Jordan Nairne: Inspiration and inclusion in IT

Celebrating Black History Month

Jordan Naire

“Since joining Imperial, I’ve felt like part of a more inclusive workplace – they really do a great job of creating a progressive space for minorities.”

Jordan Nairne is an IT Service Management Analyst in ICT who joined Imperial in 2018. He has previously worked in corporate companies, including Transport for London where he was involved in the project to install Wi-Fi on the underground network ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Starting a career in IT

Jordan began his career in IT with an apprenticeship. He said: “In all honesty, I fell into IT accidentally. I wasn’t sure during sixth form if I wanted to go to university, then I became aware of an opportunity within Fujitsu to apply for their first apprenticeship scheme.

“Four interviews later they offered me the job and I was excited about the fact I had passed the rigorous vetting process. I thought okay, maybe I can do this.

“I spent 18 months completing the internship, after which I was offered a role on their service desk. I stayed with the company for another eight years and I’ve worked in a number of different areas from coding to asset and configuration management.”

Jordan’s motivation comes from learning how things work behind the scenes and all the different elements that go into a project, something he discovered when working for TfL in 2012.

“We were setting up and installing Wi-Fi on the tube network ahead of the London Olympics. We were working on a design that hadn’t been done before. To be part of that and learn about the depths of these projects was inspiring. It’s also the time when I moved into configuration management, which is the process of helping organisations manage their systems and services.”

Inclusion and inspiring the next generation

Professionally, Jordan is keen to leave a mark on the IT industry and on the university – but he’s still figuring out what this will look like. He says that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community he’d like to see more women and LGBTQ+ representation at senior levels, as they’re important to making the tech industry a more inclusive sector.

“You can have a person or a group building something but it’s being programmed by people who aren’t representative of its users. We need to start pushing more marginalised voices to the forefront, and there have been initiatives working to do this in recent years, but we still have a way to go.

“Since joining Imperial, I’ve felt like part of a more inclusive workplace – they really do a great job of creating a progressive space for minorities.”

For anyone wanting to get into tech, Jordan recommends going down the apprenticeship route. “They provide the opportunity to experience different areas and figure out what suits you best. They make room to understand how you can make a change and what you can add to the industry.”

He also recommends networking as something which will help guide where you see yourself in the industry. “It’s through networking that I figured out I wanted to go into higher education, and I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon.”

Read next

Find out more about apprenticeships at Imperial.

Learn about Imperial Empowers, the strand of the Science for Humanity strategy which will future proof careers by providing advanced skills training and values-driven leadership needed to thrive in a tech-enabled world.

Jordan is a member of Imperial 600, the network for LGBTQ+ staff and postgraduate students and straight allies.