Dyslexia Awareness Week - Success in the Workplace - Keri Harrowven
Tuesday 4 October 2022
Tell us a bit about your background. When were you diagnosed and how was school for you?
During my school years, I struggled with reading and writing but at no point did anyone use the word dyslexia. At parent evenings, teachers would say that I just wasn鈥檛 trying, or they鈥檇 occasionally claim that I was clever but lazy.
Thankfully I had parents who believed in me, they knew I wasn鈥檛 lazy and didn鈥檛 let the comments from teachers influence my confidence or my future potential.
Did you get the support you needed at school 鈥� if not, what was missing?
School was a real challenge for me. At secondary school, they could see I needed extra help and put me in a 鈥渟pecial鈥� English class (an extra class on top of usual lessons) where they drummed into us the rules of grammar!
This wasn鈥檛 the support I needed and it gave me the impression that some of the teachers just thought I was stupid and a bit slow.
However, I was lucky because I was always really good at maths. This validated that I wasn鈥檛 stupid.
Did you always know what you wanted to be?
I did鈥� an Actor! Drama and performing was something that came naturally to me, and it was the one thing I felt I was good at.
I left school with only CSEs and completed a year at sixth form to get my one O-level in Maths.
However, as soon as I got my first job, I very quickly saw that I was definitely not 鈥榮tupid鈥�, as my teachers had so often made me feel. I was actually quite clever, particularly when it came to doing the things you need to succeed in the real world of work.
It was when I started working with computers that I really came into my own and I realised I鈥檇 found my place in the world.
What challenges has dyslexia given you?
I鈥檓 very much a glass-half-full person and like to think that challenges give us opportunities.
However, I think my main challenge is my written vocabulary and I鈥檝e taught myself to recognise the shape of words. If I have never seen a word written down, I have no idea where to begin when writing it. The same applies when I鈥檓 reading and if I don鈥檛 recognise the shape and have never seen it written down before, I have no idea what the word is.
Google is obviously a blessing for looking up the words I don鈥檛 know. Although, it can鈥檛 help me with my biggest weakness, which is remembering people鈥檚 names. For example, the names Catherine and Caroline are the same shape to me, so I can sometimes get mixed up.
What positives has dyslexia given you?
Dyslexia has given me the magical combination of being creative, detail focused and analytical, which has been of great benefit throughout my career.
The way my dyslexic thinking works, means I can visualise things and as a result I鈥檓 great at problem-solving. I鈥檓 also an empath - something that鈥檚 a particularly strong trait with dyslexia.
Do you have any advice for others with dyslexia in the workplace?
Believe in yourself and the amazing superpower your Dyslexic Thinking gives you.
Dyslexic thinking is a skill that companies need. In my opinion, it enables them to have the creativity required to build a strong business for the future.
What barriers did you break through to achieve your dream job?
Wow, 鈥淵our dream job鈥�, I don鈥檛 think I ever thought I鈥檇 have a dream job. Although, I鈥檝e always been lucky enough to love every job I鈥檝e done; well, pretty much every job.
I actually think what I do now, working as a User Experience (UX) Lead at Invuse, is my dream job, as it is not a role I ever thought I would be doing.
My career has taken so many twists and turns and every one of those has given me experience, knowledge and skills that I can access and pull out the bag when needed for the wonderfully varied clients and projects I work on.