Tonight the only thing I can think of … and therefore want to write about is the power of technology!!!

 

I started working in technology almost 20 years ago… I had just left uni, I didn’t know what to do …

 

Actually, working in technology started well before that. My Dad used to get me the best summer jobs! One of his clients had a technology hardware business and needed someone to unscrew dot matrix printers so that they could sell them on for parts elsewhere…   So I spent one summer in a warehouse, unscrewing dot matrix printers!! I told you my Dad got me the best summer jobs! LOL!

 

Another summer job was putting my touch typing skills to good use at another client of my Dad’s – a law firm. I used to spend my days typing up their recorded notes… I got up to 100 words a minute typing! So proud.

 

But in that law firm, they had an old computer system that kept failing, dying and needed rebooting. I soon learnt how to do it….

 

When I left uni, I didn’t know what to do… so I thought I would go and do some typing in some of the companies I thought I might like to work for. At the temping agency, their computer system went down, so we couldn’t do our tests. Guess who rebooted it?! Little old me…   the lace making, lacrosse playing, alice band wearing, goodie two shoes…   hilarious.

 

So I got the cream jobs… and they asked me what I wanted to do and where I wanted to work… and I said ‘management consulting’ as I thought it was the broadest career even though I didn’t have the faintest clue what it meant…… and that was the start.

 

I went to work for the most senior Finance Partner in Anderson Consulting. I went on to order all the components for the big technology projects at the time… some in French! Procurement, sun servers… and trips to our offices on the Champs Elysees! It was fun….

 

And then the serious work started… I learnt to code. I learnt to understand, read, write and update code. I learnt about batch systems… technology that powered warehouses, stores, supply chains… It blew my mind… and then it became ordinary….

 

And then the real revolution happened in retail… and everything went so much faster as broadband got faster… so did shopping, access, competition… Innovation happened and we got smart tills, smart lanes, smart phones and online shopping…

 

I loved it… I hated it! (Loved the excitement… hated the long hours!)

Loved the change… Hated the change!! (Loved shopping online… Hated taking my kids to the supermarket when online went wrong!)…

Loved agile, Kanban, Scrum, XP… Hated how others didn’t get it!

 

And to my point of tonight… I have just been ‘working’ (I say working because I enjoy what I do, so it doesn’t feel like work… ) from the comfort of my home, in my pj’s, eating my supper…

 

I had a laptop, smart phone and ipad…

 

I was communicating via Whatsapp (like text but an app) to my colleagues on my phone…

Watching a zoom call (video conferencing) from my ipad…

Posting information and educational facts on a shopping event on my laptop…

 

Just yesterday, James was working in San Diego… so we could use FaceTime to keep in touch with him. Just as we keep in touch with my Dad… My sister… My sister in Law, my nieces and nephews, friends abroad…

 

I love that! But I love technology…

Technophobes would hate it…

 

I feel energized from it!!

 

And I am so grateful for it… Not just the way it has shaped my career, but how it has shaped my present and how it will shape the future of my children.

 

The world is now a smaller place because of it…

The world is a faster place because of it…

 

And that is probably a blog for another night! ..