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’t trying, or they’d occasionally claim that I was clever but lazy.
Thankfully I had parents who believed in me, they knew I wasn’t lazy and didn’t let the comments from teachers influence my confidence or my future potential.
Did you get the support you needed at school – 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 “special” English class (an extra class on top of usual lessons) where they drummed into us the rules of grammar!
This wasn’t 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’t stupid.
Did you always know what you wanted to be?
I did… 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 ‘stupid’, 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’d found my place in the world.
What challenges has dyslexia given you?
I’m 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’ve 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’m reading and if I don’t 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’t know. Although, it can’t help me with my biggest weakness, which is remembering people’s 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’m great at problem-solving. I’m also an empath - something that’s 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, “Your dream job”, I don’t think I ever thought I’d have a dream job. Although, I’ve always been lucky enough to love every job I’ve 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.