Naomi Timperley talks being listed in the Top 50 Most Influential Women in IT, co founding Tech North & Advice for Young People!,
Interview W/ The NGY Show, Hosted by the Block Builders
Naomi Timperley joined Unity Radio’s ‘The NGY Show’, Hosted by the ‘Block Builders’ crew to discuss what it feels like to be in the top 50 most influential women in IT. Naomi also talks all about the company Tech North which she co founded & gives advice for young people looking to get into the tech industry.
Check out the full interview for more or read below!
Listen back to the full show here:
The NGY Show
Welcome back to the NGY show on Unity Radio 92.8 fm. We’re being joined right now by Naomi Timperley. Naomi has recently been named in the computer weekly, most influential women in UK technology 2020. She also co founded techno and works with a wide range of individuals as a mentor, helping them make huge Steps in the tech industry. Hi there. Naomi, welcome to show. Thanks for joining us today. How are you?
Naomi Timperley
I’m good. Thank you. Nice to talk to you, Leo. Thank you for my introduction.
The NGY Show
Tech is a word that we hear quite often in this current climate. Could you please explain to us what you mean when you talk about tech?
Naomi Timperley
Okay, so tech actually touches every day of our lives, isn’t it? So I’ve just been to the supermarket in Sainsbury’s. And I used my phone for the first time to do the shopping. And so technology comes with a multitude of things. And we obviously have our phones, which are like smart computers. Now. We also have technology in other realms of things. So we’ve got health tech, we’ve got, you know, if you think about, basically, technology can solve various different problems now. So I’m not sure if you’ve heard of sort of like, especially around Salford and Manchester, we were very part of industrial revolution, when it came to sort of, you know, cotton and all those types of things. And now, that is we’re in the fourth industrial revolution, which is, which is technology. So it covers a whole different types of thing. And I work generally with digital, digital tech and Creative Media type businesses. And that could be either at either at the very early stage when they might have a seedling of an idea. And to help them build that into into a business. I also work on the other side of the coin with businesses that want to grow. And they want to bring technology or new services, and I help them with their ideas. I’ve also done that a lot with young people of colour in schools
The NGY Show
So we read that you are a honorary industry fellow at the University of Salford. What does that mean.
Naomi Timperley
Yeah, it was a huge honour actually. And I have done lots of talks and workshops with the University of Salford business school for a number of years. And it was given to me in recognition of that. Now, I’m going to give you a bit of background about my educational history, I didn’t do very well at school at all. When I was at school, we didn’t have GCSE will Oh levels of CSS, I’m that old. And I didn’t get I didn’t pass any of them. But I say I got the results that they would like to the equivalent of say twos and threes and ones if GCSE. I doesn’t mean that I’m not bright. And I’m perfectly intelligent. But I’m not very good at exams. And I think traditional education probably wasn’t right. For me, I think people learn in different ways. And I’m a very visual learner. And I went to university when I was 44. And actually, I got accepted. And this is a call for MMU on a master’s degree, which usually you do after you’re done a normal degree afterwards. And with based on my experience, just based on my experience, it was a huge honour. And actually, I remember going to also come right back down to brass tacks as well. And I did it for a year. It’s very part time, it’s supposed to be over three years. I cannot write in an academic way. But I got a postgraduate certificate, and I got to where I get to, I got to graduate and wear the cap on the gown. So it was a huge honour. But then the same year, I also became an Honorary Fellow at the university software business school because of all the support that I’ve given them.
The NGY Show
If someone wanted a job in the tech industry, why would they be able to find the job?
Naomi Timperley
So the first piece of advice I would give to anybody in the tech industry, and I’ve done loads of loads of work with schools would be to embed yourself or go out and talk to lots of different businesses. And there’s lots of different ways that you can do that. So there’s lots of I don’t know whether you ever heard of a platform called meetup, an event, right? There’s loads of different networking opportunities, especially with people that work at a grassroots level in tech. And also as well Don’t forget the tech. Work in the tech business is not just about coding. But people have this misconception. I don’t know what you were like when you were at school or whether you did computer science or anything like that. But actually, the tech industry needs people to have got creative thinking skills, they need people that are good communicators, they need people that are good team players, because there’s lots and lots of different parts of tech businesses, and lots of different roles. They also need people that can sell that can market. So my piece of advice is, think about the skills that you have yourself and see how you can you can almost retrofit them into into jobs that are out there. And don’t forget, you know, there’s going to be jobs around in 10 years time that don’t even exist now. You know, I remember when I was if I sort of go back to when I was at school, and mobile phones were about that big, and you had to carry a suitcase around with the battery. And things have evolved massively. And you know, another thing as well, going back to, you know, the tech industry is just really read about it read about it was so much information online. And also, think about setting up a profile on Twitter, or LinkedIn and reaching out to people because you know what? People can only say no card. And if you don’t ask you don’t. I hope that’s answered your question now. Yeah.
