Today, ETB Technologies is supporting the widely celebrated campaign, International Women’s Day. The theme for this year is to #EmbraceEquity, and the focus is to understand the difference between equity and equality and recognise that equal opportunities aren’t enough.
Equity can be defined as giving everyone what they need to be successful. Here at ETB, we pride ourselves on being a local employer that supports individuals throughout their careers in technology and ensuring they have the essential knowledge to help reach their professional goals.
To mark the 2023 event, we spoke to Julie, Kirsty and Hayley from our sales team to ask about their journey into the tech sector, and what inspired them to pursue a career in what is still a largely male dominated industry.
Did you ever consider a career in technology when you were in school?
Junior sales account manager, Kirsty: “Towards the end of my school years, I began to research what industries are continuing to grow and would therefore give me a good range of job opportunities. After graduating with a degree in IT six years ago, I got in touch with ETB and within a day, they offered me a job. In my time here I’ve worked in customer services, then online sales, and a year ago I was promoted to the role of junior sales account manager.”
Senior online administrator, Hayley: “I found out about ETB through Kirsty! Kirsty and I are family friends, and her positive experience at the company gave me confidence to consider a move into tech. I hadn’t considered the sector before, and now I love the opportunities ETB gives me for continuous learning and development. I’ve always worked in the Online Team and was promoted to senior online administrator last year.”
Sales account manager, Julie: “I wasn’t interested in tech at school, mainly because it wasn’t really a thing back in the days of manual typewriters! My first sales job was selling carpet underlay, and I knew I didn’t want to do that, so I quickly moved on to electronics and tech as I thought that sounded far more interesting. I’ve now been in the sector for over 25 years.”
You all work in sales – how technical is that?
Julie: “The sales team are all a bit modest and tend to underplay just how good our understanding is of the technology we sell, but it’s one of our key strengths. We all have great technical knowledge, which allows us to identify where there may be a more efficient way to deliver the config a customer needs. The actual sale is the very last thing we do, and often the easiest! One of the great things about working here is that we go through in-depth training and always share our knowledge with colleagues. We can just shout out a question, and someone will answer.”
Does being in a male-dominated sector affect your opportunities to progress?
Hayley: “I’d say it’s a non-issue at ETB. We all get on so well as a team here, and being male or female doesn’t matter.”
Julie: “When I first started at ETB 13 years ago, I used to physically build the product as part of the process. As there were only seven employees at the time, I had to do all the steps myself, which helped me to understand how things work. Then gradually the business grew, and new teams took over some of the processes, so we could focus on the sales. A lot of the equipment was very heavy, and I sometimes struggled to physically move it, so for this reason there will probably always be more men than women at ETB. But in terms of our office-based teams, the ratio is about 50/50.”
What would you say to inspire other women into the technology industry?
Julie: “It’s a sector that’s continually growing. There aren’t many industries where you have a guaranteed future. So, if you are looking for a career rather than a job, it’s secure and certainly never gets boring.”
Kirsty: “It’s a career where your brain is always active because of the pace of change. I learn something new every day, which I love.”
At ETB we aim to inspire and support everyone who wants to join the technology industry. We hope that our effort to employ locally, train and develop our people and maintain a high standard of knowledge across all fields, ensures that everyone at ETB – male or female - feels supported to perform and progress towards their professional goals.
If you would like to join the team here at ETB, we currently have vacancies in our sales, customer support and product teams. Find out more at https://www.etb-tech.com/careers