Why Software Offers Endless Career Opportunities | Workplus Ep. 15

What if your career path wasn’t a straight line, but a series of pivots that built something even better? In this episode of Workplus, we sit down with Amy Martin, Business Development Manager at Scaffold Digital, to explore her journey from marketing to tech. Amy shares how she found her place in the software industry, what skills really matter, and why tech is far more than just coding. This episode is packed with insights for anyone curious about the human side of software and how real-world problems get solved through bespoke solutions.

Whether you're a parent guiding your child, a teacher looking for inspiring stories, or someone considering a change, this conversation will help you see the tech sector, and your own potential, in a new light.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• You don’t need to start in tech to succeed in it
• Resilience and creativity are key to business development
• Most companies are looking for tailored software, not off-the-shelf tools
• Real career growth often comes from blending diverse experiences
• Building relationships is as important as building products
• The software industry offers roles far beyond engineering
• Discovery sessions help translate business pain points into tech solutions
• AI is already speeding up processes and supporting teams
• Tech has a big impact on regulated, high-compliance industries
• Every business has unique needs, bespoke software reflects that

BEST MOMENTS:

00:01:23. “I work for a company called Scaffold Digital. Scaffold are a software company headquartered here in Northern Ireland.”
 00:02:35. “Anything that we do build, the client owns outright. They own the IP.”
 00:03:21. “It really does just go back to the basics. Understanding what a company does, are they trying to grow?”
 00:04:10. “I think that I’ve almost kind of married everything up through my experience.”
 00:05:23. “You kind of just develop these kind of resilience skills along the way.”
 00:06:25. “I actually thought I wanted to be a special needs teacher.”
 00:09:29. “It was on you to get up in the morning and get to your class.”
 00:13:52. “We take a client through discovery and strategy, then develop a tactical roadmap.”
 00:20:10. “There’s just so much opportunity within the industry. And I think more than anywhere you can pivot once you’re in it.”
 00:24:19. “For me it’s just about helping people. That’s probably a big part of my role.”

