Graduate Shannon leads team of 12 for communications giant

The confidence and knowledge a Computing graduate gained from her time at the University of Northampton helped her to snare a hotly contested job with a communications giant.

Shannon O’Dell leads a team of 12 apprentices in her role as Dynamic Operations Service Lead with BT, at the firm’s operations centre in Ipswich.

Shannon, who graduated in 2016 from the Computer Network Engineering course, is also responsible for customer experience and service reporting at the centre, based in Adastral Park, which is fast-becoming the technology super hub for Europe.

Shannon said: “I would recommend the course to others as it helped me develop and grow my ideas, supplying me with the confidence to apply and succeed in a large corporation such as BT.

“Throughout my course there were opportunities to expand and research areas of interest including security, artificial intelligence and also the Internet of Things. There was no fixed route of learning, with the course supplying a varied selection of subject area. The approachability of lecturers was also a strong positive for me, as they were always keen to discuss theories and ideas.

“My degree gave me the foundation knowledge which I now apply to our strategies and processes as part of the leadership team, cascading these skills down to our operational team members.”

Shannon added: “My ambition for my future career is to continue to grow and learn about the ever-evolving technologies by helping manage and deliver them to the public domain. This may take the route of career climbing but also side steps into the various different organisations to help me gain the skills to be an excellent engineer. I also hope to become a chartered engineer in the future.”