It's That Time Of The Year

Time may not fly, but it sure can go quickly. December is rapidly sneaking away from us and I’m only really now starting to think about what I will do in my two weeks break over Christmas. Really looking forward to the pilgrimage back up north and the opportunity to catch up with the people I’ve been missing ever since moving to Canberra.

I don’t really have much in the way of news to report as usual, so I thought it would be as good a time as any to reflect back on the year. Namely I might try and detail exactly what it is I am doing down here.

As many people know, I ended up on the wrong side of some layoffs last year from my previous employer that had been hit by the financial crisis. In fact, it has been one year and a week almost to the day since I was made redundant there with a few others. In hindsight it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen. In some respects it was one of the best things to have happened to me actually. I had already been playing with the idea of looking for work elsewhere so getting shown the door made the decision for me – probably well before I would have myself.

Being December I decided to put off looking for work too seriously until the new year. I figured there was no point stressing about it at a time when companies are more likely to be shutting down for a few weeks than trying to recruit new staff. It also was the longest vacation I had had since starting any form of work part way into university and the break was very much appreciated. It allowed me to dump over 100 hours into Dragon Age.

In mid to late January I got a call from a recruiter who I had applied for positions in Brisbane through asking whether I would consider moving to Canberra for work. This caught me completely off guard. I had considered moving to the US if a job there presented itself but at no point had I given a second thought to working elsewhere in Australia. After much deliberation and on advice from family and a few friends it was made obvious I didn’t have a lot holding me back and that this was as good an opportunity as any to get out there and try something different. There was always the chance other work wouldn’t present itself either and worst case scenario I quit and return to QLD.

   

UNIFY Solutions

With that I attended an interview and ultimately accepted a job offer as an Identity Access and Management Specialist at the relatively small company UNIFY Solutions. I started a day after my 25th birthday and with a months training under my belt in the Brisbane branch I set off to Canberra that April. Eight months and one week later and here I am.

I have previously expressed my delight with how the job has panned out and I can honestly say nothing much has changed. In eight months I’ve managed to work first hand with a number of large and well known clients with more in the pipeline. These consist of various government agencies along with some very large international firms.

As above, the position I am fulfilling is of an ‘Identity and Access Management Specialist’. Since that makes about as much sense as curdling, I’ll do my best to explain. Essentially the role and company as a whole specialise in integrating various systems that an organisation may have, particularly any that manage users in some way. This may include Active Directory, HR systems, web applications, databases or whatever else. The integration generally revolves around, but is not limited to, the synchronisation of identity data between the systems. You change your name in the Payroll system, it automatically updates in the corporate directory. Along with synchronisation is account creation, termination as well as handling temporal data (expiring contracts etc).

While data synchronisation is the main service provided, there are a number of other areas that may require development such as web services to enable single sign on, interfaces to data etc. This all falls under the umbrella of the job and along with support makes up the bulk of the work I have been performing in the past year.

While on paper it is quite a dull field, it does have a lot of depth to it. It’s a fairly niche segment of the market even amongst larger clients. As my boss mentioned in my interview and over time I have come to realise myself, despite the role being very specialised there is a huge reliance on being able to understand technologies across the board. Every single system we integrate will be different, with even the same system at one client likely being quite differently configured at another site. To paint an illustration, a co-worker was looking into single sign-on for a SAP system. The documentation for that listed not one, two, but fifteen different ways that single sign-on could be implemented. While not all are applicable, half the task was going through that list to find an appropriate one.

It’s a challenge at times and if you had been in the office yesterday you would have likely heard a few nasty things coming from my end of the room regarding PowerShell. Other times it may be javascript, html or whatever I have to use that day. At the same time I’m developing a much broader set of skills than I ever did at my previous employer, with the most vital piece that was missing previously being client interaction. I have no doubt that that aspect alone will be invaluable in years to come.

Thats essentially it in a nutshell. I do hope that gives people an idea of why exactly I am here and why I have no intention of coming back just yet. That said, if you are reading this then chances are I’ll be close to you in a few weeks so do hit me up for a drink and I’ll endeavour to try and organise a night out at some point during that break.

Because Life Is Too Precious To Waste

It’s felt like a lifetime since I last posted here. Since my last post Colonal Guddafi has been killed, Steve Jobs tragically passed away, Survivor has started again, Dexter has become my addiction and the earth in two days will hit a population of seven billion people. Seems a lot can happen in four months.

I’ll start with work. Firstly I still love my job and maintain that getting made redundant from Zap Technology was one of the best things to have ever happened to me. The new job has exposed me to the joys of working for a company where the staff aren’t constantly concerned whether they will have a job a week out from now. I won’t mention who my clients are at Unify, but needless to say they are some pretty big ones – both important government agencies and large international corporations. It’s a real thrill to have been given the opportunity and freedom to lead projects after only six months and it’s put me well on the path to the more management orientated roles I would like to be involved with in the future.

