Nicole Perryman is Manager, Business Consulting EMEA at Adobe. She shares how moving to Adobe has been her biggest career highlight and how Black History Month for her is about reflection, dedicating time to her community and exploring more on her Jamaican heritage.
What are some of the highlights of your career in the tech industry?
For me my biggest highlight is moving to Adobe and leaving my previous company that I genuinely thought was going to be my forever home. There’s been so many opportunities in the last four years at Adobe and my role has constantly evolved. I’ve really grown as an individual, grasping lots of different new behaviors, understanding where I need to learn and develop. For me as a leader in the consulting organisation, I’ve had the opportunity to develop others, new processes and look at new ways of developing value for customers. Being part of this has been phenomenal.
What does black history month mean to you?
It means so many things but the biggest is it’s a time for reflection. I know it shouldn’t be just one month but it does allow me the space to dive into my background, understand my roots and really look at where I’ve come from as an individual over the years. My background is Jamaican, so my parents came over to England as part of the Windrush generation. So it’s about being able to explore that, dedicate my time to my community, and really look at this month to up level and lift the voices of our black individuals. This is not only across Adobe but also within my family and friends unit.
What are the lessons from black history that have shaped how you live your life / influence your choices?
It’s quite a difficult one to answer but I think definitely over the last two black history months. I think it’s really allowed me to focus on who I want to be as an individual within my professional working life. I’ve recognized that I want to inspire other people. I want to take the learnings from the inspirational people that you see across the month and apply that to my learning. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and know I can be whatever I want if I put my mind to it. It’s about diving in, understanding what comes next in my career and what ignites my fire. Black History Month helps me to focus on who inspires me and how I apply that to my day to day life. I look at all inspirational people that I see on social media or I read in the newspapers that can shape me as a person.
How will I personally pay tribute to black history month?
By putting myself out there to inspire others by speaking to the community and to different audiences. It’s about me sharing my story, sharing who I am or who I want to be. Being part of this interview is step one of driving that forward and being intentional with how I use Black History Month. In the past I’ve tended to shy away from these things but to be inspirational I know I need to share who I am and be able to connect with other people.