'Mariya Peychinova - Personal Website'

Hi, I'm Mariya.

I’m an optimist. An extrovert. A big picture thinker. I love changes, fresh ideas and energising conversations.

A friend of mine once told me that everyone has a story. Here is mine!

I always had trouble with the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” thing. This question was asked of me again and again, as I got older, in various forms. At some point, "What do you want to be when you grow up" went from a cute exercise, to the thing that kept me up at night. In times like this, when I felt intense pressure to find my true purpose and calling, I realised that some are good at many things, and I may have an eclectic career path as I am not afraid to try new skills and continue to learn about new ideas.

Back in Bulgaria I have 15 years of experience in Customer Services positions. The last six of them I worked on creating and growing my own retail business. Since I came in the UK, I changed my occupation and became a nanny. As I like communicating with people and work in a team, I really enjoyed working in partnership with the family and taking responsibility for the safety and development of their children.

After I started my own family and became busy with our two children, I quickly realized that I am no longer able to dedicate my time and efforts to another family and I must start looking for new career opportunities.

Motherhood made me stronger than I ever thought possible, taught me to be patient, to laugh at myself and to stand up for the things I love and believe in. But being off work for so long time, I somehow lost confidence and started thinking that I am not good enough and can’t compete with others on the job market.

Two years ago, I started an incredible journey with ACL Islington. That was a huge growth period for me. Gave me fantastic experience and valuable skills. I met people from all walks of life and tutors who showed me my strengths, helped put my life in perspective and gave me new ideas. From shy housewife who spends all her time with the kids at home I turned into a confident, better person, who has faith in herself.

I started dreaming for a fast-paced, growing startup where my efforts could truly move the needle. I tried to discover what makes a product valuable and easy to sell besides promotion and persuasiveness. After careful and thorough research, I found my niche and felt ready to jump back into the retail. After managing for a while my e-comers, which is built with one of the website building platforms, I became more curious about how the things work in the roots and started wondering whether I will be ever able to really understand the code and change it without spoiling my website.

The last two years studying with ACL Islington and working on creating my business were a huge life changer for me. I was lucky to come across the partnership between Islington Council and Founders and Coders, which is devoted to present an opportunity to more people with different background to try and get into web development. A door was open, and I walked through it, with hope and excitement. Thanks to that, I am now on a mission to get ready for my next adventure, mastering web development. Building this website is my personal preparation to this.

This moment feels important. I live in the best city in the world - London, I have twenty-five years of work experience, two children and the ambition to become a web developer. I feel I am in a position where I can take a risk. I have learnt that it is rarely a waste of time to pursue something I am drawn to, even if I end up quitting. I can apply that knowledge in a different field entirely, in a way I couldn't have anticipated.