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Transcript

0:00

You have to be pretty resilient. Probably now more than ever with everything. You're on your own career growth journey as well, and you kind of just develop these kind of resilience skills along the way. I'm quite creative and my real noy it's real highs and lows as far as you could have a full schedule of events. You have meetings back to back and then you're just waiting to hear. So you have to be quite creative in how you can kind of fill up the diary again. You just sort of develop as you go, probably learn new skills along the way. Yeah. Welcome to work. Plus the podcast that shines a light on the people doing good work across Northern Ireland. I'm your host, Richard Kirk, founder of Work Plus. I've spent years working with employers, schools, colleges and universities, helping young people and career changers to make better informed career decisions. Each week I sat down with real people doing real jobs to explore how they got there, what they've learned, and why their work matters. If you're a parent, teacher, carer, or just curious about what good work looks like today, you're in the right place. Let's dive in. So delighted to have joined us on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. You're probably really sure what to expect first podcast, so go easy on me. Let's see what could come. Those out of the comfort zone here. I know. Well, listen to tell us a bit about the work you're currently doing. So, I work for a company called scaffold. Digital scaffold are a software company headquartered here in Northern Ireland. And I lead up the business development side of things. So really, what I'm trying to do is go out, establish that long term partnerships with local companies here and, and I across the water in the UK and also in southern, our ROI as well. And just really try and go and see where they kind of maybe need a software solution. There's a lot of technical debt in our companies here. So how we can kind of go in and, streamline their processes through software and let them scale and grow. Brilliant. That's kind of my role. So building up the pipeline. So business development. So like you're. Yeah. So you're you're trying to scaffold builds like this is a bespoke. So so far it's not like you've got all these products on your shelf. No, no we're very much a service provider. So we don't have any products. Anything that we do build the client owns outright. They own the IP. So we don't have any products. We build software from the ground up. So it's very much in the bespoke space. Brilliant for companies. How how does that conflict conversation start with with a business that you're like, how do you identify those businesses that you might work with and you might have a solution for. So it's an interesting one. So as opposed just to take you back a little step. So my background's marketing. So I've only been in the tech sector for the last three years. And I started off and a project management rolled with scaffold. And then over the last year, just over a year and I, I've been, leading the business development side of things. So it's really about having those conversations like it really does. It just goes back to the basics. So understanding what a company does, are they trying to grow. Are they trying to scale worse their pain points worse their challenges. The cold call inside of it, I don't think works particularly well. You really just have to get out there, get it to be as many events as possible, speak to as many people as possible, and just really try and understand their business. And then kind of the conversations go from there, okay. And that sort of thing. You'd always thought you'd be doing. I gave one of you a younger at school and things like yours. It's not just to make a jump to even think about that. I think in your job, I was asked to write a piece recently, for the Northern Ireland Chamber, and it took me, I think the nice thing about writing that piece and kind of going through that process, was you really got time to sit back and reflect, or your career has started to where you are now. And I think that I've almost kind of like married everything up through my experience, which has been pretty nice to kind of see how that has actually evolved. So, as I said, I started out in marketing and then moved into project management. And then really, I suppose through the marketing aspect, you're kind of spotting opportunities. You are, you know, developing, long term relationships with your clients as well. And now you have kind of like brought it all back. And I'm in this BD role, and there's so much of the experience that I've gained from the early stages that has just naturally evolved into what I'm doing day to day. Okay. Now what sort of like what sort of skills would you say are needed for someone to be in that sort of marketing business development role? So I think you have to be, pretty resilient. I think you have to be clear, no, a lot of you are like, oh, every day, every day. Yeah. So I've definitely learned to be really, really resilient. Probably now more than ever. But I've probably like with everything, you're on your own kind of like career growth journey as well. And you kind of just like develop these kind of like resilience skills along the way. I think that if you can I'm quite creative. So that's been a real, and my real my it's real highs and lows as far as you can have a full schedule of events. You have meetings back to back, and then you've done all of the follow ups and then you're just waiting to hear. So you have to be quite creative and how you can kind of fill up the diary again. So, yeah, I think that just, I don't know, I think you just sort of develop as you go. Yeah. You know, probably learn new skills along the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Take us back to when you're at school. So I work plus were involved and we're involved in things I work experience. Yes. So what did you do for work experience when you were at school. Gosh I actually thought I wanted to be a teacher. Okay. So I did, and I actually thought I wanted to be a special needs teacher. So my work experience was and more special needs skills. So Fleming Felton, that's where I kind of did my work experience. And then, I suppose whenever I was at school, it was if you weren't going to be a lawyer or a doctor or a solicitor, you're almost pushed away to the side a little bit. So I kind of was out there just trying to work out what I wanted to try and do by myself. Obviously with the support and guidance of mum and dad and all of out there, but, really, then I went in and did a communications and PR degree, so I kind of moved away from the whole teaching aspect altogether. And I think that probably like the marketing has been probably more of a natural for me. I'm really interested in those transition points. Yeah. Like how did you so whenever you were applying for your PR marketing qualification, like what was it that that nudged you over the edge, or is it just a amount, a distant memory? Now, I probably truthfully would be the fact that I was going to go away over to England Uni and look at that kind of life experience, rather than really thinking about the actual career choice that I had made. I think that there's just such, you know, whatever you're 16, 17 in your or even earlier on whenever you're making your A-level choices after GCSE, you know, you kind of don't really know what you want to do. I think that's it. Unless you, you know, as I said, like if you don't want to be a doctor, if you don't, you kind of like are a bit more, it's a bit more sort of fluid and you kind of just go with the flow a little bit more. I've