Alex Dwyer

"My Developer trait helps because my job relies on relationship building, innovation and quality. It is about understanding my user and organisational needs to create better digital products and IT services to support their business objectives. I think Investigator helps when trying to find a solution for my organisation. I have to be organised to do all of the above and so Manager would be helpful for this."

"I am a Service Design Lead in the IT department of a large construction company. My role is to ensure the overall quality, reliability and efficiency of IT services is maintained when new systems and applications are introduced. I work as the bridge between users, software design and the IT operational staff, who run the day to day operations, to ensure that the needs of the users are balanced against the needs of the IT operation. In my role I need to be able to see beyond the purely technical aspects of a project to the user experience and it often requires me to mediate between departments involved to find innovative solutions to potentially difficult issues. I really enjoy the collaborative nature of my job and helping people find solutions to problems. Progression is normally from Service Design Coordinator, through to Service Design Analyst then to Service Design Lead or Manager."

"When I left school I didn't even consider going into IT or studying anything to do with IT. My brother went to University to do a degree in Computer Science so I thought it was something that \"boys did\". I got my degree in English and, still not really knowing what I wanted to do, I was selected for a graduate programme to train as a chartered accountant. I'd always enjoyed working with numbers so I thought \"why not\"? Part of the course involved understanding the importance of IT systems in business finance. I quickly found that I enjoyed that part of the training more than understanding Profit and Loss accounts and Balance Sheets. I was fortunate to find a graduate conversion programme which taught me to be a programmer in 3 months and secured my first job as an Application Programmer. I've not looked back since."

"In my spare time I enjoy walking my dog, yoga, cycling and hiking. I have recently started learning to Swing dance which is great exercise as well as fun."

"My typical day will involve checking progress on the Service Design Packages being worked on for various projects that are currently running. The Service Design package is a collection of documents (technical and non-technical) that provide the context around a service (essentially providing the who, what, where, when, and why of a new or changed IT Service). There are usually meetings, workshops or Skype sessions to attend to discuss service designs for ongoing projects, any issues encountered and possible solutions to these. Weekly, I sit on the Solution Design Authority forum which consists of senior technical and service architects who review requests for new applications and services. I also regularly attend meetings with Service Transition colleagues, who are responsible for implementing new services, to walk through Service Design packages."

"Secondary education (GCSE/O-Levels)Post secondary education (College, A-levels, NVQ3 or equivalent) A level Maths (B) Physics (B) English (A) French (A) Undergraduate degree (BSc, BA, etc.) 1st class degree - English "