Restless

I’ve been in the world of IT since 1990 in one form or another. Prior to this, I was an Electrician which is the one job I always wanted to do from a very early age. My dad was a builder and I used to go with him most Saturday mornings. I was fascinated with the Electricians and used to watch them with such enthusiasm, I just know that was what I wanted to do when I grew up! So as soon as I left school, my dream came true. After a few years of working for a self-employed Electrician and getting qualified, we parted company and I went my own way.

I started working in a food factory as a Maintenance Electrician. A few years went by and my boss gave me an opportunity to assist the company in helping them out with some of the IT tasks as they didn’t have their own IT Crowd 😉 The Engineering department decided to get a computer system to improve and optimise their processes and I was asked if I would help get the computers installed into the factory. This lead to assisting the Post-Grad they got to manage this project but after a couple of years, he left to go work for the company that supplied the software. So they offered me his position and after a time I became the IT Manager.

After getting the company through the “Millennium Bug” with no issues, I was approached by my future boss. He asked me to apply for a job at the Hull HQ office to look after the company Directors and be part of a new team to centralise IT. This was a new venture and a trail to prove concept. I started this roll on April 1st 2001. Yes, I thought it was an April fool joke because on the day I started, no-one know I was coming and my Boss was not there! (another story). However, this trail was a success and after 4 years they decided to move the head office to Leeds and I did not want to relocate again, so I took redundancy as did most of the original team. We were a very close knit group of wonderful people that I have never had before or since – miss that team, some very happy days!!

I started at my current company in 2005 and for 13 years, I worked in their support department being promoted to Senior after a couple of years. We are a software company that provide communication systems to the Emergency Services. Over the years, I’d built up a good working relationship with all our customers. Getting a few Commendations from 3 different Forces from their Chief Inspectors. However, I changed departments for my last 6 months into the Service Delivery dept. (originally called the I&C dept.) In truth, I was not entirely happy with this but it was something that was happening at the start of the new year of 2018.

That was all I needed to make the decision to change career… to do something that I’ve never done before but would be happy doing for what could be my last career change at my age. After thinking long and hard about what choices I had… I decided to do an item on my bucket list… become a HGV Driver!! So I took some holiday and started training to get my CAT C & CAT C+E (Class 2 and then Class 1). Passed both first time with only one minor on my Class 2 and none on the Class 1. The stage was now set… All I had to do now was hand in my notice and leave. To say it was a little scary was an under statement.

I got a job as a Class 1 HGV Driver with a well known logistics company in Immingham. The first truck I was given was “Chloe Carmela” and the one before I left was “Julia Lauren”. I only gave this 18 months… I initially loved it! The open road and no-one to hassle you, just the radio and audio books to keep you company. The main problem was the time away from home, I missed my wife! And secondly, the boredom. For someone that has a very active brain that never stops, for someone that has so many hobbies that I could not list here… seriously! I could not keep my brain from tormenting me to do something that challenged it.

I spoke to my previous boss and asked if I could have my old job back. And well… here I am today, back with Service Delivery and feel like to noob but with so much familiarity. The company has been incorporated into the NEC Group and is owned by NPS, but all the people are the same… well most of them anyway. My boss has changed as my previous boss left before I started and I wish him the best of luck in his new job. I’m actually glad to be back but at the time of writing this, the world has an outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) which means that we are all working from home and therefore my role is a bit restricted but happy to be safe. We are a great place to work for, with a team of exceptional people and we are all keeping each-other engaged in some form or other.

Well I’m still waiting to “Grow Up” but I’ve ticked some things off my bucket list and I’m glad I’ve done it. It was a great opportunity that I never thought I would have very experienced. Now back to a world that I’m happy in, here’s to the future!