I studied Public Relations because when I left school (in the early 90’s) I was lead to believe that Computer Science was only for engineers and other propeller heads predominantly centred on developing great big chunks of code. My father was and still is a ‘typical’ software developer.

I accidentally fell into IT through informally supporting applications because I enjoyed working with word processors, spreadsheets and presentation packages and eventually got so good at them that people would ask for my help and thus I ended up in ’support’

I have worked in pretty much every kind of support role including application support, report writing, software analysis, application customisation, PC building, cable soldering, website creation, desktop, server, LAN and enterprise support.

I have lead both central and distributed teams, worked with suppliers and competitors within the same support environment. I have been a helpdesk manager, application support analyst and project manager and presently I am the IT sector specialist for the IET.

IT has enabled me to work in the most diverse environments (IT, retail, brewing, mining, banking, parking, recruitment etc.), travel to the most diverse places and enabled me to meet the most interesting and diverse people.

Ironically enough I left Public Relations because it was not as exciting as IT support.

I think the industry is changing but as far as I can tell IT people still have a lot of fun and the perception is probably as a result of the way in which ICT is taught at school. It’s the same problem that I had when I left school. I never thought it was for me … luckily IT found me.

Nicki Risi