Talking Tech

Last week, I gave a talk at the awesome Greenwood Campbell, entitled Hacking a Career in Technology. I was excited, nervous, mildly terrified, and hopeful it would be a success. So why do it, and what counts as a success?!

One of my points in the presentation was around your Career Progression Programme (CPP). I'd like to encourage you to manage your own CPP. If you are lucky, you will have an excellent career path mapped out at your current employer. What happens if you move, though? Will you continue your progression towards a more senior role, take on coaching responsibilities, or maybe something else? Having an idea of what it is you would like to achieve, and how you can get there, is crucial to a successful, and hopefully happy, career.

As you might have guessed, giving a public talk was on my personal CPP. I've enjoyed talking at company events, and wanted to try presenting my thoughts on a topic I am passionate about, and offer advice for the benefit of others. The feedback was positive and constructive, and I definitely found it great learning experience, even if I still watch the recording through my fingers!

As a presenter, you can't help but meet new people as they discuss your talk, and it was great to catch up with old friends and meet more local experts. It's genuinely exciting to hear about so much interesting work, and I would love to be given the chance to do this again. Overall, I would count that as a pretty successful learning experience 😊

Thanks again to Greenwood Campbell for hosting, my friends and family (particularly my wife) for their support, and everyone who attended. If you would like to know more, I'll be following up with a series of blog posts on building a career in technology soon.