Aon’s Joseph Holland discusses how taking the route less travelled can lead you towards the career you were meant to have.
“I wanted to be an architect,” explains Joseph Holland, a director of digital foundations, AI platforms and developer experience at Aon. That was the plan; however, having completed the Leaving Cert, he found he didn’t have the required CAO points and “suddenly didn’t have a plan any more”.
“I’d always been into computers and technology though. Even while I was unemployed, I was refurbishing old PCs and selling them on,” he tells SiliconRepublic.com. “So when a FÁS caseworker mentioned Fastrack into Information Technology (FIT), it caught my attention immediately.”
He was accepted onto the programme and emerged with a QQI-FET level six Advanced Certificate in IT Specific Support and a one-year contract at Kepak Group that soon became permanent.
From there, he moved on to Version 1 and then Aon where, having spotted a gap whereby there was no developer experience function, he made the case for building one. Today, he is leading the AI platform and developer experience service. Along the way, he also enrolled at Trinity College Dublin, as a mature student, where he completed his information systems degree.
All that is to say that often, despite having a plan, you don’t always end up going in the direction you thought you would. Professionally, it can take time and research to figure out the best course of action.
“I’m glad I did it,” says Holland of his degree programme.
“I picked up useful skills around project management, systems analysis and understanding how technology fits into broader business strategy. But honestly, the experience and track record I’d already built mattered more to every employer than the piece of paper.”
No alternative to progress
Access to less typical educational and upskilling opportunities is, for Holland, “everything”, as he explains that without FIT, he likely would have chosen to retake the Leaving Cert, putting his career on a different trajectory.
He notes: “The traditional system had written me off based on a set of exam results. FIT looked at me differently. What makes programmes like FIT work is the direct connection to industry.
“You’re not studying theory in isolation. You’re learning skills that employers actually need and you’re getting placed in real workplaces where you can prove yourself.”
Apprenticeships, he finds, have the power to break down the biggest barriers for young people struggling to get their foot in the door when they don’t have a degree on their CV.
“The tech industry moves fast and it doesn’t particularly care where your qualification came from. It cares whether you can solve problems and keep learning. Alternative pathways are often better at developing those qualities than four years of lectures,” he says.
And part of creating opportunities for young people, he explains, is breaking down harmful myths about alternative educational routes as a vehicle towards a tech-based career.
Mythbusters
“The biggest myth is that they are second-best. That if you were good enough, you’d have gone to university. University education has real value and I’m not knocking it,” he says.
“But I’ve worked with people from every educational background over the past 20 years and the route someone took tells you very little about how good they are at their job.”
What matters, he finds, is what the individual has done with their time since. Another pervasive falsehood is that there is a ceiling that you will eventually hit. Holland explains that there is often a misguided belief that while you can access an entry-level role through an apprenticeship, once you start looking for a more senior position, you will run into roadblocks.
“I’m a director at a Fortune 500 company. I got my degree years into my career, not before it. The ceiling is artificial and it’s maintained by hiring practices, not by any real limitation in what people from alternative routes can achieve.”
Lastly, he finds that there is also a misconception that alternative routes only lead to technical roles. In Holland’s experience, the skills developed through programmes such as FIT go far beyond coding or networking.
“My own career moved from hands-on infrastructure work to leading enterprise AI strategy and building a new business function. Technology careers are built on continuous learning and the starting point matters far less than people think.”
To that point, Holland urges employers to take a serious look at how tech apprenticeships in particular can create a sturdy talent pipeline, noting that many in-demand skills – such as curiosity, a strong work ethic and a willingness to learn – never require a degree.
And to any young person who didn’t get the number of points or exam results they needed, or who is sitting in a classroom querying if they are on the right path or if there are indeed alternatives, he wants them to know that there are – and he has been there too.
“The education system measures one very narrow type of ability at one very specific moment in your life. It doesn’t define you and it definitely doesn’t predict where you’ll end up. I went from an unemployed school leaver to directing AI platforms at a Fortune 500 while running an animal sanctuary and a music-tech start-up,” he says.
“Life is broader and stranger and more interesting than any career guidance session will tell you. Programmes like FIT exist because the tech industry needs people who think differently and aren’t afraid to figure things out on the fly. If that sounds like you, there’s a path waiting. You just need to know it’s there.”
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