Dyslexia is not a barrier

Created by VERCIDA for Defence Infrastructure Organisation

Victoria Logan describes her dyslexia as her “superpower” when she talks about her career success in the Ministry of Defence Guard Service.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was about eight years old. The only reason I was diagnosed was because my mum saw that I wasn’t developing as well as my older brothers when it came to things like school tests and reading.

Dyslexia was very misunderstood when I was a kid, but my mother went to libraries and read up on it and insisted that I get tested. It took a while, but when I was finally diagnosed, my school wasn’t much help. One teacher asked why I couldn’t spell when I was 13 and another put me forward for a lower marked test, even though I got an A in the mock exam – she said it must have been a fluke.

When I was 16, I left school and started working in a care home for people with dementia. I was a kitchen assistant, working weekends while studying performing arts and philosophy at college. Then, when I was 18, I started working at a bowling alley – I’m pretty good at bowling now!  I worked behind the bar, on reception and on the lanes.

After a few years, I moved back into aged care, working for Portsmouth Council supporting people in a sheltered block for the elderly, as well as being a youth advisor in the evenings. My next job was activities coordinator in a nursing home for people with severe dementia and those needing end-of-life care.

Having a dyslexic brain was actually an advantage when working in aged care, as well as when I worked in the kitchen – it makes me very good at time management, working quickly and finding different ways to do things – and it helps me today in my current role at  the Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS).

I joined MGS five years ago, but it had been part of my life for a long time as my dad joined when I was four. In my first year, I worked on the gate, then I did dog handling for two years, spent a year in a temporary supervisor role and last year, I was promoted twice.

My supervisory role became permanent and then I was promoted to an operations manager role – I manage two sites, a dog section and one that is focused on technology. When we’re fully staffed, I manage 29 people. Every day at work is different. I look after roster control, risk assessment policy procedure, update my managers, act as a point of contact for customers, and perform HR duties. It’s a bit of everything.

I don’t see my dyslexia as a disability. It’s my superpower. When I mentioned it in my MGS interview, everyone was fine. With the help of management, a few workplace adjustments were made to help me with my writing. It was like a breath of fresh air. In particular, when I did my dog training, I was able to receive help with the written work, which was really helpful. And when I did my foundation training, one of the people who was delivering the training was dyslexic too. I have a lot of support.

At MGS, my dyslexia is an advantage, especially when it comes to seeing the finer details, which is so important as we work in security. You’ve only got to look on LinkedIn to see that dyslexic thinking is now a positive on job applications.