In this episode of Wired for Connection, Vera and Lenka talk to Amanda Stewart. She’s the managing director and CTO of Illuminate, an Edinburgh-based MSP with a big heart and even bigger mission.

Amanda is also a trailblazer in encouraging young women into tech and she recently became chair of the Advancing Women in IT group of GTIA.

Amanda shares her journey in the tech space and some of the early challenges she faced as a woman in IT. She discusses peer groups, the managers who inspired her and the ones who taught her what not to do.

Lenka and Vera ask Amanda to share one challenge and one success as a business owner, how to manage stress and the benefits of being part of a peer group, as well as finding mentors as you progress.

Amanda gives her tips on how to manage stress and why she thinks women struggle to value their own skills and experience. She shares the best part about working in IT and the one thing she’d change in the industry.

As someone passionate about encouraging young women into tech, Amanda has some advice on how parents and MSP owners can do that, and fun ways to get younger children to engage with STEM subjects too.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Illuminate IT
• Environmental business certification: BCorp
• MSP community group: GTIA (formerly CompTIA)
• Senior Director, Regional Groups at GTIA: Estelle Johannes
• Book: Caroline Criado-Perez: Invisible Women: the Sunday Times number one bestseller exposing the gender bias women face every day
• Book series: Rebel Girls Dream Big Box Set
• Volunteer mentors: STEM Ambassadors