Laurence C.
About me
| Laurence C. | |
| Computer Science | |
| Computer Science & Business Management | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Derwent | |
| 2005 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Project Manager | |
| Christians Against Poverty | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Charity and voluntary sector | |
| Large business (250+ employees) | |
| 2015 | |
| 27050 |
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A day in the life of a Project Manager in the United Kingdom
Husband, father, former small-business owner, now working for an award-winning debt counselling charity
My career goals when I graduated
To work for myself, in the general IT industry
My career history
2005 - 2015 - Self-employed IT consultant working with schools and small businesses providing IT support, cloud services and web development
What has helped my career to progress
Taking a risk on applying for a job!
Courses taken since graduation
I briefly worked as a lecturer so completed some basic teacher training.
How my studies have helped my career
Being self-motivated has been the biggest benefit to my career. I also often reflect on some of the modules I studied while at York such as database design.
What surprised me about my career so far
Getting this job!
Where I hope to be in 5 years
Would like to grow my management capabilities.
My advice to students considering work
Be flexible, be prepared to work hard.
My advice about working in my industry
IT is such a wide spectrum that it's impossible to be an expert at everything, so either be happy with being a specialist in a very narrow field, or be generally aware of more areas. I am the latter!
What I do
I work in the IT department at CAP's head office in Bradford, alongside systems developers and IT operations teams. My role is to bridge the gap between the development team and the business teams, in order to get things done.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Most of my work involves communication skills, including email, telephone, face-to-face and small group presentation. I have developed these skills while being self-employed for ten years.
What I like most
Working for a Christian organisation with a really clear mission statement gives me a lot of job satisfaction. The working environment is also really rewarding.
What I like least
Commuting on average 2.5 hours a day
What surprised me most
Having worked for myself since graduating, becoming a regular employee has been relatively pain free.
Next steps...
If you like the look of Laurence’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Laurence a message to find out more about their career journey. If you feel you would benefit from more in-depth conversations, ask Laurence to be your mentor.