Jacqui
Looking back, I can surely say that I’ve lived a full life, trying to realize my potential every step of the way. You could say my professional journey started off rather unconventionally at the age of 18 when I decided to move out and join the Royal Australian Air Force. I was the only girl in a military family, so this was a formative decision for me. I grew up in Melbourne, but thanks to eight years with the Air Force, I got to travel all around the country.
I lived in a town called Alice Springs for a while after my service, before I decided to move back to Melbourne and start afresh – this time in publishing. This was quite the career jump, shifting from a military lifestyle to more of a corporate one, but it suited me just fine. After that, I explored a lot of other fields including the telecom industry as well as enterprise services and operations.
My first brush with the IT industry was back when I was working in enterprise services. I worked as a functional business analyst for an IT firm, so I knew I had some understanding of how it all worked. Working in a corporate environment was a little intimidating for me at first, considering it was completely new to me. Forget having a degree in IT, I hadn’t even gone to university. So, I’m immensely grateful to know that employers like Infosys exist, who value people as a whole and not just their formal accomplishments and degrees.
In fact, Infosys has been incredibly supportive of my journey to learn and expand my knowledge of the IT sector. With the company’s support, I just finished a course on Cyber Security at Purdue University, USA. I’m also pursuing a course in ethical hacking, which has always been so fascinating to me! My manager is always encouraging me, giving me advice, and recommending new certifications I could complete. It was at a rough time in my life when I had to juggle the course and take care of my elderly mother all at once. But I’m so glad I pushed myself to do it. I would’ve never seen myself working in the tech space, especially cybersecurity, but with Infosys’ support, I am flourishing here.
Getting laid off during the pandemic was incredibly tough. I'm an older person, and I was extremely worried about my chances of getting another job. I was overwhelmed and my future seemed so bleak at the time. Seeing how far I’ve come and how much I’ve gained makes me even more grateful that I chanced upon the opportunity to join Infosys through a program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. I am thrilled to be part of a team where I have so many opportunities to explore my potential and pursue my passions.
