I’ll let you in on a little secret. I didn’t choose IT, IT chose me. My background was actually in revenue accounting which after about 6 years morphed into a software designer role where I had plenty of opportunity to develop new automation system. Many of the systems I built are still used today. And now I’m the Store System Manager of Health & Beauty UK, AS Watson.
The biggest challenge that I found was being the only female in the department for quite a few years. IT departments used to be very male orientated and as I mentioned, I really fell into my role in IT, and didn’t plan this route intentionally. At first, I was really uncomfortable, but I remained confident by digging deep and staying true to myself and eventually won the trust from others.
Things are different today. IT departments are much more genderless. And within AS Watson they are welcomed with open arms, in fact the AS Watson IT department has a lot more women in leadership positions than in most companies. That’s not to say that men aren’t welcome, it’s just that AS Watson promote gender equality at workplace and appears to choose leaders based on their capabilities and the merit of a person, and not their gender.
