Think change and make it happen!

My career started with the Royal Air Force. Aerospace Systems Operator, or Command and Control in Air Defence, based in Peterhead, North East Scotland. I was 17, it was a 14 hour journey to see family and friends. The work was detailed, intense, fast and dynamic. I made life-long friends. We tracked aircrafts over UK airspace and reported on any potential infringements or aircraft of interest. Heard of a Bear? (Tupolev TU-95). I saw 56 cross international airspace in a one night shift, each radar response was tracked, every two minutes on a large Perspex screen and recorded details in a log book, the forerunner of Excel spreadsheets – which were not even a twinkle in Bill Gates’ eye at that time! It was all manual, weather forecasting involved counting dots on a Radar screen to calculate cloud cover. Everything gleaned from radar screens was written down, by hand, very little was computerised until the Simulator arrived. Learning to code in CORAL to programme the simulator I became a “Simulator Pilot” specialising in helping to train inexperienced Fighter Controllers. We – it’s all team in the Forces – created and ran training exercises that the whole unit took part in, it was good fun.

I loved my time in the RAF but knew I could do more, i wanted more of a challenge.

Abtex Computers in Aberdeen advertised for an Installations Administrator. These days I would be known as an IT Network Implementation Manager (the role evolved to be on the Client site running the implementation rollout of new networked PCs). I worked with an inspirational team of people who have gone on to achieve huge success in their careers. We worked in that bit of Johari’s window that no one knew existed let alone what shape or form it might take. Ethernet and token ring became everyday words. We had PCs, we built PCs and installed them in lots of Gas and Petroleum organisations. Our office was in a converted garage at the back of a large terrace house; it doubled as the stores. We had a lot of fun and I made more friends.

I wanted to pay-back for my time in the RAF and found a role with the Ambulance Service in the control room – somewhere out there, is someone I helped into the world by talking their Dad through “virtual handholding” until they were safely born, that person is named after me. I have lots of stories, some very funny and some very sobering. We worked as a team, we were the operations hub for the Lothian and Borders (also the Heartland) taking 999 calls to the tune of over 300 on a New Year’s Eve. I featured in a documentary programme “Blues and Twos” covering that nightshift. That’s a rate of 38 calls an hour between a team of three. Ambulances have to be despatched, arrive, collect the patient, depart and arrive to hospital all within in a target timeframe. Now, we’d call that a Service level target but then it was just the way we worked. It was all manual and like a very serious game of chess. I learnt so much about myself, about medical conditions and about human behaviour, the best of and possibly the worst: I was a key witness to a murder of a baby. Aside from looking after medical emergencies we planned daily ambulance routes for routine hospital appointments: 26 Patient transport service vehicles, covering a vast geography to many hospitals for patients with all sorts of requirements, It took all day. At 3pm the plan was signed off and the next day’s planning commenced. It’s all automated now. Three years and a Police Commendation later, I left to take on a new challenge.

Throughout my career I’ve worked with data, to deadlines, processing information, making rapid decisions and a difference to my customers. I’ve worked for manufacturers, retail organisations, global companies to small start-ups: asset managers, facility managers and IT service organisations. I’ve put flyers into envelopes for an insurance company, folded engineering drawings for planning packages and worked with two different mobile phone manufacturers. I had a brief spell as a recruitment consultant. In 1999, I successfully passed the Service Management Academy at ICL.

My first placement was Service Transition. We installed a new EPOS solution for Austin Reed and set up a similar solution for World Duty Free in all UK Airports, Ports and the then new Channel Tunnel. From there, I moved to IT Service Management. I’ve dealt with IT incidents, from intermittent faults that took days to resolve and felt very similar to looking for a needle in a haystack. An example proved to be a duplicate IP address for a Dev machine that was promoted to Live for testing then taken down again. It took down the main manufacturing work flow management application each time it appeared on the network… From this, to a major datacentre failure affecting over 140 services that caused the Client significant disruption to the business.

I joined Capgemini in 2007, i’ve worked in Service Delivery Management, Service Introduction, Internal Audit and Service Level Management. More recently, Service Delivery Director for the Digital application and services offering to HMRC.

Last year I got married, It took some planning. I also achieved EM2.0. So, what do I do next?

I asked. I got.

For seven months I worked as “the Client” embedded in an EU Exit programme leading the Live Service Readiness Pillar for a large programme. After that, I helped colleagues in Capgemini Financial Services design a new Target Operating Model for one of their Clients. Attended Agile training in Canary Wharf and did I mention I like a challenge? Its 35 years since I last coded. This year with the help of a talented colleague I’ve learned how to programme in Python and use Pycharm – it may only be at primary school level but that’s another tick in the mental challenge box. I’m currently working Client side with the “Securing our Technical Future” programme to move all Services from on-premises to Cloud (where permitted) – my role: to help with landing the applications and services, onto Cloud, softly. Oh! and I have five cocker spaniels that I compete with, most recently achieving a Certificate of Merit* coming 6th out of a card of 31 dogs – that’s four years of effort with a very headstrong, prey-driven (she chases anything if she sees it) rather pretty cocker spaniel called Coral.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some of the key things I’ve learnt over the years:

If the opportunity doesn’t exist – find a way of creating one. It may not be your gift in the work place to create opportunities so find a way to expand your knowledge, skills, interest in other walks of life. You don’t get if you don’t ask! No one knows what you are capable of unless you let them know. I was fortunate to go to Southend for 7 months on the strength of a meeting, timed perfectly, as the opportunity was being created. If you get the chance, do it! It’s unlikely you’ll get a second chance if you don’t make the best of the first.

You have the ability to achieve what you set your mind to do.
Be clear about your destination goal. Understand what you need to start to do, do differently or stop doing to achieve that end result and, if you have to reinvent yourself, do! Having been given a rescue dog with an amazing pedigree we’ve joined clubs, learnt about competitions and now compete (not quite winning yet but it’s been such a long road, with a “long-line” that a COM* feels like a huge achievement!). Only you have the gift to change what you do – no one can do it for you.

Don’t let obstacles stop you from achieving.
We do this every day of the week for our customers: identify risks and challenges and then find a way to navigate through it or round them. Apply the same to your career. Learn from your past but that isn’t what defines you, it’s what you do next that makes you, the person you are.

Author

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Jayne Cuthbert-Brown