Women in Tech panellists Theresa Byrne (left) and Kiri Brown. Photo / UCOL Te Pūkenga
Women in Tech panellists Theresa Byrne (left) and Kiri Brown. Photo / UCOL Te Pūkenga
Before Theresa Byrne began working as a digital business analyst she had never heard of the role.
Byrne, who works at Te Whatu Ora MidCentral, was one of four panellists for Women in Tech.
Held last Wednesday at Te Manawa, it was part of Palmerston North’s Techweek23 celebrations organised by ManawaTech.
Byrne works on digital solutions and likens her job to that of a translator - she speaks to staff at Palmerston North Hospital to find out what their digital needs are then takes them back to the digital team and vendors.
Aneta Davidson got into the IT industry in 1996 and is regional manager at Spark New Zealand.
There are a lot of strong female leaders in IT now, such as Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson and Microsoft New Zealand managing director Vanessa Sorenson.
IT professionals need to be adaptable and flexible; the rate of change is so much faster now, Davidson says.
It is easy to get your work-life balance out of whack. During lockdown, working from home with children, she never respected the teaching profession more in her life.
She has to bring herself into check and find new and creative ways to achieve work-life balance.
Her advice: “just be you”.
Women in Tech panellists Dani Smith (left) and Aneta Davidson. Photo / UCOL Te Pūkenga
Dani Smith started as web developer/accounts manager at Webtech Creative Agency in January.
She has a Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology degree from UCOL Te Pūkenga and did her internship at Webtech.
Her favourite thing about the industry is the variety.
Kiri Brown is an independent IT contractor currently working as a solutions architect at the Office of the Auditor-General.
She has been in IT for 25 years. It is such a dynamic environment - how can you get bored as there is always something to learn?
Work is such a big part of your life so you have to be getting some enjoyment out of it. Brown’s advice is you don’t need to eat the elephant, instead, break it up into pieces and choose what is most important to do now.
Take all the opportunities and work out what’s right for you.
Women in Tech MC Jasmine Groves (fourth from left) with panellists Dani Smith (left), Theresa Byrne, Aneta Davidson and Kiri Brown. Photo / UCOL Te Pūkenga
Byrne used to work full-time at Silver Fern Farms as a warehouse associate. But there was pressure from her former school for her to go to university.
