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Dear Members,
Welcome to the July issue of the FITT newsletter!
Although we are now officially in the colder months of winter, the FITT committee have had warm hearts during June and July with a series of acknowledgements both for the organisation and for one of our founding members, Maggie Alexander. Maggie is a fantastic role model for Women in ICT and was formally recognised with NSW ICT Woman of the Year at the iAwards ceremony last month.
Following that wonderful news, FITT was also honoured to be approached by The Australian Government Office for Women, who requested FITTs help recruiting women for the Australian delegation to the APEC Women and the Economy Forum in Bali, Indonesia. A nod to the credibility of our organisation and collective strength of our community.We are very excited to be launching a
Mentoring Lite program to cater for graduates and entry level women coming to the industry; if you have a few years experience under your belt and would like to give something back, you could be a mentor to one of these ladies. See article below for more details.
In addition we have our Executive Profile, Telstra’s Director of IT and Products, Jenny Wood gives us the lowdown on her career and tells us how she balances work and life by working tirelessly Monday to Friday so she can preserve her precious family time on the weekends.
We have details of our ICT trends event series: The Future Ways of Working coming up in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Tickets will sell out fast so make sure to register soon.
Last but not least; all work and no play makes for no fun at all, so check out our relaunched Facebook page for weekly inspirational quotes and articles that will make your week go faster.
Until next month...
Regards
The FITT Management Committee
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Jenny Wood, Director IT, Products and IT Enablement, Telstra
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What is your current role and what is your scope?
My current role is Director IT, Products and IT Enablement within Telstra. In this role I have two responsibilities within the Information Technology Leadership team. I look after the IT delivery of products and pricing for products such as Mobiles, ADSL, and Bundles for our Telstra Innovation Products and Marketing division. The other part of my role is enabling the delivery of the IT Strategy and our business operations. Within this role I look after our IT financials, IT portfolio management, our cultural and people programs as well as compliance, audit and risk for IT.
What attracted you to a career in ICT?
I finished school well and wanted to do something that was challenging but wasn’t the traditional path of medicine or law. A high school careers counsellor suggested that I look at the new Information Technology degrees that were being offered through many of the universities. The degree and the career were appealing because of the mix between technical and people orientation, as well as the significant business skills focus for the degree. The complexity of technology was challenging and would require the mathematics and science that I enjoyed at school, whilst the creation of solutions and business aspects of the IT degree appealed to my desire to work with people.
Tell us about the highpoints and lowpoints of your career.
There have been many challenges and successes across my career – I don’t really have low points just times that are more challenging to be successful within and much harder work than others. As a result of having experience in ICT I have had some great opportunities. One key highlight which was also probably one of the most challenging roles I have held was the opportunity to run an end to end business selling messaging solutions – so product development, marketing, sales, technology, and operations. The role was both an amazing people and customer challenge, incredibly hard work as well as a fantastic opportunity to grow and learn.
What does work life balance mean to you?
My family is incredibly important to me. For me work life balance is about being present – I will work incredibly hard during the week and spend significant time travelling – but when I’m in Sydney I am home for dinner and get to spend some time with my family. I then ensure my weekends are where I am absolutely focussed on my family. I will do everything I can within the week to ensure that I keep that time free. I also have an incredibly supportive family and employer. I am able to work from home and this allows me to attend School functions, assemblies and do school drop offs for my daughter during the week and I make sure those are scheduled into my diary as a priority and we work around those wherever possible.
What attracted and kept you in the ICT industry throughout your career?
I have either been within IT or in the ICT industry through my career. The diversity I have been able to span has kept me challenged and interested throughout. My roles have ranged from traditional IT delivery and IT operations through to the end-to-end management of an IT business and significant operational management roles (Call Centres, Billing, Provisioning, Credit and HR) within a Telecommunications company. This diversity has meant that there is always a new opportunity or challenge to approach. Another key aspect of my career has been the people I’ve met – through my career I’ve met and had the opportunity to work with many amazing people who I’ve had the opportunity to learn from and in cases guide.
What ambitions personal or professional do you still want to achieve?
Where do I start… Personally I love to travel and love history, which is a passion I share with my family and together we have so many places that we want to visit. Professionally I want to keep learning and continue to have the opportunity to do challenging roles that make a difference to our customers and our people.
What’s the one piece of advice you'd give to yourself starting out on your career?
Take opportunities as they come – even if they don’t look obvious or exactly match what you were looking for. Many of the roles that I’ve learnt the most from have been roles which weren’t the traditional IT career progression roles. These have taught me skills and approaches and left me with a breadth of experience that I couldn’t have planned for.
