Making a 180 Into Tech
How Lesley Bishop leveraged her counselling skills to become a Scrum Master
Had you asked Lesley Bishop ten years ago what she would be doing now, she wouldn’t have said working as a Scrum Master. Until two years ago, she didn’t even really know what a Scrum Master was. Lesley had always thought she’d pursue a career in counselling. Aftering getting a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Iowa State and Masters in Counselling Psychology from University of Colorado — Denver, she went into career counselling for higher education.
Mentoring has been the foundation of Lesley’s career, so it was only right that mentoring led her to where she is today. While working in higher education, she mentored students on their career goals and academic plans, and met her own mentors along the way. One of her mentors helped her make the dramatic pivot from counselling to tech. After seeing Lesley’s interpersonal skills shine, her mentor suggested she consider applying those skills and taking a certification in Scrum.
“When I looked at it, it was such a great opportunity for me to use my aptitude, experience and abilities in a whole different way. And apply them to different organizations and industries. I’d always been interested in technology. I just didn’t see any way into that professionally without going back to school.”
Read the rest of Lesley’s story (and more like it!) at AnitaB.org.
This story was written by Natalia Gutierrez, Wogrammer Journalism Fellow. Connect with her on Linkedin. Support our mission to celebrate more amazing women in tech, like the one featured here, by donating to AnitaB.org.
