After leaving university with a strong career plan in becoming a wedding photographer, the impact of Covid resulted in Amy needing to reconsider her career. Three years on, Computerworld’s Sales Administrator, Amy Johnson, happily harmonises her pursuit of photography with her organisational skills in IT.
After Covid-19 postponed weddings for nearly two years, Amy fell into the position of Sales Administrator in a company that specialised in engineering – and has enjoyed that role and industry ever since.
“I really love that side of administration, that sort of career path was completely random to me, but it was something that I am good at and lets me be the super organised person that I am”.
Being a Sales Administrator in IT, Amy believes you need to have a driven yet organised personality. From chasing orders, to confidently contacting clients, Sales Administrators need to be proactive. One tip from Amy is to make sure you have no issue in picking up the phone to speak to people – being able to communicate with confidence when on the phone really helps with building relationships and problem-solving.
Following Amy’s initial experience in the technology industry, Amy was keen to continue expanding her skillset and knowledge within a new organisation and take on new challenges. Amy joined ComputerWorld in 2021 and feels that her team, particularly her manager at ComputerWorld, further supports her organisational and personal growth. Amy is often offered support and access to further courses, constantly encouraging the team to go after their interests and deepen their skill sets.
One of those interests and passions for Amy is her photography work. With the support of ComputerWorld, Amy now feels she has more time to pursue this hobby outside of her job. Due to this additional time, Amy has had more time to dedicate to photography projects. One of which was in partnership with The Metropolitan Police for a child safety campaign. After seeing her piece at an exhibition, the MET reached out to her, where she portrayed herself as a Mariette doll. The MET used and imitated this image (to represent a young boy) for their poster campaign about Child Exploitation. From projects like this and publishing books, Amy has found her niche in IT while still pursuing her creative skillset.
Amy believes she is lucky as she was championed by her father from a young age to know about technology and understand its workings, something many women don’t experience. With an engineer father and a brother working in IT meant that Amy embraced IT as part of her journey and has never been wary of technology. She explains that she has always liked to see the physical products/side in technology, from the refrigeration units in Space to our server room in ComputerWorld. Seeing and interacting with these physical products helps Amy create that cognitive link between what the product is and the solutions it provides, which makes her knowledge and understanding of it so much easier, especially when she speak to clients.
“So, seeing this little valve and like where it would fit into like a big piece of machinery, I like seeing how it works and how it comes together, it’s just really mind-blowing for me”
This background knowledge has helped Amy be confident within the technology industry and recommends that other women take an interest in it, not just for jobs but for daily life. For example, with her knowledge given by her family, Amy was able to set up her work computer without the assistance of our Help Desk team. She attributes this knowledge to her father encouraging her to be at the “top of her game” when it comes to tech as it will be a part of her future endeavours, whatever career path she follows.
Although being in the IT industry wasn’t Amy’s first choice, her established knowledge and preferred skills mean she is happy to be in a tech-related role. She can continue to progress in both her IT Admin career (with the continued support from ComputerWorld) and pursue her passions in photography. Amy’s final piece of advice to women out there is:
“Technology is something that will be around for a very long time, I mean it’s the Future isn’t it; you need to adapt. Get into it, even if it’s just to help you daily; knowing how to fix your computer or which wires go where can really make your life easier. ”
Leave a Reply