Annie Bedford

"I've always felt a mix of personality types - I love developing which involves solving problems, building systems but I also love helping developers improve how they work and get the best results for a project so I definitely feel some alignment with management and investigator as well. "

"My first role was as a developer which involved lots of problem solving. You are given a project with some requirements and then you have to think of ways to build a software system that will meet those requirements. There's normally loads to think about from how to store data, how you want the software to look, how users will expect to use the system. Over time I have moved more in to project management role and I try to work with a development team to help them focus on the work that needs to be done, identifying if there are problems stopping them from getting the work done and helping them work together as a team while keeping our users and customers happy.Often projects in IT don't work out successfully as the developers build something that the customer isn't happy with (for many reasons) so I focus on what's called Agile Project Management which is a way of working really closely with the customer to build a product that they will be really happy with, and to avoid doing any unnecessary work that the developers might have ended up doing if they weren't communicating well with the customer. I really love building systems, fixing problems and working with other people for me this is a great combination. I also spend time training other people in the company in how to work more in an agile way.Starting salaries for my role go up all the time, and depends on the industry. For example when I started my first job in 2004 my starting salary in IT was £27k but a similar role for an investment bank would be more like £40k. While it's important to get a good job and earn a good wage, what's more important is that you are good at, or can learn to be good at your job and that you enjoy it as it's something you will end up doing every day for a long time!! "

"I graduated from a university in Dublin, Ireland and got recruited by a small software company in London. I was really excited to change countries and see what London was like, but I was also really nervous, it was such a big city and I didn't know anyone! I felt a bit out of place in my new role as I was the only female developer and I was much younger than everyone else but I got to know and like everyone after a few months and I'm still in touch with some of them now. They eased me in to development by first being a Developer in Test which meant writing all the automated tests to make sure the software worked well. After that I became a full developer working in C++ and Java. It was a challenge but really interesting. Every day was a little bit different depending on what tasks you had to do.Unfortunately after 4 years at that company, I was made redundant. I was really gutted at the time, but saw it as an opportunity to move on and pick up some new skills. I first of all got a temporary role for a tiny company writing some ruby apps but this was just to fill a gap so I was earning money while I looked for a better job. Then I took my first job in financial services which was as a support engineer. The pay was pretty good and I liked the challenge of fixing support issues for the developers. I learnt a lot in this job about the importance of paying attention to detail and getting things right, as when things went wrong there were lots of unhappy people. It was a tough job because those that worked with clients would get very frustrated and angry when things didn't work and we were expected to fix everything as soon as possible. We worked early and late shifts and after a year and a half, I knew this wasn't the right job for me. I had an aggressive manager that I didn't like working for, and the role didn't suit me very well.An ex-colleague from my first job told me about a job going in an investment bank and I applied for it. I wasn't really keen to work for an investment bank but the role sounded great and I needed to move on. This was a developer role building software application that all the other developers in the bank would use to build their own applications. It was quite an inspiring team to work with and we had a few really great years building the software. Over time, as happens a lot in banks, this team was disbanded and we moved on to some other projects.I've now been in a Core Engineering team which builds and supports products that the rest of the bank use - I work with some really great people that make my working life much more enjoyable and every day is different - from helping the team plan the work for the next few weeks, training people, supporting and maintaining a software system. It's a great company to work for that has been very supportive along the way and my managers have been fantastic so this is something to look for when you're taking a new role - will you get on with your manager and will they support you?"

"I wasn't a particularly active child, I didn't really like sport when I was growing up in Ireland. However I started doing boxing at university and decided to continue that when I moved to London. I've done a mixture of boxing and kick-boxing over the years and now focus on a mixed martial arts. I also love to run, swim and cycle and work towards doing a triathlon each year. When I have time, especially now that we're working from home, I go horse-riding at a local stables which helps me relax. When you work full-time it's really important to find ways to relax in your spare time! "

"Each day is a bit different but we typically start the day with a short team meeting to see what needs to be done and who's going to work on what. Then I might be trying to release some new features in to production, writing some tests, having a design meeting about how to build a new screen in our user interface. If' I'm running a training course that normally takes the whole day in a training room with a group of students, but I might also be doing some preparation work for a training course, or reading some articles or books that are relevant to my role. I am also involved in some employee networks so might be meeting with a sustainability team and thinking about ways to engage employees on sustainability issues, or trying to recruit new allies to our LGBT & Ally Network. Working for a big company there's lots of different ways to get involved and meet people at work. "

"BA Degree in Computer ScienceProject Management certification and Agile certifications"