Thursday 30th April 2015
We talk to Joanna Rickwood, Delivery Lead in the Innovation and Development team within Cambridge International Examinations, about how she first came to Cambridge Assessment as a student and how, 17 years later, she has worked her way up to team leadership.
I actually first worked for Cambridge Assessment as part of my Computer Science degree, completing my Year in Industry in the PC Support department back in 1998! I enjoyed my experience with the organisation so much that I returned to PC Support in 1999 for six weeks to assist with enabling the IT estate to handle the turn of the millennium, before finally joining the PC Development department in a permanent role a year later as a junior programmer. I have been with the organisation ever since!
I first worked for Cambridge Assessment back in 1998!"
My current role is essentially to plan and implement digital services in support of Cambridge International Examinations' Business Plan. Day to day, this largely involves business analysis and requirements gathering, investigating and trialling new technologies, and end-to-end project management activities.
As you can imagine, my role has changed significantly over 14 years in our IT department (known to us as Information Services or IS) as my skills and experience have grown and I've moved up through software development to team leadership and project management. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some really great people during that time, on a number of very exciting projects, including the development of LIBS (Local Item Banking System) for many years, and various computer-based assessment projects. Then early this year an opportunity arose to work as a Delivery Lead within Cambridge International Examinations, where I felt my experience and knowledge gained in IS would be a useful asset to the business.
Cambridge Assessment has such friendly people who are so passionate about what they do"
Cambridge Assessment has such friendly people who are so passionate about what they do, and who continually want to deliver the highest quality products and services to our customers. It’s truly inspiring and, added with the good opportunities for career progression and variety, makes for a great place to work. Going forward, I am hoping to be able to play a significant part in the implementation of the new CBT (computer based testing) strategy, including the exciting evolution from traditional assessment to e-assessment
Joanna Rickwood
Delivery Lead, Innovation and Development, Cambridge International Examinations