Well, last day at Apple, handing back all my equipment etc.
It’s always kind of strange leaving a company behind that you’ve built up a repository of knowledge about, even with relatively short contracts. 12 months is plenty of time to get kind of used to a place.
Any lasting contribution that I can feel ‘That is going to get used an make a difference?’
I guess the biggest one has to be the Account Planning project.
It brings together a snapshot view of where we are with our (listen to me, I should be saying their) sales relationship with big customers, and what their plan is for the coming year.
Kind of pleased with the result - far richer than anyone anticipated. Generating a spreadsheet with multi-company contact hierarchies, lots of lovely charts etc. from various systems, data warehouse, file, web service and EAI integrations, and storing account plans online - I got to a bit of everything. Java, JSF, Deployment, CVS, PeopleCode, Materialized Views in Oracle, Integration Broker messaging, File interfaces, even some infrastructure stuff with the bizarre load balancer / stateful firewall issues we experienced with some of the larger companies. Always eventful.
And being involved with setting up and mentoring a new outsourced team has been an enlightening and ultimately rewarding experience.
Of course it all sounds very glamorous, working for Apple - but it must be remembered that behind all the glitzy merchandise, there’s a bunch of people doing not just the high-profile stuff, but also the nuts and bolts internal IT troubleshooting, fixing, deploying etc. to keep the internal wheels greased. I never tire of that sort of stuff - it’s bread and butter stuff, but I’m glad I’ve never lost those roots from help desk days many moons ago. I still hold by the same principals as back then. Understand the business, understand how people use the systems, listen to all the tales people tell, and the advice from the techies who like to share, and paint yourself a picture with pallette knife texture from the results. If you watch and apply the results with your accrued knowledge from watching, learning and discovering then good solutions invariably follow.
I can honestly say no project has been boring yet - even with mundane seeming infrastructure projects, there’s always plenty to learn, plenty of new ways to apply your experience. I say if you’re bored, you’re not paying attention.
On that note, I’ve worked with a great bunch of people who do pay attention! And that makes a difference. The outsourced part has been a mixed bag, but the joy of outsourcing is that if someone is really unsuitable, you swap them out. And for those who can make the leap and engage, it’s really rewarding when you realize you don’t need to be the mentor so much, and their confidence keeps their momentum of learning going. Great.
Looking forward to the the team outing on Friday - Tunisian belly dancing restaurant in Covent Garden and bowling - not to be confused if bowling accuracy to be maintained.
– Posted from my iPhone