From music and teaching, to a career in data

When I was younger, I loved playing the guitar, piano, anything I could get my hands on really! So studying music at university felt like the obvious path. I enjoyed my time there, but I quickly learned that performance wasn’t for me, so I opened my interests wider. 

It was the beginning of a career that has taken a few unexpected turns.  

I then started a job in local council in adult education, which led me to spending 10 years teaching music and English as a second language around the world, and then studying for a masters in linguistics. I learned so much about myself, and gained skills in simplifying complex scenarios, and using quantitative analysis. At the time, I didn’t know how important that would become for my career, I just knew I enjoyed it. 

When I returned to the UK, I was teaching English at a couple universities in Wales, and saw an opportunity to join Admiral Law. I was looking for more career stability, and my friend who worked there said it was a really nice place to be, so I applied! I joined Admiral Law in 2017 as a Case Handler, supporting clients who were affected by injury or loss after car accidents. It was a completely different world to what I was used to, and the opportunities really excited me. 

After just six months, an opportunity came about to join the Business Change team, where I’d be involved in working on robotic process automation. It really interested me as an opportunity to learn brand new skills, and ended up being my first taste of process improvement, delivery and system change. 

Realising that data was where I wanted to be 

In 2019, I moved into a secondment with the Management of Information (MI) team, working on modelling to support the whiplash reforms. Because of the quantitative analysis I’d done during my masters, I could see the connection with regression modelling and how it could help the business. I was also quite good at taking something complicated and making it simple thanks to my teaching background, and I found myself really loving working with data every day. 

An opportunity at Admiral Money came up, which was still small and growing, and I leapt at the chance 

In 2020, I moved to Admiral Money as a Risk Change Analyst, before quickly taking on responsibilities of Change Manager for Credit and Pricing. It was literally the first week of COVID. I was in the office for one day, got introduced to people, and then from the next day we were all in lockdown. 

At the time, Admiral Money was still small and growing. The process and delivery problems I had experience of solving were the same problems the team were starting to feel as the business scaled, so it felt like an exciting place to make a difference. 

Since then, I’ve worked closely with Credit, Pricing, Data and Analytics. I became Decisioning Product Owner in 2022, Scrum Master and Process Lead in 2023, and Data Projects and Process Lead in 2025. 

Almost all of my moves have happened because opportunities in areas I already supported arose and I received encouragement to go for them. That attitude around growth and progression around the business is one of the special things about Admiral. 

Learning while doing 

In 2022, I was offered the opportunity to take a BSc Data Science Degree Apprenticeship with the University of South Wales, on the Data Science pathway, funded by Admiral. For me, the degree has always been about being better equipped to lead a data team. 

I’ve learned about data science, modelling, AWS infrastructure, cybersecurity and other technical areas. I want to understand enough to ask the right questions, help the team prioritise and explain the value of our work clearly to senior managers. 

Why you don’t need a “traditional” data background 

One of the things I’d really want people to know is that you don’t have to come into data in one set way. People arrive into data from all kinds of backgrounds, and that experience can be incredibly valuable. There hasn’t been a day in nearly 10 years at Admiral where I haven’t been learning. 

My advice if you’re thinking about a data career 

If you’re thinking about applying for a data role without a directly relevant career history, my advice is: don’t rule yourself out. 

My journey has taken me from music, to teaching, and now to data leadership. The skills I built in previous careers: communication, problem-solving, curiosity and simplifying complex information, are the skills I use every day. Admiral’s culture has allowed me to have a varied career, with opportunities to move between teams and businesses. If you’re curious, willing to learn and ready to solve problems, there may be more paths into data than you think.