We asked our female colleagues, “What has been your career defining moment during your time in the tech industry that you are most proud of?”.
We asked our female colleagues, “What has been your career defining moment during your time in the tech industry that you are most proud of?”.
Cara Mark: Chapter Lead
In 2020, I was a guest speaker at the Big Data conference in London, to discuss the success of Admiral’s Data Warehouse. This was a scary thing to do! Thousands of people from all over the world attend this conference every year, and I knew that I would have to speak to a room holding a couple of hundred of them. As I was walking around the stands, chatting to others from around the industry, another female guest speaker told me that she had seen me in the program, and that only 16% of speakers at the conference were female! That was a defining moment for me to realise how proud I was to be representing this shockingly low representation of females in this industry, and how much we should encourage women to work in tech! It’s a great place to be for a female and the numbers are moving in the right direction.
Maria Richards: InfoSec Product Manager/Business Analyst
I studied as a mature student whilst in full-time employment and pregnant with my daughter. The HNC in Software Engineering had very few female students and had a high dropout rate. I was the only female that graduated on the course in that year, whilst receiving distinction grades in many of my modules. Before receiving my exam results, I had already secured my 1st IT role. From this, I have built a successful career in IT for the last 23 years. This was the turning point in my career.
Shweta Rajput: Junior Developer - IT Training Scheme
My career in IT is only just beginning, so securing a position on the IT Training Scheme was probably the biggest defining moment. I have been given an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of a career in tech and I’m looking forward to becoming a fully-fledged developer.
Lisa Petryszyn-Edwards: Technical Security Consultant
Much of my time before joining Admiral was spent leading Operational and Development teams. However, I took a keen interest in Security and very much led in this area. In 2018, I was given an opportunity to work as a Security Designer, using my knowledge of Operational and Delivery challenges and working with the teams closely to implement security controls. This was a defining change for me as it led me on to start my OU Master’s degree in Cyber Security and I stepped away from leading large teams and focused more on the Cyber arena.
Susan Massay: Domain Lead - Tactical ETL
Oh wow! I have so many amazing moments throughout my years in Admiral. I guess the most career defining moment would be when I went from a very technical role as a Telecoms Specialist to a Management role. The support structure that was put in place to achieve this and change my career path was phenomenal and allowed me to progress into the role and achieve several management rewards.
Aisha Arshad: Data Warehouse Developer
When I joined Admiral, I didn’t have any experience working on DWH systems that are used here. I was fortunate to be put straight onto a project to build from scratch. Each squad of work was made of two Developers and a Tester. Halfway through the project, the second Developer was reassigned to work on a different project. Despite the systems being relatively new to me, I successfully completed a large proportion of the project alone. This is something I am extremely proud of.
Meg Collis: Head of IT Delivery
Early on in my career I worked for a well-known Telco. I was asked to design and implement a technical call centre out in Egypt. This was back at a time when offshoring was limited, and Egypt wasn’t a popular destination for this type of work. The delivery was a success and I worked and lived out in Egypt for a further 12 months whilst the centre ramped. I believe the company is still out there now actually which is good to know that it remains a key part of the strategy. I also made some lifelong connections that I am still in touch with now.
Kimberley Luke: IT Delivery Manager
I studied as an 18-year-old for a degree in Pure Maths, having no real idea of what I would do with it. However, jumping onto a reputable Graduate Scheme was the best thing I could have done!
That was just the start, after working my way through a few roles in a large Financial Services company, I moved to a very ‘old school’ large Retail company to continue with my career. After a few roles to prove myself, my main career defining moment was achieving my role as the only female, and youngest, IT Development Manager in the company! Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to not experience age and gender being an issue for me, my reputation has spoken far louder.
May Wong: Data Shared Service Squad Lead
I joined Admiral as a Developer in the Data Warehouse team, working with the Telematics Data team and six months later joined the Central Data Warehouse. I have been involved in various projects and most recently worked on Programme NEO as a Developer, additionally taking on the role of Scrum Master. The experience I have gained from this opportunity, has resulted in me successfully progressing to the role of Squad Lead. Therefore, the opportunities made available to me by Admiral, as a female in Tech, would be my career highlight.
Lara Court: Head of Business Service
I’ve been lucky enough to work for Admiral for 25 years. It’s very difficult to pick one career defining moment because during my time in the IT Department, I’ve been given the opportunity to work in a wide variety of roles whilst progressing my career. What makes me proud is that Admiral offers those opportunities and I have been able to make the most of them.
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