Recognising International Women's Day 2022 - Emily's Success

Emily Gray – Service Desk Supervisor at Hughes Europe

 

What motivated you to join Hughes Europe?

After my school education, I embarked on an IT apprenticeship, and I found that I achieved great satisfaction from working out solutions to technical issues. Furthermore, seeing that IT was viewed as a predominantly male space made me feel even more determined to succeed as a woman.

Following the apprenticeship and roles in 1st and 2nd Line IT Support, I was ready for a new challenge and in 2013 the opportunity at Hughes Europe came along. I was particularly excited about the chance to work with their renowned satellite technology, and I knew immediately that this would be a great opportunity for me to further my career. I love to find out about new technologies and how they work, and I knew Hughes would expose me to many new technologies in the world of Networking.

What does your role involve?

I joined Hughes initially to work on the Service Desk as 2nd Line Support, and I worked my way up firstly to Senior Service Desk Operator and then to my current role as Service Desk Supervisor. The Service Desk primarily manages incoming incident tickets from our customers 1st line teams, as well as supporting field engineers to install, maintain, or migrate hardware.

In my current role as Service Desk Supervisor, I manage and work alongside the Service Desk team in Milton Keynes along with our sister team in Germany. I am an escalation contact for the Service Desk, the customer, and the wider organisation with regard to technical issues and Service Desk process queries.

What types of challenges do you face in your role?

I have found that women are still very much under-represented in IT. Equally, I am fortunate to work within a great team, where I have never encountered discrimination based on my gender.  I have, however, regularly encountered surprise at the role I undertake and previously been requested by a caller to be transferred to one of the “tech guys”! 

With this industry ever-evolving, continual learning is needed to keep abreast of developments in technology and process and to support the team to do the same.

What benefits would you highlight to new female talent to encourage them to work in the tech industry?

I strongly believe that although fast-paced and challenging, the industry is incredibly rewarding, offering continual personal development. If there were more women role models in the industry, changing the view that it is not compatible for women, potential talent might not be lost. Sadly, we rarely receive applications from female candidates, and I would like to encourage young women to consider pursuing a career in the tech industry, where they can succeed and have a fulfilling career.

What advice would you give to young females wanting to work in this space?

I would encourage young women to ignore gender stereotyping! I am proud to be working in this industry “against the grain”, and I love to prove people wrong when they think it is an environment exclusively for men.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I feel privileged to live in the beautiful surroundings of a 50-hectare wetland nature reserve and conservation area, where I love to walk and become immersed in the environment of grazing wild ponies, cattle, sheep otters and wild fowl.  I also love travelling to new and exciting places and socialising with my friends. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have a fulfilling and rewarding work-life balance.