The NGY Show
We also found out you’re also currently an advisor board member for 2021 Digital city festival. Could you explain more about the festival and your role?
Naomi Timperley
Yep. So I purely in a capacity to advice, advice. And when I say that they’ve got a whole team of people like me, that basically feed in and help them make the festival better. Essentially, what it is, digital city festival is a series of events, really sort of showcasing the North, but also, it’s a digital experience. So it’s about uniting people across tech, marketing, e commerce, media, and creative and creating a sort of global community.
The NGY Show
As a woman in tech industry, was it hard starting off? And could you give any advice to women that are wanting to gain employment?
Naomi Timperley
Okay, so my, my foray into tech was purely by accident, as you’re probably aware, or you may not be, but most people have lots of different types of careers. You know, James, for example, I don’t know what you did when you left school. But when I left school, I went to sixth form, I went to college, and then I got a job in the travel industry. And I worked the travel industry about seven years. I then moved up north, and I got a job in recruitment, and it was tech recruitment. And actually went for a job as an admin assistant. And they said that I was overqualified. And I said that that was a load of rubbish. And I knew that they had other jobs, and they were looking for recruitment consultants, and they had a graduate policy. And of course, as I’ve just told you, I didn’t have a degree when I was younger. So I persuaded them to give me an opportunity. And in the very late 90s, and the early noughties, I worked in in tech recruitment. So that was my first experience in it. I didn’t come back into it until about probably about 10 years ago. And that was because I started working with startups. And I started working with female entrepreneurs and youth entrepreneurs. So you know, going back to answering your question about how women can get in, in the tech industry, it’s really just making sure that you, you engage, as I said before about any words, whether you’re male or female, you know, again, it’s making sure that you have a seat at the table and seeing what opportunities are out there. For me, I’ve always, I’m quite vocal. I’ve never been fact made to feel uncomfortable. But I also know, of tech businesses that don’t. And still there’s a really big issue around women in lots of industries and Tech’s just one of them. So it’s about having good role models. It’s about working with, with schools, at the sort of year seven, year eight and beyond, and making sure that the young people are informed about the creative careers, again, going out and reaching out to role models as well. And don’t just go to the obvious role models, you know, you can go on to say the computer weekly list, for example, there’s 100 women on there, and they’re just normal regular women.
The NGY Show
So if anyone else is interested in finding out more about the tech industry? What places would you direct them to?
Naomi Timperley
I would say, look at industry press. So things like you know, computer weekly has an online portal, the even the Manchester Even news online, they have lots of things that you know, around a tech industry in here. There’s lots of events, you’ve got meetups, and you’ve got event bright things as well. So you could go out and actually meet people who work in tech. If you feel uncomfortable doing that, the beauty of the situation that we’re in at moment is that everything’s online. So there are so many different events that you can go on, and actually talk to people even just listen. So, again, I would also think about, you know, depending on what social profiles that you’ve got, I would certainly say LinkedIn is a really good one. And one in three professionals around the entire world are on LinkedIn. Remember that fact, that’s a really important fact that you might not be cool to be on LinkedIn. But actually, if you’re looking for a job, don’t don’t know whether you’re aware of this, but 80% of jobs are not advertised. If they are you get them through connections.
The NGY Show
Thanks very much for your time.
Naomi Timperley Over the last 10 years has devoted her time to scale-ups, start-ups, innovation, entrepreneurship and digital skills. Naomi is a consultant with vast experience of working with accelerators, incubators and other startup/growth support programs in the UK and beyond. A self starter with focus on effective and efficient execution and delivery. Naomi work’s closely with businesses to spot emerging trends & technologies and to future-proof their businesses through both rapid development of new growth ventures and digital innovation and agile design.
For more info visit: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/naomitimperley
The NGY Show is made by the youth, for the youth.
For more info visit: https://www.unityradio.fm/the-ngy-show/
