Jodie Angell recently secured a permanent role as Squad Lead in IT: Data and MI through our Talent Agility Programme (TAP). Read her experience on the programme below.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Jodie Angell and I’m from Newport, South Wales. I live with my fiancé who I met at Admiral four years ago.
What’s your Admiral journey been like so far?
I joined Admiral in May 2017 as a Contact Centre agent in Renewals, which is now known as Customer Loyalty, and in March 2021, I applied to the Talent Agility Programme (TAP). I really wanted to work in one of our Business Support areas as I wanted to experience the back end running of the business, so I was really determined to follow this path. By this point, I’d already had several interviews for other jobs in the Business Support areas, but found the competition was high. TAP is super competitive, so I really tried to sell myself, talk about what I’d done for the past four years, and just show how set I was in achieving my goal of having a thriving career in Business Support.
My first placement was in Compliance, which was in line with what I thought I wanted to do at the time. During my placement, I completed the Agile PM Foundation and Practitioner qualifications, which really opened my eyes to the world of Agile and a hidden interest I didn’t know I even had.
This led me to securing my second placement as a Certified Scrum Master in the Data & Analytics area. I passed my certification in the first week and took on three squads. This was a high-pressure environment due to the demand to migrate from an on-premises platform to a cloud-based platform. From here, I knew I wanted to secure a permanent position as a Squad Lead and managed this is IT: Data and MI.
What made you want to join TAP?
I knew how successful it was, having seen a previous manager of mine secure a permanent role in Marketing off the back of it. I did initially have some doubts, being a Contact Centre agent, could I really progress to a Squad Lead role within less than a year? I’m still shocked and surprised at the progression I’ve made in such a short time.
How did you find it?
I found the programme to be very eye-opening. I never imagined I’d thrive as much as I have in such a technical role, especially in an area I had no experience in. As I’ve previously mentioned, I thought my career would be somewhere in the risk universe, but this programme really does have the ability to expose you to all sorts of areas, preparing you for a considerably different role to what you’re used to.
I’ve gained a great deal of knowledge in Agile methodology, but also the confidence to speak with senior stakeholders, leading and coaching a team, building the right team and culture, and taking accountability for squad deliverables. Another area I’ve developed during this final placement is my ability to look after members of the team, considering their career progression, wellbeing, and what motivates them to do well.
What sort of support did you receive?
My managers have been fantastic, constantly exposing me to great opportunities and throwing me into the deep end. Aside from that, I have a business mentor who I catch up with once a month to go through any challenges I experience or to get advice, it’s really nice to have an outside opinion on things. Secondly, the TAP support team are always on hand if I need anything.
What’s next for you?
I can’t wait to embark on my Agile career, and help another squad achieve their goals.
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