The end of the month of October this year marks the end of my first 30 years of post-university working life.
In October 1993 I popped into the Select Employment Agency on The Parade in Watford on the off chance to see if there was any temping work going. It happened that they were looking for untrained photocopying and stapling workers for a large systems implementation that was being run by KPMG who had (and still have) an office near the station in the town.
A few months later I graduated to photocopying, stapling and data entry. Within a year I had been offered a full-time role, and the rest, as they say, is history.
For many years now I’ve argued that other than for the most prescribed of traditional professions, careers only make sense in hindsight. I had a career plan when I was completing my degree, but losing the Student Union President election in February 1993 by a handful of votes put paid to that.
Since then I’ve been making it up as I went along, been the recipient of much luck (not least to be a white, straight, middle-class man with a degree), taken a few opportunities with both hands when they have been in my grasp, and no doubt utterly failed on many occasions to maximise my earning potential.
As I’ve got older, my pretender status as a technologist with a sociology degree has been reversed. I have become more proudly aware of the benefits of understanding a social “science” (it’s not a science) in the murky world of information technology, where everyone acknowledges that the source of most challenges is the people, not the tech.
I enjoy work. As I’ve progressed in my career I’ve tended to enjoy it more. Partly that’s born of the ability to know which shits to give, an ability that in my 20s and 30s I struggled to develop.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing people in the last three decades. In fact, most people are great. There are a few who are a bit iffy. And there are definitely some psychopaths out there. Unfortunately too often in positions of quite considerable power.
There have been many “Sliding Doors” moments. The election loss, and happening into Select on that autumn day right at the beginning. But many others too – I don’t dwell on what might have been because I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t made the choices that I did.
There are also a few folk who have been influential in the path I have taken that really do need to be acknowledged. Kevin Ashby at KPMG spotted something in me (although possibly just someone who could fix his printer when it needed fixing). Tim Lancaster gave me the chance to develop during what was a fantastically “seat of our pants” time at the BBC in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Brian Prytz gave me the chance to experience a totally different world when I needed a change in my mid-30s, and is still sorely missed. As is Simon King, who supported me in my first CIO role at Imagination.
More recently, Lucy Graley and Corinna Bishopp supported me as I made a transition back into full-time employment at RHP after six years of my adventures with Stamp, and Mel Ross has become a valued coach every so often.
Today I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. When I joined Equal Experts last year I felt like I was joining my tribe. The first year and a bit have shown that to be the case. There’s interesting work to be done, and I’m working with colleagues who are supportive and collaborative and curious. I’m not sure I could ask for much more.
So here’s to the next 30 years. That might seem outlandish, or even foolhardy. But I enjoy work, and the idea of not doing anything feels alien to me. I don’t expect I’ll be doing the 9-5 when I’m 83, but I wouldn’t mind still doing some things assuming I can keep my health and my mental faculties.
mmitII 