From Education to Automotive: My Journey to a New Industry

Tale as old as time. When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life - and being tone deaf meant I'd never be a successful singer. Like so many of my generation, the encouragement to head to university was rife.

Let's be honest, most of us picked a degree because we were told it would get us a good paying job - don't get me started on it. However, unless we had a vision from a young age, none of us truly knew what our destiny would be.

Where my journey started: from A-levels to Bachelors

As an immature 16-year old, I had to pick A-levels based on whatever degree I planned to do when I was 18, that was determined by whatever job I wanted to do. Inadvertently, my GCSEs also were picked to influence the A-levels I would eventually do. You can see how well the selection process went.

So, naturally, I chose the subjects I enjoyed. These tended to be more humanities and social science courses, with an element of English included too. I left college with four A levels in English Language, English Literature, Sociology and Psychology.

Fun fact: I wanted to continue learning German at A-level, but my college dropped the course - who knows how different my life would have been if I had continued with it.

Belinda (right) smiling with her cap and gown after graduating her PGCE - teaching degree. Wes is pictured left.

Clueless, I left college and opted straight for a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at a university that wasn't far from where I lived. In all honesty, I really fell in love with the atmosphere at University of Portsmouth, especially within their Creative Writing department, so it felt like a natural fit. I actually learnt there that I couldn't write in a grammatically correct way, so spent a lot of time working through it to eventually complete my degree with a 69.2% aka upper 2:1. I learnt so much from this degree, such as catering your writing to your audience, which is why you'll find my tone light-hearted and conversational - you don't need to see long, confusing words when you're reading for fun!

Belinda holding two printed copies of her BA dissertation

Becoming a teacher and choosing to teach

There's a theme here, and you might have guessed it already. When I left university the first time, I had no idea what I was going to do. Most universities, colleges and schools offer career advice, which was something I took far more seriously when the real world was about to hit me. Of course, I'd wished I'd been more proactive, but these are lessons you have to learn in life.

After speaking with a careers specialist, they pointed me down two routes: Marketing or teaching.

I tried applying for internships at marketing firms, but had no luck. In fairness, my portfolio was not as impressive as it should have been for such prestigious firms. Similarly, I was not proactive in accomplishing what I needed to do to meet the entrance criteria. After what felt like soul-destroying weeks of applying for internships and entry-level jobs I knew I could do, I gave up.

That's when I explored the teaching route. There was a level of reassurance knowing I could defer any real-world decisions for another year, but at the same time, I thought it was also my only option. I also applied for several SCITT (School and College Initial Teacher Training) schemes as well as PGCEs (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education). I was rejected by two out of three of my choices, and accepted by University of Portsmouth.

Training to teach English

I won't lie - the two years I spent as a teacher were hard. Being a teacher is very difficult, and you should probably give every teacher you know a hug. It's a tough career - you're not just a subject specialist, you're also:

• a manager of behaviour

• an SEND specialist

• a step-in parent (rarer, but those cases are hard)

• a shoulder to cry on (regular occurrence, especially where children are dealing with hormones and the difficulties of friendship groups)

• a safeguarding expert (this is more common than many think)

• an unbiased figure (as a teacher, you have to remain completely unbiased to anything political - if you know me, that was hard to do)

• And so much more.

Every year, there are record numbers of teachers leaving the profession. In 2022, 40,000 teachers left the workforce pre-retirement and explored a career change. The year I left (2017), that figure was roughly 42,000. Although it wasn't a viable career for me in the end, I have nothing but respect for those who are teaching today's generations.

I ended up leaving for similar reasons to everyone else: long hours, poor support and unrealistic expectations. My performance pay rises were based on the number of students passing their end of year exams - essentially reducing students down to numbers on a spreadsheet. Not cool.

Belinda stood in front of the BMW Group UK sign

My career change to the automotive industry

After deciding that teaching was not for me, I knew I had to retry the marketing route. I was far more proactive this time and also did some training with a sales company to help boost and build my confidence. In the time of June 2017 to September 2017, I applied for hundreds of roles and interviewed over 30 times across Hampshire, West Sussex and Surrey.

As my teaching contract ran out by end of August, I was unemployed for a month as well before I managed to secure my role.

In October 2017, I started in the role that I would describe as "once in a lifetime." Working as part of an in-house agency, for five years I supported BMW and MINI with their sales literature and brochures. Not only was I crafting compelling messaging and selecting emotive imagery, I was also making larger decisions around the look and feel of the brochures too. It was the perfect role for someone who has a creative and analytical mind - it was perfect for me.

That's where my love and knowledge for cars really stemmed from. It was amazing to be up close and personal around car launches too, often seeing the real thing way before the public did. We even had opportunities to experience the new technology and test drive the cars.

After five years in an amazing role, I knew it was time for a change, so after a year bolstering my marketing knowledge around copywriting, PPC and SEO, I stepped into the EV charging realm.

Becoming an recognised name in the EV charging and automotive space

For the last few years, I have set myself up in the EV charging space, looking at domestic charging opportunities and moving into commercial charging software. Since moving from BMW and MINI, I've learnt that my voice and knowledge has power - something I'll touch on in another post soon - which is why I have been more vocal on socials, such as LinkedIn and Instagram. I talk about this more in my first about me blog post.

As a product marketer, I'm responsible for ensuring that complex topics around EV charging are easily digestible and understandable. I continue to use my analytical and creative brain to create messaging and sales enablement, whilst fully researching and building knowledge on buyer behaviours and patterns. The thing is, there are so many transferable skills that I have picked up from teaching, such as behavioural analysis and comprehension testing that make product marketing an ideal fit. Plus, I also have the lived classroom experience that allows me to touch base with my audience more, understand their needs and wants and work to deliver their expectations. Again, another topic for another time.

Want to follow my journey along?

The more the merrier! Why not connect with me on LinkedIn to find out more about my journey and also the industry I work in. Let me know if you found me via my blog too! Connect with me here.