Daniel Waddell is the Stakeholder Engagement, Communications and Events Lead for the Cyber Resilience Unit at the Scottish Government. Daniel’s day-to-day job consists of talking to people through social media, such as twitter as well as through the Cyber Scotland Week website. Daniel is also responsible for meeting stakeholders in the private, public and third sector. He often puts on events focussed on a specific piece of work.
Daniel said, “I joined the Scottish Government six years ago as a Business Admin Modern Apprentice, my first position was the Personal Assistant (PA) to the Chief Information Officer. I then went on to be a PA in Education Scotland before being promoted to work in Policy in Education. After around a year and a half, I moved to agriculture in the Scottish Government before coming on to my current role as Stakeholder Engagement, Communications and Events Lead.
I had never worked in an office before these jobs and that took a bit of getting used to. The teams are all very supportive and the opportunities I’ve had and the people I’ve met have all been amazing.”
Daniel thoroughly enjoys his role, “no two days are the same. I could be working on a social media campaign one minute, then the next minute I’m presenting to Chief Executives. Sometimes my job doesn’t even feel like work because it is so enjoyable.”
There are a lot of digital skills involved in Daniel’s role, such as “understanding social media channels. For example, Snapchat wouldn’t work for us because of who our target audience are. I also use Skype a lot for video and conference calls. I also use Microsoft Office packages a lot, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
As well as being able to use these programmes, I need to know how to use them safely, making sure that strong passwords are used, there are no inappropriate comments and especially when working with external partners, that there is nothing sensitive involved.”
Although there are a lot of digital skills, there are a lot of other skills that are needed, like "not taking things too personally. You need to believe in yourself and also look for new opportunities, especially if you’re just starting your career. You should push yourself to do more because you never know who could be sitting across from you when you go for an interview.”
Throughout the number of projects Daniel has worked on, the one that stands out most is Cyber Scotland Week. “Last year, there was 30 events and 1200 people. This year, we have around five times the amount of people and double the number of events. It just keeps growing! What I’m most proud of is the number of stakeholders who have come together on this. It’s not just me and my team. It’s industry coming together to put on this amazing campaign.”
