Career Category

2020 has been a really crazy year for everyone but this post is not really going to touch on any of that, it’s been done to death elsewhere. What I do want to touch on is the massive change I have made over the last 6 months and why this blog has been by the wayside. I also want to touch on what is coming up and some general thoughts that may hopefully help others out there.

From time to time I occasionally write technical articles on a variety of subjects. Most of my full-time work is modeling, designing and documenting solutions which involves a lot of workshops and a lot of writing. It would seem strange that I would want to go home and write some more, especially considering that for the last few weeks I have had a number of ghost-writing jobs where my name is not even attached to the piece.

So I have been on this journey of being more social for almost year and a half now, trying to be more forthcoming with what I have learned and achieved over my years in IT. I am also a big fan of data and statistics, they are great ways to try and measure growth for me rather than comparing against someone or something. So while I have a little bit of time, and as I am nearing 12 months since the last review, lets have another look at what my growth has been.

Image by Michael Glass on Unsplash So, a couple of weeks ago I finished working for the Queensland Government. Most of my ten years within Government was spent working within the Department that provides Child Safety, Youth Justice and Community services, though I did do a stint in Health as well. Ten years is a long time so I thought I would take the time to reflect on my time within Government and some of the amazing people I met and things I did.

Image by Alex Iby edited by Glenn Prince on Unsplash This blog is pretty new and, as my first ever post hints at, I’m starting to be more public with the work I do. University has been the catalyst for that change however it relates to a subject I have been reading and investigating for quite a while, personal branding. Personal branding is the image and representation of yourself, particularly in the online world (Michael Page, 2017).

Roughly five months ago I began this journey of being more social, and being more forthcoming with what I have learned and achieved over my years in IT. I am also a big fan of data and statistics. So as we near the end of this year, lets have a look to see if things have improved and where to from here. Image by felipe lopez on Unsplash What I started with We are starting this review with my very first post on this site in July 2018.

Image by rawpixel on Unsplash I had a marketing e-mail hit my Inbox the other day trying to sell me some courses that the sender offers around design, a profession normally associated with creative talent but requires a lot of experience in developing it as a skill. While this was not an overly uncommon occurrence what was interesting was part of their marketing spiel detailed the authors own learning journey (which mimics mine), which is essentially trying to figure it out for yourself, and how some people prefer more of a guided learning journey.

Like many introverted IT people, I’m not overly social or public with the work I do. I’ve survived so far, but with the changes and further work I want to do I have to start getting more public. It’s also a requirement for the University unit’s I’m doing, so let’s spin that as two birds one stone! Image by Kephir (Wikipedia) What I’m starting with I’m not starting with much, a modest LinkedIn Profile, a sparse Twitter Account, an empty GitHub Account and this website so I guess the only way is up right?