Solutions Architect, Start-ups
Amazon Web Services
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My name is Mirabella,
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and I work as a solutions architect for startups for Amazon Web Services.
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There’s no such thing as a typical day in my job.
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During the day, I may be going out and meeting customers.
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Either going to their offices or virtually, it depends on their preferences.
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I could go and do events such as these.
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Or I could go and talk to multiple customers at once.
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The favourite aspect is definitely the interaction with people.
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It’s something that I’ve always really wanted and seeked throughout my careers.
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I get to meet different people from different aspects of life every day.
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They can be people from academia, they can be people
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with a business background or people with a very, very technical background.
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So they tend to be very, very diverse,
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and I get access to this amazing pool of very, very creative people,
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and I just interact with them on a daily basis.
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When I was back in school, over in Romania, which is where I was born and grew up.
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I actually studied maths and computer science in high school.
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But to be very honest with you, it was never a career choice that occurred to me.
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That is why when I decided where to go to university and what to study,
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I went for a different subject that I really enjoyed.
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So I decided to go and study languages.
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After I left university, I joined a major graduate scheme
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with an accounting company.
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Once I was there, I realised that I wanted to learn more about technology.
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So I applied for a re-qualification programme.
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I studied to become a software engineer in the evenings whilst
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I was still at my first job.
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And I finally ended up getting a job helping developers
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get their applications onto the cloud.
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Whilst I was there, it came as a suggestion from a friend
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that I should consider applying for AWS, as it was something that I was working with every day
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For this role, I think it’s very important to have good communication skills.
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You’re going to have to go
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and communicate with people that are very, very different.
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So you definitely need to have this ability to think on your feet
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and be able to come up with the best answer for that potential question.
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I would definitely reassure people that if they don’t know
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what they want to do in the future, that is OK.
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That’s how I built my own path.
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I just went, tried the best option that I had in front of me at that time.
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If it didn’t work out, then I just tried again.
“I just tried the best option that I had in front of me at the time. If it didn’t work out, then I just tried again.”
Mirabella enjoys dealing with people. She grew up in Romania, studied languages at university and then joined a graduate scheme with an accounting firm. Deciding to follow her interest in technology, Mirabella then attended evening classes to qualify as a software engineer. She now works as a solutions architect, helping customers to solve their business problems using technology.
More information about IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
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- Liaises with internal/external clients in order to analyse business procedure, clarify clients’ requirements and to define the scope of existing software, hardware and network provision;
- Undertakes feasibility studies for major IT developments incorporating costs and benefits, and presents proposals to clients;
- Communicates the impact of emerging technologies to clients and advises upon the potential introduction of such technology;
- Provides advice and assistance in the procurement, provision, delivery, installation, maintenance and use of IT systems and their environments;
- Examines existing business models and flows of data and designs functional specifications and test plans for new systems in order to meet clients’ needs;
- Researches, analyses, evaluates and monitors network infrastructure and performance;
- Works closely with clients to implement new systems.
