Our Practice Lead for Workplace Technology and Digital, Matthew Peko-Fox talks about the gradual dawning that IT was the job for him and the role that TwentyTwo played in that…
What do you love about tech consulting?
My favourite part is that we get to do something different every day; we’re never doing the same thing twice and we get to work with a wide variety of organisations that all have different challenges.
Where did your career journey begin?
My career began as a yachting coach when I was finishing school. At the same time, I was very good at IT and helped a variety of people and small businesses with small IT challenges, building websites, setting up emails. I eventually moved to Geeks on Wheels which was where I first met everyone at TwentyTwo who was getting their IT done by Geeks on Wheels. At that stage, I’d split off from Geeks on Wheels and started my own IT business and we were supporting a number of people around the region. The next thing I knew, I had a meeting with Duncan one day – I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing – and here I am at TwentyTwo!
When did you join the TwentyTwo Tribe?
Over five years ago. I originally started doing property in the Strategy team working on property strategies and, as part of doing that, it was abundantly obvious that many clients struggled with how they could connect their IT systems with what they were doing with big property moves or setting up new workplaces. So three years ago, we started doing Technology consulting as another strand of TwentyTwo’s consulting business and we’ve flourished from there.
What is your next career step from here? What are you working towards?
The next career step from here is to grow the Technology work strand. As I said, we started three years ago and we’ve gone from strength to strength to strength. Originally, it was just me. Now it’s me and two others and we’re looking for the next two again. So the plan is that we will continue to double in size over the next three to four years.
What advice would you give a younger version of yourself?
There’s two big pieces of advice I would give to myself. The first is not to be shy of IT. I have an odd history where my family has an unusual relationship with IT; my grandfather did IT, my father did IT. I was reluctant to follow in the footsteps… for no real reason. And looking back at it, I wish I’d have just have grasped that right from the outset because I really enjoy it now but I didn’t originally. The other piece of advice I’d give myself is stop worrying about things. Follow your gut, follow your instinct and just see where it takes you. Because there’s amazing opportunities out there and if you don’t follow your gut or your instinct, you may miss them.
We’re currently looking for someone with a passion for technology to work in TwentyTwo’s Tech Tribe in a Workplace Technology Support role based in Wellington. Find out more and apply on Seek.
