We’ve welcomed Georgia to our team over a year ago, as one of the first to join Cegeka Greece. Join us through her journey from ancient Greek to IT and learn why change management is like solving a puzzle.
Hi Georgia! How did you go from psychology and education to IT?
I majored in psychology and education, but I studied English and Japanese as well. For a couple of years, I taught children foreign languages, and I was also a history, math, and ancient Greek tutor. In search of more stability, I chose to follow a completely different path, tech support. During the quarantine, electronic devices became more important to people, and I realized that I enjoyed helping them. Next, I became a team manager, then an operations manager. What I liked the most was sharing knowledge and working towards common goals.
Wait, did you just say ancient Greek?
Yes, that’s right! I love languages – it’s one of my favorite topics. I studied ancient Greek in university, and I don’t remember it that well now, but it was interesting.
How was the switch to IT?
I had some technical background from my previous roles in technical support and wanted to get a deeper knowledge and experience on the IT field. I felt that some skills like efficient communication, problem-solving and process refinement translated over to IT as well.
Tell us about your role in Cegeka.
Change management is a position that requires collective effort. Properly handling the customer’s requests means communicating effectively with the engineers to review and prepare the changes. We also need to communicate with the customer. We’re in close cooperation with different departments and teams to ensure that changes meet all technical requirements and can be processed accordingly in different environments.
The change manager is responsible for processing any action, so it's a role with significant responsibility, correct?
Yes, because we provide the necessary approval for the actions to be done. Moreover, missing even a small detail might turn everything upside down. The main analysis usually comes from the engineers, but it's up to us to put everything together. We always ask for three things: an implementation plan, a rollback plan in case it fails and a test plan. Before approving, we need to have everything in place.
How would you describe your collaboration with the customer?
The customer I work with is a global multi-specialist asset management firm, managing investments. They focus on detail; they’re organized and want a clear plan for everything. Sometimes, the job can be demanding but following a clear and secure path when implementing changes to their infrastructure helps. It’s a great learning experience and our collaboration has been really nice.
Your customer is in Belgium. Remote versus in-person: what’s your take?
Remote collaboration can be challenging sometimes and face to face communication can be more beneficial when working in a team but in general I always got the support I needed from my colleagues or my manager. When it comes to the Greek office, even though most colleagues work with other customers, it’s nice to spend time together, it’s a great environment.
What’s the part of your work you enjoy the most?
It’s a dynamic role that gives you lots of experience in many different aspects of IT, but also contributes to personal growth. You acquire technical knowledge, become familiar with problem solving techniques, and you improve your multitasking, soft skills, and time management. My colleagues also taught me a lot about networking, cloud services, etc. It’s great that the company invests in employees through training and coaching programs – I’ve relied a lot on LinkedIn Learning in the beginning.
How would you describe your team?
I’m part of a great team that helps me learn and grow every day. My colleagues and manager support me and make me feel appreciated – not only my teammates, but also the engineers, project managers and team leaders. I really enjoy working with them and it’s rewarding to see what we can achieve together.
Is Change Management a good way to get started in IT?
It can be a starting point, but without the relevant technical background in IT field, you need to be patient and ask many questions. At the beginning it was challenging for me to get familiar with all the processes and the technical aspects of the role. After a year I can say that I feel proud of overcoming these initial difficulties, I have learned so many things and I keep on learning. I feel so much more confident and I’m happy that I can provide good support to the customer.
How do you envision your career path in Cegeka?
I still have a lot to learn, so I’ll stick to change management for now. Later on, I’d like to explore project management and people management roles. In my previous roles, I helped people develop their skills and mentoring others was very rewarding.
When you joined the company, Cegeka didn’t have an office in Greece yet. How did you decide to apply?
I saw many position openings from Cegeka in Greece and by researching I got more familiar with the values and goals of the company. I always liked working in a multinational environment and being in a company that offers opportunities to grow. The office opened a few months later, we had a big opening party and finally met with our colleagues. I'm glad I applied, because here I found things that you cannot easily find in a job – understanding, accountability and colleagues who offer help.