Assistant Project Support Manager

Bimpe Ajala, Assistant Project Support Manager, IT CPD

I am presently working as an Assistant Project Support Manager within IT CPD. I joined UCL 18 months ago as a Project Support Officer, prior to which I was a Project Support Coordinator at the General medical Council. Working at UCL has been a great experience for me. I’ve had the opportunity to lead changes within ITSD and provide value to Project Support Services. I feel that my ideas are heard and in turn I’ve learnt how to view situations from various perspectives. To build my career I viewed job descriptions of roles I was interested in to identify gaps in my knowledge and experience. The key to filling the gaps has been receiving mentoring and creating opportunities to add value. Having a plan in place coupled with coaching and mentoring has helped me.A pivotal moment for me was changing my view on failure. Rather than viewing it negatively I started to look for opportunities, which did wonders for my confidence. 
 

For example I was asked to step in and cover a presentation at the last minute for a Head of Section. This was a great opportunity for me however, this made some of the senior managers nervous as I was an officer at the time. To ensure this opportunity was not lost, I met with the Head of Section to understand their slides. During the session, I was due to present after the Director so I took notes on their vision, identified areas were my presentation was in alignment and drew the attention of the audience to it. Taking time to view situations from different angles has helped me spot and take advantage of opportunities I would have missed.

The advice I would give to others in my area, which I think can be transferred to any discipline are to understand the views and visions of your department and question whether they are in line with where you want to go. Be willing to adapt and pivot to maintain control of changes in situations and circumstances. Lastly, develop the skill of active listening - LinkedIn learning.com has some great courses. I intend to continue developing myself combined with adding value to my team and department. Then in future years, go for bigger challenges and more responsibilities.