I have been fortunate enough to spend the last 7 months of my Cisco Apprenticeship working in the exciting world of start-ups, at a start-up incubator called IDEALondon – located in the heart of London’s tech city in Shoreditch.
The start-up that I had the privilege of working with was a company called Wittos. Wittos produce a unique Wi-Fi service that allows end users to experience a context aware service that allows content to be delivered based on location – basically getting content depending on exactly where you’re standing. As well as the content delivery aspect there is also real time analytics being captured in the background which can be used in retail environments to help manage stores better and give a clearer understanding of what consumers are looking for.
I was given this amazing opportunity as part of my Cisco Apprenticeship which gives us the chance to experience all of the different departments and roles available in Cisco.
IDEALondon is a joint venture between three giants in the tech industry Cisco, UCL and DC Thomson. The facilities and working environment is second to none and inspires innovation whether it’s from the living wall to immersive Teleprences units located in the meeting rooms. The nature of having so many start-ups in once place means you’re instantly immersed in the start-up culture. You soon realise how dynamic and fast they operate and if you don’t keep up you can easily fall behind. This speedy, fast pace world helps to develop a “hustle” mentality which is a mind-set of “how can we do it” rather than “it is not possible”.
I think the time I have spent in IDEALondon has had a positive impact on my career and my apprenticeship. It has given me an understanding of what life can be like on the other side of Cisco, which can sometimes be quite a hard nut to crack for smaller organisations. It has also shown me how smaller businesses are run and I can then relate those learnings back to Cisco, but on a larger scale. The most important thing I have got from my time in IDEALondon is that the tech industry is growing rapidly and is full of innovative and inspired people, which has solidified my views on this being the right industry for me.
It is something that I would definitely recommend to future apprentices and if you’re given the chance to get involved then do so as much as possible. The experiences you will gain here are nothing like what you will have experienced in Cisco so far.
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