Sarah Nicol works as a developer within DIS (Data & Intelligent Systems) on the Policy MDM team. Her role involves helping Allstate handle its data changing their methods for the better.
This is, in fact, Sarah's second career. She started of as an archaeologist and spent 25 years working in the profession until she decided that she didn't want to continue until retirement. Therefore, she went for her second interest — technology.
Sarah commenced a part-time course in 2014 and earned a placement with Allstate NI and spent a year working in the PT API Ops team in 2018. Even after her year was finished, she remained at Allstate for the remainder of her course working within the Vehicle Production Support team until she graduated. From there, she successfully applied for a graduate role on the Policy MDM team in mid-2020.
Sarah has her sights on a future role already. She aspires to become a scrum master within her team and is excited about being able to witness the role personally. She aims to develop her coding skills and gain experience in her current role so she can climb to her desired job.
Even before joining Allstate NI, Sarah was immediately drawn to the company. In Sarah's own words:
"One of the things that drew me to Allstate was the culture of diversity and inclusion. Allstate NI has one of the largest percentages of women developers in a tech company in northern Europe (28%) but they are striving to do better."
Sarah is particularly interested in Allstate NI's Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). These involve WITA, Embrace, and Ausome, which provide support or women in technology, people in in the LGBTQ+ community, and those with autism. She states that this showed that Allstate NI cares about these communities.
She also has some advice for when you start your graduate role at Allstate NI:
"If you are on a team be nosey, ask questions, try to shadow as many people as possible early on before the work starts to build."
Conferences, volunteering opportunities and getting involved with other teams are all activities that are available as soon an you start at Allstate NI, according to Sarah, and she implores that you take part in everything that is offered to you. You may learn vital skills or become inspired by these opportunities.
