Solutions Architect, Central Government
Amazon Web Services
00:00:07:04 – 00:00:09:10
My name is Natasha,
00:00:09:10 – 00:00:12:22
and I am a solutions architect at Amazon Web Services.
00:00:12:34 – 00:00:17:31
So in terms of what a solutions architect does, my particular job involves
00:00:17:32 – 00:00:22:11
helping customers in the central government sector to build technical solutions
00:00:22:11 – 00:00:26:06
on a cloud technology platform called Amazon Web Services.
00:00:26:08 – 00:00:30:09
I have done this job for a year and a half now, and I also have a specialism
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in analytics and big data on AWS.
00:00:36:02 – 00:00:39:16
So in terms of analytics, data and the amount of data
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that some older companies hold has become really, really important.
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So my role in the analytics space is to help customers
00:00:47:02 – 00:00:50:12
take their data and make something meaningful out of it.
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This may be anything from building an air pollution dashboard,
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to building a fraud detection capability by scanning lots of data.
00:00:58:00 – 00:01:02:35
So my most favourite part of my role is being able to help people all day, every day.
00:01:02:36 – 00:01:06:20
I really kind of enjoy the part of my role that involves teaching people
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about the cloud, and seeing them go from zero to hero with their skill set.
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I’m also in the public sector team, which means I deal
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with a lot of customers that have a wider impact on communities.
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It makes me feel personally really proud that the work
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I’m doing has an impact on a lot of people across the UK.
00:01:27:08 – 00:01:30:19
So in terms of my career journey, I stayed in school until I was 16.
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I wanted to be a veterinary nurse at first,
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so I went to uni to study equine science and veterinary studies.
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I didn’t know I wanted to work in technology
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until my early twenties, and I found my first job in tech
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basically working as an office manager in the City of London,
00:01:48:06 – 00:01:50:41
and I asked someone to mentor me, who was on that team.
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They said yes and I became an IT service desk analyst.
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I then spent time going from the finance sector to the media sector.
00:01:59:48 – 00:02:04:19
I taught myself how to code, so my first coding language was Python.
00:02:04:19 – 00:02:09:20
Took my foundational AWS certification, became a software developer
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and a cloud engineer, and then joined AWS two years later, and here I am.
00:02:17:08 – 00:02:18:34
So something I would tell my younger self
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is that you don’t have to have it all figured out when you leave school.
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I remember teachers telling me, you have to choose your career path
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now and you have to choose whether you are going to uni now.
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It was all very kind of scary for me at the time,
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as I had no idea what I was going to do when I left school.
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Definitely be comfortable within yourself with not being perfect.
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Know that it’s fine to make mistakes and not to get it right first go.
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And if I was to tell myself anything at the start of my career in tech, it would be to be comfortable
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in not always having the answer at my fingertips.
“Know that it’s fine to make mistakes and not to get it right first go.”
After studying vetinary science at university, Natasha started out as an office manager. She asked someone on the tech team to mentor her which led to a job on the IT desk. She then taught herself how to code and went on to become a software developer. Natasha now works as a solutions architect, helping clients from central government to make better use of their data.
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
Future employment
- 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.
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