Meet Ida

“Forget about whether you want to work in IT or not. What are you passionate about? Whatever it is, it’s probably enabled or shaped by IT.” As a linguistic high school graduate, IT wasn’t exactly on Ida's radar. She was drawn to processes, change management, coordination, and communication - without realising that these are all core elements of IT.

You don’t need a tech background to kill it in IT; coding is not the only skill in high demand. A successful IT project must also have rock-solid processes, coordination, and communication. That’s where Ida Marie Friis Nakskov comes into the picture. She’s 32 and works as a Deployment Manager Specialist at Systematic.

“I see myself as a translator. Customers, software developers, and business teams have different perspectives and needs regarding an IT project. To create the best possible solution, their expertise has to come together - but they need someone in the middle who understands them all. That’s me,” Ida explains.

A large part of her role involves coordinating IT projects and keeping everything on track.  She gathers the threads, identifies the root cause of any problems, and plans the actions to be taken.

“I might not have all the answers, but I know how to ask the right questions to get us there,” she smiles.

Furthermore, she has a knack for optimising processes - she spots smarter ways of working and identifies whether successful strategies in one project could benefit other projects.

No Coding? No problem!

Although Ida loves her job, she had never imagined working in IT. Her background is in languages, and she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Communication. Nevertheless, the intersection between people, business, and technology turned out to be just right.

In fact, she believes the idea of referring to IT as a separate industry might be outdated since technology is embedded in almost everything nowadays.

“Forget about whether you want to work in IT or not. Instead, consider what you’re passionate about. Renewable energy? National security? Healthcare? Whatever it is, it’s probably enabled or shaped by IT in some way.”

Lots of ways into IT

To guide her skills into a more technical context, Ida pursued a Master’s in IT, Communication, and Organisation. However, such “soft” IT Master’s are relatively new, and she’s far from the only one with an untraditional path into IT. Her team includes colleagues who previously worked as an electrician, a pedagogue, and what was once called an EDB assistant.

“There’s room for a lot more, diverse people in IT - including those who might not even realise it yet. We all bring something unique to the table, and that diversity is a huge strength,” she says.

So, what’s next in her career?

“Honestly, I’m going to keep doing whatever’s fun. But to be more specific, I love working at Systematic, so if I change roles, it’ll probably be within the company.”