At
university I gained key experience in ‘hands on’ disaster management exercises.
One of these involved the scenario of emergency response to a plane crash and
the objective was to rescue the passengers and get them to hospital with
limited information and resources provided. This occurred in Wales in the
freezing winter, where my home for several nights consisted of wood, plastic
poles, rope and tarpaulin which when put together created something
surprisingly warm. We were being graded under a number of criteria, including
teamwork, leadership, communication, utilisation of resources and time. As a group
of students who were still learning, it was an exercise that focussed on developing
and understanding each other’s skills and the benefits we could bring to the
task, whilst working under pressure and difficult conditions to respond to a
disaster scenario.
Following
my degree, I wanted to experience the real world of disaster management. As
daunting as it sounded I was eager to put what I had learnt into practice. I
contacted a large local authority to volunteer for their emergency planning team.
A placement opportunity was created and I gained 10 months of experience and
skills in emergency planning. As a very
interesting sector to work in I found it be unpredictable and the job role was
to protect the safety of people and businesses against significant threats
under civil contingencies act. A key activity I participated in was the
review of the “Control of Major Accidents and Hazards” (COMAH) regulations and
offsite plans which included participation in training for the duty officers.
I
was eager to learn more and to break into my career, business continuity is not
an easy industry to enter as a graduate.
I had the passion and drive, but without experience I couldn’t gain
experience. I joined the steering
committee of XGen Business Risk and Resilience, an organisation focussed on
developing the skills of qualified resilience practitioners and introducing
newcomers to the industry. This enabled me to develop my networking
relationships and provide opportunities to show my capabilities for any
potential job. During my time on the committee I have been a part of organising
a conference for businesses with guest speakers on a number of subjects that
include cyber security and business resiliency.
Opportunities
were presented though social media. I had work experience within a local
authority and I wanted to further my career in the private sector. I was
scooped up by CQR as they recognised my passion and drive towards my career in
risk and resiliency. I have been thrown
into the world of security and resiliency and it is living up to my expectations.
My first 3 months have been a great learning curve in not only understanding
our methodologies and approach to our service delivery but also understand how
we work with our clients and how their business operates. So far my projects have included business
continuity plan maintenance, third party business resiliency assessments,
development of a building recovery plan, creating governance maturity models
for global business continuity program.
Georgina Collett, Information Security Specialist
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