I graduated in July of 2022 from the University of York with a degree in History of Art, a completely unrelated subject to the IT industry. I started out my career in a compliance and anti-money laundering company where I resided for around 8 months. I enjoyed my role within this company, however, I quickly realised that my interests lie more within marketing. This is what led me to Epaton and the IT industry where I started my current role as Marketing Assistant in February.

Going into the IT sector was not my original plan but has provided me with many opportunities. I work at Epaton, an infrastructure reseller, and our sister company, NGS, a cyber security reseller. This has been very helpful in providing me with a deeper understanding of the industry and a wide range of vendors. As well as the two companies, I have also been tasked with various events for a third-party company within the industry. This has further offered me opportunities and insight to understand the channel further.

In my short time at Epaton, I been eased into the IT industry with plenty of support, whilst also being exposed to many moving parts. I have helped grow our social media, maintain vendor alliances, contribute to email campaigns, and create graphics and branding for the companies. This has given me a solid foundation within the business.

At Epaton, the number of women in the company has doubled in the last 14 months, with plans to continue bridging the gap of the men to women ratio in IT. It is comforting knowing the company you work for values you as a woman and the ideas and perspectives you offer. Entering a male dominated industry as a woman is challenging and it’s easy to feel as though “you may not have a seat at the table”, despite this not being the case. Seeing other women in similar roles with ability to create change has helped me to realise I can too and will hopefully help other women in the same way as this gap closes. Another important element to this is seeing women in management positions as it demonstrates opportunity and a reachable goal for women to look toward as well as reinforcing the notion of being a valued member of their team. As the saying goes “Empowered women empower women”, this is something that runs true in our industry. The more women that are celebrated and valued within the industry the more women feel encouraged to share their perspectives to move IT business forward for the better.

To further this idea of women empowering each other, I have also recently had the pleasure of taking part in a Women in Channel Day with one of our partners Assured Data Protection. As someone who has been in the industry for just a few months, it was especially encouraging for me to see women from multiple companies at multiple points in their careers. It represents the opportunities that are out there for someone like me. These small things can make big changes for individuals like me, and for all women in IT. This is happening increasingly more often, however, there is still a long way to go until the goal of closing this gap is achieved. Events like the Women in Tech festival and the Women & Diversity in Channel Awards celebrate and showcase women and how they should be valued in these workplaces, helping this goal become reality. It’s great to be vocal on and part of such an important subject that we should continue to speak on.