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There are 100 Sexy Roles a Woman Can Take in Tech: No. 8 Catherine Doran of NetworkRail

CIO Catherine Doran

The NextWomen are running a series of stories on women in tech, explaining what inspired them to work in the industry. The baton has been passed to Catherine Doran, CIO of NetworkRail.

1. What inspired you to get into Tech?

Actually it was purely by chance – I had graduated from University with a degree in maths & Geography. I was enrolled to do a teacher training conversion course when I saw an advertisement in the national press for trainee Programmers. I applied on a whim, sat the aptitude test and passed.

I love puzzles and the prospect of problem solving as a way of living really appealed.

I have thanked my lucky stars many times over for the way the cards fell for me with my career choice.

2. How were you educated in Tech?

The company I joined was a UK software house that established an office in Ireland specifically to target the Irish Graduate market. We were classroom trained in programming and program design for 6 months. We were then placed on customer site (in the UK) at reduced day rates to gain practical experience. My first 18 months in ‘real’ work, I mean post training, was in ICI Organics in Manchester.

Working for a software house meant changing jobs every 12 – 18 months, moving from client to client. Great way to get a good range of experience in a relatively short time.

3. How has your experience been in the world of TECH?

I stayed working at a pretty technical level for quite a number of years – loved designing, building and implementing systems. I haven’t done technical work for a long time now, but having worked in the industry for 30 years, I have a good nose for what is going well and what is going badly.

The sea of change in my time has been the breaking down of the barriers between mainstream business skills and IT.

I want to stress that businesses need both technically literate business people, such as in Marketing and business literate IT specialists, who think bottom line and are concerned with business performance.

4. What roles have you had in Tech?

Trainee Programmer, Programmer, Designer, Team Leader, Project leader, Project Manager, Trainer, Program Manager, Program Director, and of course now CIO.