It’s National Careers Week, so what better time to shine a light on our people who keep everything flowing and provide water for life?
Here at Southern Water, we do much more than you probably think and offer a huge variety or roles, professions and career paths. From project managers, customer service executives and scientists, to accountants, analysts, IT specialists and sewerage operatives.
We’re proud that our people are all as uniquely different as the communities we serve. We caught up with two of our IT team members for a glimpse at life here at Southern Water and why they love what they do…
Katy Wood, Programme Delivery team
What attracted you to ‘Dive Right In’ to a career with SW?
I was keen to join SW following several interviews and conversations with the SW team about how the IT department was changing and developing in order to best meet the needs of the company and customers, it attracted me to work in a fast-paced and emerging team.
Did anything surprise you once you’d joined, have you discovered anything about SW that you didn’t previously know or has changed you perception of them?
I was surprised by the level of opportunities I was offered straight away, along with the support I received to help with this. I was also surprised by the overarching focus on Doing the Right thing, in other companies I have experienced this has generally been a background consideration alongside other topics, however at SW this is always the primary consideration.
What do you do/are you responsible for on a day-to-day basis?
I mainly do Project Management of smaller projects for the IT department, this involves managing people, budgets, timeframes, risks etc.
How does the job you do make an impact on the local community and wider world around you?
Working in IT we are a vital support for our customer facing colleagues and the work we do is important in ensuring that our customers have the best experience. Also, as a direct customer of Southern Water myself I can see the direct impact that on the services and communications to customers.
What do you love most about your role?
I love the people side of it, working on IT projects enables me to meet a whole host of people across the different teams in IT, as well as connecting directly to Stakeholders across the rest of the business as well.
What makes your role challenging?
There is a large volume of work which does mean that you have to be fast-paced and able to adapt to the needs of the various different projects you are delivering.
How are you supported/developed to become the best you can be?
Southern Water have actually arranged for me to complete an apprenticeship in Project Management, allowing me to dedicate one day each week to studying for this and making sure that I have the opportunities and resources I need to succeed in this
What opportunities are available to you here?
My line manager is always looking for opportunities that will help me grow, for example projects in new areas for me or training courses that will help me to develop.
How are you empowered to own what you do, innovate and drive your career forward?
I have found that I am always encouraged to take every opportunity for training or talks etc in order to help develop my understanding and skills. At the start I was also pleasantly surprised at how I was encouraged to always take ownership of the projects I work on and I am encouraged to use my own ideas etc to develop my work.
How does SW support and encourage diversity – how are people made to feel accepted and as if they belong?
I was very pleased to discover the Southern Water Women’s Network which frequently holds interesting talks and workshops.
What do you want to do, or steps do you want to take with SW next?
I am looking to further develop my career in Project Management at Southern Water and hope to put my apprenticeship work to good use.
How will you continue to support, evolve and deliver ‘Water for life’?
I hope to make the most of the training and opportunities I have been offered and continue to work to deliver IT projects which will benefit the business and ultimately our customers.
Mark Harrison, Security and information team
What attracted you to ‘Dive Right In’ to a career with SW?
Southern Water is a different type of business than most; in a business sector that drives improvement, innovation, and opportunity. It’s different as our work not only impacts household customers but business, communities, neighborhoods and importantly the environment. Not many businesses can have such a wide-ranging number of opportunities to help, improve, change, and impact such a diverse array of different entities.
But in my area of expertise, it was the opportunity to protect and secure what is classed as ‘Critical National Infrastructure’ from a vast array of different threats and risks. The security diversity of protecting this type of infrastructure is exciting and challenging and makes each day different.
Did anything surprise you once you’d joined, have you discovered anything about SW that you didn’t previously know or has changed your perception of them?
I didn’t realise just how complicated the process was to treat wastewater. I was amazed by the sophisticated processes involved to ensure quality was always being met and the regulatory controls and requirements that are needed.
Southern Water was very quick to introduce new recruits into the nitty gritty of what makes the business tick. Even though I was an IT employee they wanted all new staff to understand what the business did, how it did it and how you can make an impact and a difference. The tour of a treatment works that all new employees are given was insightful and made me appreciative of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes that I had taken for granted for so many years as a customer.
What do you do/are you responsible for on a day-to-day basis?
I work within corporate IT Security operations, looking after IT Security needs of all end-user devices, servers, data centers and network infrastructures including protecting our data from a multitude of different threats and risks from many different sources. The most important part of our role is securing our customers, their data, their customer journeys, and their interactions with our business.
How does the job you do make an impact on the local community and wider world around you?
Our role in IT Security is to ensure that the core services of our business are not impacted by cyber threats or disruption. We minimize risk exposure to ensure clean and safe water is delivered to our customers and that wastewater is taken away and treated properly before being recycled. The job we do impacts everything that the business does with technology. The responsibility is huge as the impacts could be devastating to local communities and the environment, but the satisfaction is immense knowing of the difference you can and are making.
What do you love most about your role?
The opportunity to use different technologies, that every day is different but challenging. Working with so many technically talented people who bounce and share ideas and improve everything that we do.
What makes your role challenging?
The amount of change that we are going through is exciting but challenging. The amount of project improvements being delivered and the security impacts that they make keeps us very busy. Keeping up to date with the latest risks and changes to the threat landscape. The different techniques always being used to thwart security controls and gain access to systems make our jobs a challenge.
How are you supported/developed to become the best you can be?
Leadership is strong and supportive; managers collaborate with each other and there is camaraderie within IT teams that is supportive. Leadership coach and mentor. We are given tools to self-learn including technical, managerial, and personal courses that help improve and prepare us for growth to meet our annual personal, productivity and development objectives and plans.
What opportunities are available to you here?
There are many opportunities to progress your career through management or leadership. IT has many disciplines and there are options to change or move across different roles including technical, support or service management and Project Management.
How are you empowered to own what you do, innovate, and drive your career forward?
We are encouraged to be in control of our own destiny. Our CIO has a saying that I’ve heard more than once “Don’t stand on ceremony”. He wants and encourages us to own what you do; to feel empowered to make the right choices and deliver what we believe in. We are all “Subject Matter Experts” and we are expected and given the opportunity to make the right decisions and deliver our goals.
What do you want to do, or steps do you want to take with SW next?
I really enjoy my job and the role I have within the business. I gain satisfaction from what I do every day and I don’t have any plans or needs to change it or progress.
How will you continue to support, evolve, and deliver ‘Water for life’?
This message is vital for both the business and our customers. It is focus for what we do and why we do it. To protect National Critical Infrastructure from attack, threats and risks for the business and our customers delivers huge satisfaction and pride. Our continual change and progress we make is improving the outcomes that we deliver and makes a real difference to people’s lives and to the improvement to the environment.
So, if you love a challenge and the opportunity to show what you’re made of, we could be the perfect place for you to build an impactful career. Join Katy and Mark and dive right in. Just visit our dedicated pages for opportunities that are available now.