Five and a half years. I started in 2013.
I get in around 7.45am and make breakfast and make coffee and check the news.
I have 3 primary tools I use to check in on the statuses of my projects. Zendesk, where I manage internal requests related to our Operational platform, Chase. Trello which we use to track larger, more strategic projects and Jira, where I get a status update on tasks in development with our offsite development team.
On any given day I might meet with our mobilization team to discuss troubleshooting and streamlining their operational tools, present a product strategy recommendation to the leadership team to help meet our business objectives, and discuss the latest sprint release with the rest of my team.
I pack up and leave at 5pm.
Prior to The Keyholding Company, I worked in customer services for Philips. I started here as an Account Manager. Clients could present anything from operational requests to billing enquiries and I was the point of contact. It prepared me well for my next move into Operations as an administrator for our Service Partner Network.
I was part of the team dedicated to building a strong and co-operative network model which enabled us to offer our services to national accounts.
From there I moved on to become a data analyst for the Operations team, which helped me get to grips with the benefits of automation for reporting and management. When the Chase development project started I applied for a role in the team working to transform our operational systems.
I was recently promoted to Digital Product Manager in the newly formed Tech team, working to the Technology Director.
The team has as a series of objectives which are set at the beginning of the year. My manager and I then break those objectives down into particular goals and we agree which ones I will take on each quarter. My progress towards those goals is then discussed at our weekly and quarterly check-ins.
I am really invested in self-development and continuous learning. I have found the company is willing to support me in that. I have studied and achieved a BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis. Skills like gap analysis, requirements gathering techniques, shadowing, workshops, interviews and documents analysis, are used in my everyday work.
Being a small company, I get the autonomy to plan and manage projects to their conclusion. I am not overly managed, as long as I produce the results and meet my goals. Keyholding has not pigeonholed me into one discipline, I have been able to pick up many different skills in the various roles I’ve had here. I love what I do now because of the variety. For instance, while scoping the client portal, I had the chance to engage with a design agency, and learn about User Experience and design best practice.
The leadership team here are very approachable people who engage enthusiastically, but respectfully on my projects. I enjoy the occasional gallows humour which builds comradery and gets us through the rough patches.
They also offer good flexibility. If I need to I can work from home. There is good infrastructure and culture to support that. I appreciate the focus on goals rather than presentee-ism. It’s not about bums on seats. It’s about caring about doing a good job.
I still get a kick every time I see the custom Slack emojis of our faces pop up on the Slack channels. The IT Infrastucture guys created them just for the tech team – they have kinda become an in-house meme.
My work at The Keyholding Company feels impactful and valuable. I feel like I am making a difference every day. The security industry is slightly behind the times when it comes to technology and it’s great to be part of the team turning that around. We get good exposure to the senior team, too. The expectations of our work are high, you’ve got to be up for that challenge.
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