Learn. Grow. Advance.
Tech is bigger
than you think.
Rae Forward exists for anyone who has ever looked at tech and said
“that’s not for me”, before anyone explained what working in tech actually is.
Why we exist
Built for people who are ready to move forward.
Too many brilliant, capable people rule themselves out of tech before anyone has explained what working in tech actually looks like. Rae Forward exists to change that.
Tech only works because of the people across every part of it, not just the ones writing code.
Through honest books, practical guidance and straightforward information, we help you understand where you fit and how to get there.
The books
Everything you need to find your place in tech.
Whether you are just starting to explore tech or ready to make your move, there is something here for you.
The book
Getting Into Tech (Without Starting Over)
A practical, honest guide for anyone who has ever thought about moving into tech and talked themselves out of it. Roles, skills, salary, learning pathways, how to position yourself, all explained plainly and without the jargon.
Print · Ebook PDF · epub
The companion workbook
Getting Into Tech: The Companion Workbook
Want to go deeper? A structured six-part workbook built to help you do the real work: understanding your strengths, your working style, and building your own action plan. It works alongside the book, and it is equally powerful on its own.
Print · Ebook PDF
The bundles
Better together
The book gives you the knowledge and the context. The workbook gives you the space to apply it. Together they work as a complete programme, from understanding what tech actually is right through to building your own plan for getting into it. Available as The Digital Bundle or The Print Bundle.
The framework
Tech is not one thing. It is six.
Six distinct areas, each with its own culture, its own roles, and its own kind of people. Most people find they are drawn to one or two. Working out which is the first real step.
Area 01
Building it
Designing systems, building applications, solving technical problems.
Area 02
Running it
Helping users, fixing issues, keeping systems running.
Area 03
Securing it
Monitoring threats, managing access, investigating issues.
Area 04
Understand it
Analysing, reporting, identifying trends in data.
Area 05
Enabling it
Supporting change and helping people get real value from it.
Area 06
Selling it
Understanding customers and shaping the right solutions.
Rae(l) Strengths
Discover what you are naturally wired for.
Rae(l) Strengths is a framework built around twenty real-world strengths that the tech industry, and most industries, genuinely values. Not a personality type. Not a label. A proper, honest look at what you bring.
Know what you bring. Twenty strengths. One honest assessment.
The framework is available inside the Companion Workbook.
The person behind Rae Forward
Holly Rae
CMgr MCMI · BSc (Hons) · MCT · UK Next CIO 2025
Over twenty years across tech, from hands-on roles right through to senior leadership. Teams built, mistakes made, something useful learned from every one of them.
In November 2024 she stood in front of 250 students in a Leeds school and asked how many of them were thinking about a career in tech. Five hands went up. That is why these books exist.
Ready to move forward?
Start where you are. The door into tech is wider than you think, and you do not have to be technical to walk through it.