Written by iManage’s VP of Product Management Ian Raine
I moved to Belfast from Scotland back in the 1980’s lured by innovative work that a company called Software Ireland was doing at the time with the Unix operating system - it was unparalleled in the UK and Ireland and moving over was an easy decision for me.
35 years later I am still amazed by the level of innovation and creativity exhibited by local companies and I am proud now to call Northern Ireland my home. In those 35 years I have built complex enterprise software solutions and led large engineering teams and am currently Belfast site lead for iManage, a company that is the industry-standard technology partner for law firms and other professional service firms globally.
Having worked in multiple roles, in both large and small companies, in companies who had deliberately set up in Northern Ireland and those who had acquired companies with an established base here, what would my advice be to someone who is just starting out in the industry?
The key thing in my opinion is to build a solid foundation for your career, whether that career takes you into people management or a deep technical role or even into starting your own company. Spend your formative years in a company that gives you that good foundation – one that provides excellent mentoring, one that uses interesting and modern technologies, one that gives you the chance to take ownership when you are ready and one that lets you advance at a pace that reflects your capabilities and not one that is built around number of years of tenure. Working in iManage and thinking of the placement students and graduates who have started and then grown with us, I can see the huge difference that getting the right foundation makes.
We are at a point in time where there are more IT jobs available than there are people to fill them. It has not always been like that and undoubtedly the pendulum will swing the other way in times to come. Take your time and chose carefully – the right choice and the right foundation will set you up for wherever you career takes you in the future.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2021 edition of the Sync NI magazine. You can download your FREE copy and sign up to receive future digital editions here.
