Why I decided to switch from the fashion industry to the tech world? — Part 1
Since I took that decision to change my career path and especially after start working with some very close friends of mine building our own startup and now that I have been working with Hokodo in the #insurtech industry for the past month, I wanted to write an personal #article talking about the story before all of that happened- Read the first part of my article below.
If someone could watch the past 2 years of my life, like a movie, in just two hours, he might think that moving to London and start building my career, chasing jobs, networking and figuring what I want from my life, was the best decision that I ever made. But actually, that’s not the truth and let the protagonist of this story share with you his way of seeing those decision making choices.
I think that many people in my life questioned my decision to change my career path and most importantly the industry that I have been working for the past 6 years (yeah I started my first step when I was still a teenager). Nobody really made that direct question, but I could see the scepticism in their eyes and I could genuinely understand it. How someone takes a decision like that so easily? How can you take the decision to basically reset yourself and at the same time rebrand who are you as a professional, in order to land that job in this new field and also convince that HR person or CEO or Co-Founder, sitting in front of you, that you are the right person for the job? — But let’s just start from the beginning, shall we?
For those who don’t know me (I expect basically everyone here), my name is Alexander Voulgaris, I start working in the fashion industry as a blogger and later on as a fashion journalist/editor for the past 6 years. I had the privilege and the joy to collaborate with many publications, websites, interview amazing designers, photographers, artists (Mary Katrantzou, Iris Van Herpen, Synchrodogs and many more), work with many great (and not that great) professionals and also collaborate with some of them in small projects. Things were going pretty well until I started experiencing the “adult life”, bills to pay, a Master degree to finish and while at the same time, I have moved to the UK and start living by myself for the first time.
It all started at the beginning of 2018. It was around February, when I found myself, being, all alone, in a 36 square meters studio apartment in Leicester, getting over my, rather dramatic and really bad, break up with my ex-boyfriend and struggling to find an interesting subject for my Master dissertation. At this point, I want to add, that research is probably one of my biggest strengths, but I have a very hate-love relationship with it. I need to have a very interesting topic, in order to motivate myself and collect all the necessary data and successfully do my research. So, while I was brainstorming ideas, I instantly went back to my fashion career and start thinking of any social/political events related to the fashion world, that I can work with. Unfortunately, pretty soon I realised that I wasn’t interesting to any of those subjects anymore, so I took a breath, I made a step back and I asked myself a series of very easy, but at the same time, very hard questions:
Only one answer came right away in my mind: Video Games and most specific League of Legends. You see, I am a hardcore gamer and I was a gamer since I can remember myself. As a teen, I was always with a console, playing pokemon or World of Warcraft with my friends and I can’t deny that it’s of my biggest passions in life. Also for the past 7 years of my life, League of Legends was my main source of gaming entertainment and especially that moment in my life. You see, a small depressive apartment, a recent broke up, not much money in your account and also being away from your closest friends, ended up with me spending most of my free time playing a LOT of League of Legends (trust me, it was amazing, zero regrets). But while I was super excited for finally finding an idea for my MA dissertation, that decision and those previous questions, opened the pandora box of all the career-oriented questions that I am pretty sure, most of us have been thinking over and over again…
To be continued…