Event: FITT ICT Trends event with VMware in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
Dates:
FITT, together with our Platinum sponsor VMware, is pleased to invite you to its annual ICT Trends Luncheon: The Future Ways of Working
Despite the popular assumption that teleworking is just ‘working from home’ this growing trend is blurring boundaries and enabling greater productivity along with a healthier work-life balance. This provides new opportunities for people working from home, cafés, interstate offices and across the globe on any device, whether for convenience or due to unexpected events such as bushfires and floods.
The future state of working will be about giving people the tools, information and goals required to achieve their objectives even if not physically present in an office, subject to business needs. Research on this trend is encouraging, covering productivity & revenue gains and employee retention among other benefits.
Join us to hear about the latest research on this trend and interact with panellists that are leading the industry in implementing flexible, effective changes in their workplaces.
Particularly:
• Strategies to initiate change from the top and how companies can better understand the ROI of flexible working arrangements
• Success stories and ideas for creating a productive mix of flexible and office based collaboration
• Advice for advocating for yourself when negotiating flexibility at work
• Security concerns and technologies that can address those concerns and facilitate teleworking
During the event, there will be time allocated for networking opportunities and with over 100 guests expected, you will be sure to make some great connections on the day!
Whether you are a CIO, developer, sales or marketing manager, business owner or just beginning your career, this is an event that will let you see the trends that will affect you and your business in the coming years.
Come with a friend, come without (and you will be sure to find a friend!) or book a table!
FITT Pilot Mentoring Lite Program for Entry Level Women and Graduates
To win one of 10 free places on our pilot program in Sydney, check out our Facebook page for more details.
In 2013 FITT is extending its highly successful mentoring programme. The current program, which has been running since 2007, is a fantastic way to create great connections, support women in the industry and share valuable knowledge. This year we are piloting a LITE programme in Sydney, focused on new graduates, students and women with less than 1 years’ work experience.
Our LITE mentoring programme is a new initiative to continue and expand the support of FITT’s primary objectives:
Inspire women in the industry to achieve their personal aspirations and potential AND Assist women to broaden their understanding of the ICT industry.
For the lite rate of $200 the FITT LITE Mentoring Programme is an extensive 6 months and includes:
• Mentee/mentor networking evening, creating an alumnus
• A highly successful matching process, mentoring model and Contract
FITT is seeking mentors with 5-8 years’ experience who would like to engage in the very rewarding process of mentoring younger less experienced women into the ICT industry. Pilot is in Sydney for this year and national next year.
FITT in the Community: FITT join forces with Northern Sydney Institute for networking evening
In June FITT invited women in ICT to give back to the community and attend a networking evening with a focus on NSI Women Students building industry relationships through networking with women working in ICT. The relaxed gathering gave attendees the opportunity to share experiences and for the students to build their networking capacity, something FITT considers an important capability for career development.
There were over 60 attendees with students from TAFE campuses across the region. FITT Corporate Sponsors, such as Salesforce.com, also attended, greeting the students and sharing their experiences.
It was an excellent opportunity for new graduates and ICT women returning to the workforce to gain insights and ask frank questions about their fears. Some of the advice given includes:
• How having confidence in yourself and your capabilities goes a long way
• How to get yourself noticed when applying for a new jobs
• What to do when starting out in the ICT industry
• How to get back into the workforce after a break (rearing children)
• The importance of peer networks and mentors to your career
• The variety of ICT roles in the industry (it’s not all bits and bytes) and
• Where women excel in ICT careers
We’d like to thank our senior ICT women and sponsors who attended and so frankly shared advice with the students. Many stayed behind to chat one-on-one with the students, demonstrating the commitment FITT women have to the next generation!
Webinar Recording of ‘The Art of Networking’ session is now available on our website
Over 85% of jobs are filled via Networking and most business opportunities are generated similarly - why then do so many women avoid or under-utilise Networking?
In this webinar we will be addressing questions such as: Why Network? What is Networking? Challenges for women and overcoming the barriers (real and perceived).
Learning outcomes include clear understanding of the meaning and purpose of Networking as well practical techniques for networking.
Upcoming webinar: Managing Up and Out, 25th July
In this webinar we focus on influential communication. How do we achieve our goals by influencing rather than directing others? We introduce the topic of audience analysis and give examples of using this in ‘managing’ /influencing our managers, peers and others.
Register Now
Both webinars are brought to you by FITT and Forum Group Events and presented by Negba Weiss-Dolev at Resurgence.
Join FITT on Facebook for fresh content and articles that will help you through the working week!
FITT friends rejoice, we have relaunched our Facebook page and introduced new weekly features to get you through the working week. New features include quotes of the week from some of the most inspirational women of our time and interesting articles and career tips as well as fun features such as ‘take the test to find out what type of procrastinator you are’ and what motivates men vs women at work’
All you need to do to get the FITT updates in your daily newsfeed is go to our facebook page here and ‘like’ the page.
Any comments or feedback welcome!
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