“I first started my risual journey as an IT Support Engineer Apprentice in the risual Managed Services department, and my day to day responsibilities / tasks consisted of looking after SCOM and customer environments along with the daily operations which needed to take place. My apprenticeship really encouraged me to achieve many things, including becoming qualified in MCSA Office 365 and a Windows Server qualification.
I really enjoyed starting my apprenticeship straight after completing my A-Levels – I didn’t really know what to expect as I had never been in an office based working environment before. It was great to be thrown straight into the deep end, and it really did help me mature and grow personally – being surrounded by lots of people who had previously been in the same position helped me too.
One of the main things I liked about my apprenticeship was the opportunity it gave me to understand how a business works, how risual works and all of its processes, along with gaining insight to the IT industry as a whole.
The biggest responsibility that I took on that really impacted my career path was working closely with real customers and managing the communications between risual and them. This is when my team lead and the head of risual Managed Services started to pick up on my strengths and noticed I work best in the coordination and management side to Managed Services. Acting upon this, I was appointed to head up the IT Service Desk to find out if moving towards the management role was for me.
Once I had finished my apprenticeship and trialled managing the Service Desk, I had found a real passion for management and coordination. I was offered a role to be the Sales Operations Assistant, gladly accepted and started to get involved immediately with the administration side to sales, understanding the customers more, engaging with Microsoft directly, supporting various members in the sales team and much more. I soon realised that I didn’t want to be a seller and it wasn’t what I was passionate in – luckily, there was an open vacancy for the BID Team. My line managers knew that my passion was management and coordination and trailed me with my first few BIDS – it went amazingly, and that is how I landed my current job role as the BID Management Lead.
When I started my apprenticeship, I was really unsure on what I wanted to do as a career, so I think it is amazing that everyone at risual including the Senior Management Team really do support and guide you on your path whilst you’re figuring it out.
It’s so great the Directors promote from within and really notice individuals’ strength and push them to do and achieve more.
As a woman who works in IT, I have had endless support and help from everyone within the company, guiding me in the right directions, helping me grow my confidence, gain both technical and business knowledge, and develop personally and professionally. I have worked at risual for two years and I’m so extremely proud of everything I have achieved and in such a short space of time.
My future goals are to continue working and developing my leadership and management skills, along with completing the APMP BID Management qualification which will also support my growth as a BID Management Lead. After this, I’d love to start aiming towards growing the team and working alongside new apprentices to help them with their career.”
