Working in I.T. back in the early days was like being on the frontier — only with less gunpowder and more floppy disks. My first interview for a computer role at British Telecom “Merlin” was a real nail-biter… until the manager discovered I actually owned a computer at home (a mighty Sinclair ZX81) and had written a program in BASIC to convert binary to decimal. It was all of five lines of code, but apparently that was enough to blow minds back then — he hired me on the spot!

This was when BT was just starting to dip its toes into consumer computers and office automation. I was part of the first intake of eight engineers — basically, the pioneers. We were the only employees in the company with private unmarked cars, which made us feel like undercover agents. Bear in mind, BT had around 300,000 staff at the time… so yes, we were basically legends. The job was super flexible, we were treated brilliantly, and if we asked for training or tools, we actually got them. (Try that today and see what happens!)

I trained on CP/M and MP/M — the prehistoric operating systems that roamed the Earth before the IBM PC.

My next role was as a DEC engineer, which was about as close as I.T. ever got to rock stardom. Flash company car, respect, big money… and my specialty? 300MB disk drives! That’s right: 300 megabytes — roughly the storage capacity of an email attachment today — but the thing was the size of a refrigerator. I worked on DEC VAX systems, and yes, I thought I was pretty hot stuff.

Later, I went on to become a Novell Certified Engineer (C.N.E.) and also picked up Microsoft certification while working for Reuters. For most of the rest of my I.T. career, I specialised in Applications Packaging & Delivery. It was a bit like being a software pirate, except with a salary, a desk, and no chance of Johnny Depp playing me in a movie.

Eventually, though, the glamour wore off. The job became stressful, dull, and basically a desk-bound grind. I couldn’t wait to escape… so I did. 😄

Here are some of my clients

DEEDI (Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation), Brisbane, QLD (6m)

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, Wellington NZ Application Packaging Designer (1y 4m)

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, Wellington NZ Application Packager (3m)

DATACOM (@ NZ Post, Wellington) Application Packaging Consultant (2m)

ANZ BANK, Wellington Application Packager (4m)

MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, Wellington NZ Application Packager (1y 4m)

TRANSPOWER, NZ (Fujitsu) Application Packager (1m)

HM CUSTOMS & EXCISE, UK (Fujitsu) Snr Application Packager (9m)

CAMWOOD (London) Zenworks Applications Packager (3m)

BP, Wellington NZ (Sytec) MSI Packager/Analyst (4m)

BBC WORLDWIDE (London) MSI Packager/Analyst (6m)

HARVEY NASH PLC (London) Systems Analyst/Project Engineer (9m)

BBC (London) Snr Technical Analyst (2y 6m)

Dept. Of Labour, Wellington, New Zealand. Snr Desktop Analyst (6m)

LLOYDS OF LONDON Network Support/Management (2m)

REUTERS (London) Resident Site Engineer, City West (3y)

TELERATE (Auckland NZ) Senior Technician (1y 6m)

DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CO (DEC) Basingstoke (UK) Field Service Engineer (4m)

BRITISH TELECOM Lab Technician/Field Engineer (5y 4m)