always had like a natural flair for putting on events and charity work, and I suppose the marketing communication PR side of things was maybe something that I had been around more. So therefore potentially, you know, in the subconscious, that's maybe what led me down that route. Yeah, very hard to say. But yeah, we we probably didn't have a huge amount of steer whenever I was at school, you know, so it was kind of, kind of going, I didn't really go where my friends were going either, but, university over in Newcastle was great fun. Well, it's just that I was just talking to someone. We had, work experience this week. Okay. And she is 17. She is thinking along similar lines. Yes. And also is thinking about I'm not sure if I want to want to go where my friends are going. Yeah. And and Newcastle is one of the ones on her list and the going away for, for uni. What were the real benefits of of of doing that really probably going away and kind of growing up and you know, being independent and you're away from home. So you, you got really good kind of life experience. You I became I think I've always been quite independent. But you, you, you became a, you know, that's where really you learned, you know, how to be independent. And I think as well, like, you know, you had to make sure that it was on you to get up in the morning and get to your, your class and yeah, probably as well. That has naturally helped even my role today, because you really have to be self-motivated and a self-starter to kind of like write what's next in the agenda. And, you know, meetings. If you're waiting to hear back from someone, you have to kind of be creative and kind of be a bit of a go getter. So yeah, it's a lot of growing up. Yes. You do. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. No, I'm not here. Yeah. And you've talked a bit in the past when we've been in conversation about your different holidays and things like that. Like tell us a bit about when you're not, when you're not, chestnut blades with scaffold. What are the sorts of things that Martin gets up to. So I've recently, just come off a six week golf program, which I done with Sean the golf club. Okay. So that was that was good. It was, every Wednesday night for the last six weeks. So I thoroughly enjoyed that, whether I will take it up or not, I am not sure, but, really enjoyed it. Anyway, and I'm in my gardening era, so I, loving the garden. I bought a new house just before Christmas, so kind of renovations, DIY, but a garden. I never had very much on the agenda and keeping me busy for sure. And so brilliant. Yeah. Did you tell me you're sailing as well, like last year? Yeah. We're doing better sailing as well. Yeah, we've we've done quite a lot of, sailing holidays as a family. Oh, wow. So. And then I did a bit of a women and water course last year and got our, our YA1 certificate. So, men's, weather. We'll do it again this year. Not. I'm not sure. I sort of feel like I'm a bit of a take them off and then maybe don't continue on fasts. It's just find them the time. You know yourself, you know, just trying to get the time. And it's nice whenever you kind of have a few people as well that you can do these things with. So, yeah. Yeah. So being with others is something that you, you really value big time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's funny because we actually out of the company are a remote company. So, you know, with being in the omnibus here, there's, you know, the like, see yourselves in the team at work plus and so many others, like, it's just great. It's a great place to come and and be a bike people for sure. So I do kind of miss that kind of, you know, team environment at times. But then sometimes you're just so busy you don't even realize. And then it's nice to come in here and kind of feel like you guys are all my teammates and say, well, we really appreciate that as well. When I, when I started in here in 2019, it was just me. But it was someone said to me after a few months, they said, oh yeah, yeah, we see we see what's happening here. You came for the task on your stand for the community. Exactly. Which, which is, is a really good way to look at it. You know, you're so focused on. Yeah, I need to pay for a task so I can have somewhere to go to work every day. But actually, it's then those, those watercooler conversations or just the random people that you bump into and yeah, you know, we've done work with people and or mobiles as well because they've got skills and specialism that we, we don't have. So, so it's a, it's a great space. But I think whenever you can get into the kitchen you're kind of making a cup of tea or whatever and you're just chatting about what you've been up to and then suddenly somebody introduced you to, introduces you to somebody else who can maybe help you in an aspect of your work, like it is a really lovely community to be in. So yeah. Yeah, no, there is one guy though, and we only meet each other and in the kitchen, and that makes us just like, like for always having, having a bit of a break. So always having a sort of knowing smile to each other once again. So let's jump back into, to what you were saying about scaffold. As a, as a, as a digital software services company soon. So can you give us an example and probably can't share too much about individually what you're doing with clients, but what sort of things are the software team building? Like what are they actually what are the products that they're building. So basically scaffold are very much a service provider. So, what we will do is we will take a client through discovery and strategy. Then through that, we will, develop a tactical roadmap of what the software solution will provide them and the value that they will gain from it. Yeah. Right through to build and then ongoing maintenance around as support as required. Plus cloud our infrastructure as well. So the types of systems that we would be built would be very much bespoke to businesses. So are they kind of platforms management systems, ERP system is very much bespoke and tailored to that business. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of things that we're up to. Okay. Good, good. Lots of AI exciting projects coming out of the woodworks at the moment. Okay. Well, which is really interesting to see how this is going to be used as well to deliver real value. So, yeah, like, I think the good thing about the bespoke world as well is that no two projects are the same. So it's a real, real variety of projects that we will be set across. I think from a teams perspective as well, that kind of makes it quite exciting, you know, that you're not kind of building the same systems all the time. Yeah. And every business has their own unique challenges, their own unique pain points. So and I think that that's what we do really well as a business as well as we really get in and have the conversations. Do you understand what exactly it is that they're trying to build to deliver the value, to let them then, you know, let their staff upskill in other areas because you have this like, tech solution handle and something that was pretty, mundane tasks, for example. But, yeah, it's really good to see, see how that the tech that we're building is having such an impact on these, these businesses. Yeah. Are those businesses themselves be like really, really technical people, or would they be just people that are running businesses and are just thinking, this is such a headache for us. Surely there has to be a better way. We don't know how to do it. Yeah, I think there is sort of, there's businesses who are have like an awful lot of off the shelf solutions that are maybe only providing 7,080% of the work as well. I know, know that they need to