This post is a little more self-indulgent than usual and has 0 technical content – you have been warned 🙂
On Friday I was given notice that my position will be made redundant, so I’m feeling a little nostalgic.
It is a little ironic, given that over the last two years I have been working on ways which would ultimately make my position redundant only to have them vetoed 🙂
I was employed the year of the release of Windows 95 – it was my first job. I had finished 7th form and decided that Tertiary education just wasn’t for me. No qualifications, no work history – possibly not the smartest of moves – but after 11 months of unemployment I was offered two jobs on the same day, the first call came from a little wee (by global standards, but a significant employer here in Christchurch) fishing company in New Zealand, and the second from the City Council – the later was the preferred job, but IFL beat them to the punch by a few hours.
And so began a career spanning almost two decades, covering multiple roles (Office Junior, Sales and Dispatch, Assistant to the Office Manager, Network Administrator and finally IT Manager).
In this time I’ve imposed order upon chaos, I’ve created numerous bespoke little applications and scripts to fill gaps (many of which I cringe at when I see what I’ve done). I’ve dealt with the intricacies of firewalls, email systems, network operating system, configuration management packages, desktop OSes, reporting systems, databases, switches, wireless, and much much more. I have tinkered with many programming and scripting languages and of-course dealt with M3 😉
There have been struggles, epic battles and long wars – and so many anecdotes that I’d love to share. But even the worst has been worth it at IFL.
What the future brings, I don’t know – another role with M3, maybe. One thing is for sure though, I’ll be very lucky to get another job which provides the opportunity to work with such a diverse range of technologies at such a level of detail.
May your scripts survive upgrades, your code compile and all of your exceptions be handled gracefully. We shall look forward to what surprises the new day brings 😀
Potato IT 
Oh no. Good bye Scott! Have a nice next adventure. Keep us posted as to where you’re going. /Tibo
I’ll let you know where I end up at. There might even be a few M3 posts left in me yet before I leave 😀
Cheers,
Scott
Hi Scott, perhaps you should contact Infor 🙂 I can imagine there are lot of tasks for a guy with your knowledge range :-).
And yes, I join Thibaud: Keep us posted.
Best regards / Heiko
Thanks Heiko, I may just end up giving that a shot. And I’ll definitely post back what ends up happening (I just like typing in a public forum far too much I think :-))
Exciting times, though somewhat sad too.
Hi Scott
Sorry to hear about your notice but when one door close another opens 🙂 … just don´t apply for the waiter job at the restaurant at the end of the universe 🙂
And yes keep us posted 😀
Best Regards
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
you’re totally right, another door will open and there are some pretty interesting things that I need to do before I leave 🙂
I’ve been looking for a change for a while but just haven’t quite had enough motivation to seriously start looking.
And glad that you got the reference – I was wondering if it was too obscure, though it seemed somewhat appropriate 🙂
Cheers,
Scott
Scott – yeah mate what a ride — been a long time and a long association with you and some of the ideas and stuff that we’d shared over the M3 days (I think around 10 – 11 Years). Good luck – and thanks for all the ‘idea bouncing’, Cheers – Paul
Yeah, a very long time indeed. It would have been 2002/2003 when my boss and I visited NZKS as a MoveX reference site – and I think Alan got the NZ MoveX Usergroup up and running a few years after that – finally providing meetings for all of us to chat and share ideas.
It’s been a good run! Thanks for all the suggestions and the good luck 🙂
Heey Scott!.. Just read your news. That is very sad and more so..you are soo talented in this field.. Jee you gave me great advice on ways to solve script problems.. I’m sure we meet again!
Good luck for the future!
Thanks mate. Yeah, it’s a shame but onwards and upwards. There are a few potential things lined up for when I finish. If you’re going to IMUN in May I’ll probably see you there!