New year, new job

Well that was rather timely...having been made redundant recently after the previous company shed half of its staff leaving me without a meaty role, I seem to have landed on my feet.

Starting next week I'm going to be Head of Infrastructure and Support for a large training company.

What does it mean for me? Who knows, but from first sight it looks like I get to work with some really knowledgeable people, with a great guy called Joe Fawcett who I have known for some years and work for a manager mentor.

Bigger company, more opportunity, technical and mentoring manager, great technical team. It sounds rather good, all I need to work out is where to park and see if I have found a firm who will understand how to pronounce and spell my name.

So in about 6 weeks I've gone from one firm to another via a week of bimbling, a week with Jake, a week on a course, a week of bimbling and a thick week of holiday. Found out today that I passed the course which has made this week even better.

I'm now a Prince2 Practitioner...professional project manager and certified, or am I just certifiable?

Mr Arnold may have a good deal of luck, but perhaps I'm starting to pick some up too.

Change of circumstances

After nearly 12 years with the same firm, I'm now a gentleman of leisure. With the firm downsizing (from 135 to 70 in 12 months), there is no need for an IT Manager.

Nonetheless, despite knowing this I carried on with the premises move and worked my precious Easter weekend to get them into the new building smoothly. For the last time, me and my team worked superbly. Michael with his patience and diligence, Matt like a howling banshee, whipping through the firm fixing problems before the external consultants could even explain them to him. I also worked through, a mixture of them both.

I am incredibly proud of my two boys (and in fact the others I have managed at that firm over the years), they worked properly and they worked long hours. Good Friday we all worked 10 hours and Easter Saturday we all worked at least 14 hours.

The users arrived on Tuesday expecting chaos. Instead most things were working - much to the chagrin of some of the staff!

I leave that firm running incredibly smoothly with excellent documentation and a clear direction for the department. My head is held high and my pride is intact. Michael remains there under the new manager, Mr Perry, and Matt and I are moving to pastures new.

It may not be a trumpet fanfare from Matt's new company but they will suddenly find themselves running smoother than ever. He's so good at what he does, he can't even explain things out loud - "You just do this and it works". It has been a pleasure to manage him over the last 7 years and I wish him well in his new pursuits.