So yes, work is fabulous.

I can’t remember the exact date but it’s very possible I moved place since my last update. It’s my third address since moving to Canberra, which in itself is a somewhat chaotic tale but I’m now finally settled down with a lease and am happy with my living arrangements. Canberra really is an underrated city. I don’t say that just to delude myself so that I will like where I’m living, it genuinely is a lovely town. Definitely smaller than Brisbane but to be honest I dont find the two cities too disimilar. I miss having family and friends near by, but in terms of the actual city I don’t find myself wanting.

I’m coming up on seven months in Canberra, which in itself isn’t entirely significant but it does mean there is less than two months until Christmas. Despite what I may have said above, I can’t describe how much I’m looking forward to getting back to Brisbane for a few weeks to catch up with people and hopefully get around to doing some thing I’ve had planned. I’m sure the temperature will murder me after the sub zero winter nights here, but I’ll find a way to survive. Who knows, maybe I’ll get around to jumping out of that plane.

In closing, those that wish to are free to add me to Google+. It’s finally been opened up to Google Apps users, therefore I may occasionally consider the possibility of thinking about whether I in-fact want to use is.

The Carbon Solution

I’m not going to post my stance on the carbon tax; I don’t think my opinion really matters all that much to be honest. I do however want to remark on some of the reactions I am seeing, in particular those that while supporting it have claimed that those that don’t are insensitive to the environmental issues we may or may not be facing and that these individuals are selfish.

To that I have two things I want to say. Firstly:

Theres more than one way to skin a cat, fry an egg or to deal with this issue. 

Just because you are against a carbon tax does not mean you are against change; nor does it mean you believe Tony Abbotts alternative is the way to go. That bring me to the second point:

Just because you disagree with a politician on one policy, that does not make you a supporter of the opposition.

Seriously, supporting the tax doesn’t mean you support Julia Gillard as a politician in general or that people not keen on her are instantly Abbott supporters. Hell, I voted for a politician last year that I can’t stand, not because I wanted to back them but because a single one of their policies appealed to me enough for me to put aside the popularity contest that is todays politics and to cast my vote that way.

So please, regardless of whether you support the tax or not, don’t begin to wave the finger at people who have a different stance as being supporters of the opposition or their policies unless they explicitly state they do. It’s a complex issue and it’s extremely narrow minded to think that there is only two possible ways to attack it.

Happy Panda

For those that are aware late last year I was made redundant from my previous work. No hard feeling were had and to be honest the thought of leaving had been niggling faintly at the back of my mind for some time. The convenience and apparent stability associated with having a job, in particular one that was only a kilometer from where I lived, inevitably kept me there. That said the company had been struggling; but I won’t go there.

In any event I found myself unemployed in December with what was a quite decent payout. I began considering my options, including moving to the States if a position at the likes of Microsoft opened up. I sent off a few light hearted resumes without any expectations of a call up given Christmas was fast approaching.

January arrived and I received a call while on vacation at the Coast…it was the recruiter who I had contacted in relation to a job at Taterstalls. He mentioned to me the possibility of work in Canberra at a software company called Unify Solutions. Despite being an interesting proposal I must admit there was some skepticism on my part as to whether it was a move I wanted to make. Despite my applications for Stateside work I’d never really thought about whether I wanted to move away from my family and friends, especially given I was so happy in the accomodation I had at New Farm.

History will show that I decided to take up the job offer and here I am in Canberra now, freezing my toosh off as I write this.

The reason for posting that story isn’t so much to reflect on the move but the changes that have happened in my life both recently and more long term. Given I don’t feel like I am in the same head (or physical) space anymore I thought it was fitting to leave the old site behind. As I archived the 480 posts dating back to at least 2005 it occurred to me there was simply a lot there that isn’t me any more, it contributed to who I am but if you were to read some of it now you’d probably think I was an emotional whinebag. It’s not that I’m trying to distance myself from that, indeed, I kept every single post there in case I change my mind later, but at the same time a reboot or fresh start didn’t seem like a totally bad idea. The move from QLD to ACT seemed like an apt opportunity to do just that.

So with that out of the way here’s yet another relaunch of Smigit.com, this time with more or less a clean slate. No promises I’ll update it frequently, but it is what it is. I haven’t gone through and deleted any page content just yet but old pages like my computer specs will be getting removed. Again those pages feel like a distant fragment memory of my past and my interests now days are more mobile computing oriented and I feel at times that I replace those devices more often than I post on this blog.

For all those I haven’t had a lot to do with since I moved, know that all is well and I’m very happy here. Still yet to make a whole lot of new friends but I love the work and the opportunities it has afforded me. I have a lot more client exposure now and it’s truly thrilling to see something I developed on my own being put in place in government organisations. I’ll talk more about that in coming weeks.

Until then, take care and if you happen to be in Brisbane, I’m looking forward to my next trip up North.

Peace out.