do something to deliver that extra, you know, to actually get the value back that, that they need. But, it's it's not technical companies. It's just like, it's like your manufacturing companies that your transport and it just sticks companies. It's your local councils. Yeah. It's it's and it's very much so. You could be dealing with managing directors. She could be dealing with their chief financial officers, or you could be dealing with head of technology and ICT. So it really it's a real, real mix of, of projects and people that you're dealing directly. Yeah. Which mixes things up for sure. Yeah. Well it's it sounds really varied. Like, do you really seem like you enjoy your work? I do, yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, why are we kind of really set is very much in fairly regulated, compliant, driven industries as well. So your builds and solutions that, are having big impact, you know, not just to the business, but the industry challenges as well, that they might be, you know, up against. Yeah. So, I think that where I get excited is kind of like spot on the opportunities, having the conversations. And then I really enjoy a discovery session because I think probably from my marketing days and even to where I am now, you can really you have to map out the full user journey. So you have to really go from and think about all aspects, all touchpoints, all layers. And I think that that's always kind of seeing what the the bigger vision, the end goal is going to be, and then working backwards. And so the discovery sessions for me are definitely of a, a real kind of like, so that's something you would do quite early and a process for the client to try and exactly discover, I suppose, what, what what you're going to build. Yeah. For them. Yeah, yeah. And you know, the value that that's going to deliver. And then what we would do is we would split it up and we would make sure that we were delivering the, highest value items first. They're going to be deployed and then kind of moving up and features on as you go. Yeah. Yeah. So very much an agile approach, but a technical jargon for you. Well, it makes it makes good sense. And you think about software and you know young people, people have like a mood changing careers. Think of software industry like how would you describe it as it's all very technical, you know, is it people selling laptops coding away or like what would you know? I think that that is, definitely something that's it couldn't be any more opposite, you know, like it's fun, it's fast paced. It's there's a real mix of young to, you know, more experienced people in the industry. It's, you know, there's a real teamwork ethos. Yeah. About the, the sector as well. It's anything but. It's kind of like your the, the myth of your people, you know, guys in a dark room. Yeah. Kind of wired in and coding away, you know. And I think as well that the industry has so many opportunities from everything from the likes of a business development sales role to then your your engineers to marketing to data analytics, you know, like it's just such there's so much opportunity within the industry. And I think more than anywhere you can kind of, you know, for example, you can pivot once you're in it, you know. So tick me, I went in as a project manager because that was more of a direct fit to the client management, account management that I would have experienced in marketing. Yes. And I I've moved completely away from that. And I'm in the business development side of things. So I mean, there's just so much opportunity and it's especially in Northern Ireland as well. Okay. That's good, exciting, good there. Yeah. Good to hear. I think it's really important to get that get that message across. And I say read an article about AI and software development last week. And it was saying that as this developer was said, I don't do any manual code anymore. I'm using AI and it's increased my job satisfaction and productivity because I'm doing more of the the human work. I'm doing more thinking about what the client needs. Coming back to that discovery session, working with the people who are designing the user interfaces. So you mentioned about AI, and I know that it has it. You know, you're probably delivering it on your projects, but yeah, in terms of the way you deliver, do you see AI shipping that as well? Definitely. I mean, I certainly use AI pretty much most days. You know, it's almost like a bit of a team member for me. You know, if I take this off. Yeah. Especially kind of because we are remote first company. So I kind of just have an idea, and you want to get a bit of feedback on it. I would use AI to do that. And then of course, if there's something that I need to discuss, film attainment, do do that too. Yes. All right. But yeah, I think, you know how much the guys use AI and know that that's very much part of their processes. You know, we can do a lot of fast prototype and AI as well with the use of AI tools. You know, to kind of like develop by the product not developed by the product, but kind of like create the vision. So that's a really interesting one whenever you are even dinner discovery session. So you could, you know, you could kind of bounce a few ideas and kind of see something a little bit more 3D. Yeah, prototyping, click through it. And then so that's kind of a cool use of AI. Another way that the guys would maybe use AI would be to just check kind of the quality of the code as well, but it would be mainly written by themselves because of the, the nature of the work that we would do. But, there's, there's definitely more and more use for it, in the day to day. Yeah. Yeah. So it certainly speeds things up. Yeah. No question about it. You know, and I know that with what we do in the bespoke right. That could be sort of a bit of a lengthy process. Yes. So it's how I can quicken that process. UPS is where you can get, you know, products out quicker for our clients to yeah, provide more value and impact and all that. Yeah yeah yeah. Last question okay. So work work plus is named so because we believe work is a positive thing. It's something which is good for us and our society. For you. What's so good about work? I think it's about taking a conversation, understanding a business and their processes and their ways and how they're currently working and showing. And you know that tech on a bespoke solution for them can add so much more value. I think we're really, really always hammer home on delivering the value. And I think that for me, it's whenever you have spotted that opportunity and you know that you can deliver value for a business, I think that that there's the real win because that's whenever they, as a company and an organization can scale, can grow, becoming and I, you know, success story in their own right as well. And for me it's just about as, as and an element of helping people and help them to do that. Yeah. You know, and that's probably a big part of my role. I'm a real people person. So, you know, a good day for me is making some money and striking up a bit of a relationship that you can kind of, you know, add into your network or, you know, help someone out along the way. And so I think that's what's good about what I do. Violence. Yeah. I mean, thanks for taking the time to join us today. So good. Thank you, chair, for the invited back. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to work. Plus, if today's story gave you fresh perspective or helped you rethink what's possible, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform or hit like and subscribe. It really does make a big difference. For more stories, resources and tools to help guide the next generation, visit workplace Dot. Up. Until next time.