Julie Yates

"I feel the personality types do match with who I am, especially in relation to work. The personality type Campaigner definitely matches how I inherently operate at work. A large part of my role is persuading people to agree to things that I want to do. If I want people to agree with changes that I want to make, I have to be able to engage them with my ideas, and to do this I need them to trust me and be clear about what it is that I want to do.To do this I have to be a good Communicator. If I cannot clearly and effectively communicate my ideas and findings to people, then it is very hard to get them to understand why changes have to be made. I run a lot of meetings and send lots of emails, which involve discussing highly technical things. I need to be able to simplify these so that people who aren’t familiar with that type of technology can still understand. In a tech environment, there are lots of different people working with different technologies, and I need to be able to present ideas and findings in ways that are interesting, without using technological words and phrases they may not be familiar with.I also do a lot of quality control. I am essentially responsible for the company’s data and I therefore need to be able to manage risk whilst still maintaining best practises and moving the technology forward. It is a lot of responsibility. I am very methodical in the way that I work, and before I make a big change I triple check that everything is right!"

"My role is to make sure that the servers which hold the company’s data are stable, secure and backed up. This covers a large remit of work, including security, upgrades, fixing problems, utilising new technologies, developing new functionalities and mentoring junior team members. In my role I have the highest level of access which means mistakes I make could lose the company’s data. It is a lot of responsibility, which is why I am so careful when I make changes. For the most part though the job does not make me feel stressed. I trust my own instincts and my methods, and for most things that go wrong I know how to fix them and trust that even if I don’t, my methods will bring me to the right solution. I have to play detective a lot in my role. For the majority of the time the servers don’t tell you what the problem is, they give you lots of hints and clues and I have to use these to try and work out what the issue is. One of the things that I love most about my role is getting to use and learn new technology. I am always pushing to try the next thing and upgrade to the newest version. The boring tasks tend to get easier when you are on the newer versions of software and there are more exciting functions available.There is currently a shortage of skilled IT workers, especially women and therefore the job market at the moment is very competitive and so are salaries. A Junior DBA can expect to start on a salary of around £30,000 but this can change regionally. A lot of tech companies tend to have very healthy revenues, and so with these come lots of really great benefits, like private health and dental insurance. In my current company we get quarterly massages, free fruit and drinks, plus a really good coffee machine. Most Tech companies have really great coffee! We have social space with games consoles and a couple of different eating and breakout areas. We also have a generous social budget and have a summer BBQ and all paid for Christmas parties, plus the odd free lunch and staff night out. These benefits are currently typical within the Tech industry."

"After university I started working for O2 in their High Level Complaints team, dealing with complaints that were made through the CEO, press or legal departments. I did this for two years, but found it incredibly stressful. I decided to take a year out travelling and when I returned to Derby took the first job I could get, which was working for BT in their Home IT department, which provided basic IT support to people at home for a fee. I had managed to negotiate fixed hours and because of this I was moved to their business desk, where I soon discovered my inner geek and that actually I really loved IT! This was as big a surprise to me as anyone, as I had always thought I would work in PR. I got a job with a different company working for their in-house IT support team, and from there progressed through the different levels of support until I was promoted to a Junior SQL developer. From doing development work I realised that I was more interested in the administration side, rather than development, and took a new role with a different company as a Junior DBA and from there have been promoted and worked my way up."

"The majority of my spare time is taken up looking after and entertaining our little girl. When I’m not doing that I love to knit and spend a lot of time in our garden and allotment. I also love to travel and prefer to go to places that are hot, next to the sea and with great food! I am also currently learning French, which is very slow. I wish I had started to learn this at school. I also love to scuba dive and keep fit and healthy by running, going to the gym and doing yoga."

"A typical day starts with my cycle to work. I am very lucky that I live relatively close to work and can cycle, therefore avoiding long commutes sat in traffic and the associated commuting costs. I firstly spend some time checking emails to see if there were any problems over night, and planning my day ahead. This is my time to make sure I haven’t missed any upcoming deadlines and also that I am prepared for any meetings I have. It also gives me goals to achieve for the day. The rest of the day is spent working through the tasks I highlighted in my daily plan and dealing with any ad-hoc requests and issues. I am also part of the Social Committee at work, and so some days are spent planning our next social events for the office, which is really fun!"

"I went to a very poor performing secondary school which had the lowest GCSE grades in the county. Until I spoke with a careers advisor I assumed that I would be leaving school and getting a low skilled, low paid job. She advised me that with my SAT results I could potentially go to sixth form and also university. No-one in my immediate family had done this and this advice was therefore a real awakening. My art teacher helped me to get into a local grant-maintained school for sixth form, and from there I got into Leeds University to study Communications and Management. I will be ever thankful to that careers advisor and art teacher and it showed me that the only limitations to what you can achieve are those that you set yourself."