Thirty-six years in HM Land Registry in Plymouth, 33 of them in various IT roles: who says you can’t reinvent yourself?
It’s all about being able to learn something new and exciting quickly, having a support network who can guide and advise and having the right mindset to look at opportunities and realise you have transferable skills.
In my 33 years, I have worked on an IT Service Desk, helping customers with IT problems. I have managed that same service desk, mentoring and managing staff to progress themselves. I decided on a change and saw an opportunity to become a software engineer – programmer back in those days – coding in Programming Language 1, assembling and testing my code.
After my initial training, I was placed in an established team, where two more senior programmers took me under their wing and mentored me (we have a great supportive, mentoring and collaborating ethos/culture). Those two ladies became lifelong friends and although both have now retired I see them at least on a monthly basis.
Opportunities spied, promotion won
I then returned to service management after several years and did a stint as Customer Service Manager, with responsibility for service level agreements with some of our suppliers and keeping our internal customers happy. The role involved leading visits to our local offices around the country to understand their IT difficulties and bringing back and sharing those difficulties with various teams that might be able to help.
I spied an opportunity to get involved in a new project, getting Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) accreditation, and moved to become a compliance officer and part of that initial team. This gave me access to senior managers more regularly, showing I could promote the subjects and influence staff to get behind it.
We clearly needed an IT assurance function, so I gained promotion to set up an IT assurance/auditing capability, researching “what good looked like”, bringing in a whole plan and processes to support it and mentoring and training a small team from all professions in IT. There were software and infrastructure engineers, service management specialists and others, all volunteers and doing it alongside their day roles. We learned a lot in that time.
To date, I have set up an IT apprentice scheme which is in its third year and pretty successful. We have 30 IT apprentices from school leavers to career changers who have brought new ideas into the organisation. I have set up some aggressive recruitment campaigns to support a business transformation programme. There is a new buzz and people joining every week at present.
What's next? Bring it on!
I am currently looking to bring in an IT Degree Apprenticeship scheme for internal staff. Upskilling our capability is top of our list, ensuring staff keep up with ever-changing technologies and staying on that cutting edge. I’m still helping others to start and move on their IT careers, which I find the most rewarding – seeing people progress. Even after 36 fulfilling, exciting years, I am still wondering what’s next. Bring it on!
I am passionate about helping people and bringing out the best in them. I want people to fulfil their potential and I have often coached and mentored people and helped them through the recruitment process. My top tips for interviews are: read the job spec, identify the minimum criteria, look for parallels in your current role, look for transferable skills and have some examples of where you meet the minimum criteria and behaviours rather than quoting theory.
My parting shot is: “Come on ladies, you too can have a great career in IT with HM Land Registry.” We have many family-friendly policies and a great supportive structure. If you like hard work and fun this really is the place to work. Good luck, come and join us in the beautiful South West.
10 comments
Comment by Jayne posted on
Brilliant thanks for sharing
Inspiring Sue
Comment by Joe posted on
Brilliant thanks for sharing
Comment by Helen Brook posted on
If only I could work with this team. #fingerscrossed
Comment by Al Ortiz posted on
Great article. It is definitely possible to re-invent yourself if you really want to. As a <a href="https://sbnai.net">website designer</a> I have found myself in the same position. Again, great article!
Comment by Steven Wheeler posted on
Great blog
Comment by Roger Perks posted on
The Government IT Profession closed some time ago. We now have the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession. Why are you still referring to it as IT, please?
Comment by ianflowers posted on
Roger Perks - Point taken, but IT was used as it is the more commonly understood term, particularly for those outside the public sector.
Comment by SJ posted on
How do I start? Always been interested in IT - even did a BTEC diploma in IT, web design as well in the long distant past - have since worked in banking, automotive, recruitment but not IT related roles - currently looking to shift into IT role thinking of becoming full stack developer but seriously interested in AI, cyber security etc - I’m project Managent trained / what to do to retrain - any words of wisdom please?
Comment by AdamH posted on
Hi SJ - apologies for delay in replying but we had some tech issues.
You could start by looking at the roles we are currently recruiting to..
https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=b3duZXJ0eXBlPWZhaXImcGFnZWNsYXNzPUpvYnMmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD0xMTE3MTM0MTgmcGFnZWFjdGlvbj1zZWFyY2hieWNvbnRleHRpZCZyZXFzaWc9MTYwMzE5ODc5Ny1lYzA3MTZiZmQ2ZDBjNzVkOTVmNTM4MTQwMDkwMjFiZDRlYTQ3ODAz
thinking about transferable skills and the learning you did for your BTEC. You could also consider becoming an apprentice, we usually recruit around February/March for a September start. Apprenticeships are a great way to change career and ours are well paid with great qualifications and on the job experience. You can set yourself some alerts in Civil Service jobs so you are emailed when any of our roles come up. Good luck
Sue
Comment by Sj posted on
Than you so very much for taking the time to respond. I didn’t know I could apply for apprenticeship at this stage in life so that’s an excellent option and will definitely keep an eye out for those and apply.
I am taking all your guidance and advice on board and have registered for job alerts as well. Thank you again.