James McKay made the switch from a career in teaching to IT with the Metaswitch Assured Skills Academy. If you’ve a degree and are considering a career change read his story below.
Give a brief outline of your career to date
I spent 3 years as a substitute teacher in various schools before becoming a part of the 2-year Delivering Social Change Signature programme aimed at raising literacy and numeracy levels of children and young people in primary and post-primary schools. I then worked as a Learning Support Assistant for just over a year before joining the Metaswitch Academy in October 2016.
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I studied Mathematics at Queen’s University Belfast followed by a P.G.C.E in Mathematics.
How did you get into your area of work?
After struggling to get a permanent job teaching I was exploring other avenues and applying for different jobs. I had a few interviews but never made it through the final process. I had a call from my dad one night telling me about the Metaswitch academy after he saw it advertised on the news. It sounded interesting so I gave it a go and I’m very glad I did.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
I had never considered telecommunications before applying for this job. I was applying for jobs in accounting and finance as I thought a Mathematics degree was more suited to those disciplines. I would recommend it as an industry to work in as the technology is constantly moving forward, there is always a new challenge and something exciting to learn about.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
Graduates had to have a 2:2 in any degree discipline but no specific experience was required as training was provided by Belfast Met and Metaswitch during the nine week Academy funded by the Department for the Economy.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Good communication is essential when working with customers and also fellow employees as you need to be able to convey technical knowledge in an easy to understand way. Being organised, as well as being flexible is important when structuring what work you will get through in a day as unexpected events may require immediate attention. Building relationships with people is important as there is a lot of interaction between people in various departments of Metaswitch and being able to work together efficiently is invaluable when solving problems.
What does a typical day entail?
Once I arrive in to the office, I check emails to see what work has come in overnight and plan what to do that day. Some problems encountered by customers can be complex or to do with something that I have not worked on before so some of my day is spent learning about the various products and services so I can better understand how to help the customer solve their problem. If I’m struggling with that then I can reach out to my mentor/manager for assistance. We have various meetings through the week where we would discuss troubleshooting strategies and anything interesting that we’ve found or seen since the last meeting.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
One of the best aspects of the job is the quality of people you get to work alongside with. The people are intelligent and hard-working but there’s always time to help a co-worker out or have a laugh. It’s exciting to working in an industry that is constantly moving forward, there’s always something new to learn about. That leads into one of the most challenging parts of the job which is how much there is to learn but Metaswitch are excellent at providing the resources required to learn what’s needed to do the job.
Why is what you do important?
Metaswitch’s cutting edge communications technology is used worldwide by carriers and without the work we do problems wouldn’t get solved as quickly which means that anyone relying on a phone for business might miss out on work.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Don’t be put off if you don’t think you know anything about IT or Telecommunications - I was far from an expert when I applied. Metaswitch are interested in the person and are very good at finding the ideal role for individuals. I’d really encourage other graduates to consider the Assured Skills Academy route as it was a fantastic way to get trained quickly and build strong relationships with future team mates before starting into the job.
If you think Metaswitch sounds like the kind of company you’d like to work for then find out more about the Assured Skills Academy on the Mindmill website.
Deadline for applications is Monday 5 February 2018.