A temp turned technology whizz is close to celebrating nearly twenty years in the same company shares their experience to encourage others to take a leap of faith in their careers.
Kate Lumley, who lives in Bradford, is an Operational Technology Engineer and has been at Northern Powergrid for almost 18 years.
The 39-year-old started out as a temporary Admin Assistant working on the Guaranteed Standards Reporting team, doing administrative tasks and learning the ways of the business.
Kate worked in that admin role for almost five years before she was ready for a new challenge within the business, that’s when she found a role in Low Voltage (LV) fault reporting.
This meant Kate was dealing with directly with customers faults, something she’d never done before but that didn’t stop her throwing herself into the role and learning all she could.
For four years, Kate really pushed herself within the LV reporting team, and when she felt ready, she took another leap into a completely different role at Northern Powergrid – in their Dispatch team.
The dispatch team get in touch with first responders, engineers, overhead lines teams and jointers to provide an estimated time of restoration (ETR) so Northern Powergrid can keep their customers updated.
When she got the role in dispatch, Kate didn’t have any electrical qualifications but ended up being put through her Power Engineering level two – the same qualification as jointers - and a Higher National Certificate in electrical engineering.
These qualifications were something she never dreamt she’d be completing when she started all those years ago.
Right now, Kate’s job in Operational Technology focuses on maintaining the technology Northern Powergrid uses to monitor our electricity network.
Making sure that the control room can manage incidents by switching supply, or dispatch can resource incidents and work with engineers to get people back on supply, the technology is critical.
Kate sits on the applications side of the Operational Technology team but does sit with her infrastructure colleagues from time to time to skill share.
Due to her experience, Kate also finds herself training other members of staff on new systems brought into the business or new people in their roles.
Kate said “I’ve learnt so much in my various roles at Northern Powergrid, you never know what the day is going to throw at you and that keeps it interesting after all these years.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to go for it, I took a leap applying for some roles that I found interesting and thought I would be good at, and the business saw my passion and rewarded it.
“Then when I was given the opportunity to learn and get qualifications, I just went for it, because what have I got to lose!
“Recently I went back to school as part of a volunteering partnership we have at Northern Powergrid to speak to some young people about their futures.
“Although this was nerve racking, I got up there and I did it, I like the opportunity to push myself out my comfort zone, it’s a way of improving yourself.
“I’ve had the chance to do so much in my time at Northern Powergrid, I don’t think I thought back then this was going to be a job for life, but it’s most certainly has been.”
Rachel Ironmonger, Head of Service and Support for Northern Powergrid, said, "It’s an exciting time to be part of our Operational Technology team with new advancements that will enhance our services and ensure reliable power for our customers.
“Operational technologies are pivotal in our journey to net zero, optimising energy distribution and integrating renewable sources effectively.
“Kate's career journey is inspirational, since starting she has continuously pushed herself to learn new skills and move onwards to more challenging roles.
“Her advice to just go for it in your career is spot on—sometimes we hesitate, but what do we have to lose?”
Read more about the work Northern Powergrid do in your area on their website.
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