Thread by @garius

Couple of peeps asked how I ended up as a developer then web/digital strategy leader after doing these A levels.

Because they taught me how to think, analyse and plan logically.

They didn't teach me tech. They taught me the most marketable skill in the world: Problem solving.

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1425391237188792321

Once, in an interview, I was asked:

"Why don't you have a degree in Web Design or Digital?"

My answer was simple:

"Because they didn't exist when I started doing this."

But I was in that room, having been asked to apply for that position, BECAUSE of my study choices.

Those A Levels and my degree (History, with Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies @YourStMarys ) taught me transferable, broadly applicable skills.

Skills that turned out to be perfect for an industry that didn't really EXIST until I was already at uni.

@YourStMarys An industry that I instantly fell in love with while studying, and which I found I could understand and easily do, from the beginning, because those same A levels and degree had already started making my brain think the right way to excel in it.

@YourStMarys And then, when this working class kid found himself suddenly doing digital transformation for the Civil Service, at a time when most leaders didn't understand it, those same studies gave me a framework of metaphors I could use to explain it to the public school Berties.

@YourStMarys Turned out that applied in publishing, law, and HE.

Studying history, philosophy and RE didn't just give me vital skills. It broadened my horizons. And it taught, then gave me confidence in my thinking and my writing.

That pushed doors ajar in industries yet to exist.

@YourStMarys Now as with ANYONE who gets to a high career position. It isn't just down to skill. It's a result of a certain amount of luck and (as a white English dude) privilege.

That doesn't detract from my achievements. But it leaves me with a duty to help remove those barriers for others

@YourStMarys But I am VERY conscious of the fact that the things, in the horrific world of British class privilege and snobbery, that should have held ME down largely didn't.

And they didn't, because I'd accidentally studied things that mitigated them.

@YourStMarys Funny story:

At a major legal publishing firm where I was Head of Digital, the Directors decided that all new hires should have "A 2:1 from a Russell Group university in a directly relevant subject"

@YourStMarys "Then I'll have to resign" I said, politely.

"Why?"

"Because that criteria would have ruled out you hiring me."

They quietly dropped the requirement.

(I was also the first manager there to hire someone without a degree)

Anyway. What I'm trying to say here is that this is why making sure EVERY kid, REGARDLESS of their background, has both access to - and the support to - study the arts, philosophy, whatever at A Level and beyond.

And why I get very angry when career officers or universities DON'T tell their arts students that they are perfectly set for a world in tech with just a little bit of personal development in computing.

Because the beauty of studying history, philosophy, RE and more is that it makes your brain work a very useful way, at EXACTLY the time when your brain is most open to being developed that way.

And once you have those skills, you have them forever.

Frankly, the reason bad snobby people get snobbish about us poors studying those things is because they KNOW that it helps us navigate their world in a way that allows us to compete with them.

That's why studying these things matters. It opens up careers AND levels the game.