On this lovely Saturday, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the period from August 2020 to September 2025.
In August 2020, I graduated at home during the pandemic. Exactly five years later, I am taking on a new role as Head of Data & Cloud.
This journey has been a transition — from a full-time mom starting from zero to a woman in tech and leader. I tell people I lucked out. But I know luck has little to do with it. This was accomplished by planning, persistence and execution.
The challenges I faced were real:
- Two small children (1 and 4 years old)
- Not good enough German skills
- A foreign degree of automotive engineering
- No automotive industry in Berlin
- No relatives or nanny support in Germany
But I had a clear plan: to dive deep into Data Science, become a data scientist, and — at the same time — be a role model for my children.
Here's What That Looked Like in Action
✅ Invested 2 years and 16,000€ in my second full time master study of data science at HTW. I was not satisfied with the provided curriculum. I worked my ass off. I was determined to work harder than any fellow students in my class and completed extra curriculum like Machine Learning & the whole Deep Learning courses series from Andrew Ng and many more on Coursera during my study.
✅ Continued upskilling after work: Full-stack web develop bootcamps, iOS & Swift Bootcamp, data engineering zoomcamp, ML Ops zoomcamp, many more.
✅ Gained AWS and Google Cloud training & certifications.
✅ Attended networking events where some wonderful women helped change my career path.
✅ Changed jobs quickly when I felt stuck.
My advice for young professionals (especially women) in your early career phrases or transition:
💡 Learning rate is at the beginning even more important than salary. You should learn as much as you can either from some courses, from work, from colleagues. If you don't learn, you might need to take action immediately.
💡 Never underestimate a small chance in the beginning. I was also struggling to find a job after graduation. But thank to each opportunity I had before, I could continue improving myself and getting better chances.
💡 Career and kids are possible. Learn, grow and share the journey with your kids. Every time when mine asked, "Mom, what did you learn today?" — that kept me going.
💡 Get support from your partner. Without my husband as cheering leader at my side, this journey would definitely be more difficult.
💡 Stay curious and you can always learn from everyone you meet.
Final Thoughts
To anyone facing the same obstacles: your path might not be easy, but it is possible and unique.
As a thank-you to the community that supported me, I'm offering a few free mentoring sessions in my limited free time. If you're interested, check out my website (thanks to vibe coding😉).
This is part of my "100 Days as Head of Data and Cloud" series. Follow along as I share insights, challenges, and learnings from this new leadership role.