apps, as well as affording the flexibility for me to focus on the areas that are directly relevant to my ultimate goals. 

They say that youth is wasted on the young. On reflection, I really didn’t make the most of the academic opportunity that my first degree offered – I just did what I needed to do to get through, and very narrowly missed out on a 2:1 (with hindsight, I really should have appealed – a bit too late now!). But anyway, it’s a lesson learned, and this time it’s a bit different – I’m older, wiser and and have long term objectives to drive me and so I fully intend to throw everything I have into achieving as much as I possibly can over the next 2 years. I have finished my consultancy business so that I can make the course my primary focus and I will be working on it full-time. I’m sure this MA will present me with a rollercoaster ride of challenges and achievement, but I’m strapped in and ready to go…