Saturday 7 August 2021

A New Beginning

 Other titles considered:

  • The Times They Are A-Changing
  • New Life
  • Just Like Starting Over
  • Fings Aint Wot They Used T'Be

What am I on about?

I started work 34 years ago this month - and I'm still with the same employer.

I started on a 4 Year Apprenticeship, did a year in the Inspection and Metrology Lab, a short stint in the Drawing Office, and then landed up as a Project Planner.  A return to learning saw me progress through Cost Engineering, Project Management, Commercial Management, and then I settled into Project Controls (basically, telling the Project Manager they are an idiot!).  And I've been in that world for last 25 years.

But now, at the age of 51, I have made the decision to leave the comfort zone behind and move to the Dark Side of IT - I will be administering and maintaining the Integrated Business System across Projects, Finance, Supply Chain,and Human Resources (Oracle Fusion, if you're interested.  Or even care).  The main focus is Projects, so it's still Project Controls per se, and I will bring with me the issues and failings of using the System at the coal-face.

And so I am now placing myself on a vertical learning curve with all the fun of remote working (for a little while longer at least) while my new colleagues have to get used to my unique, grumpy, sarcastic ways of doing things.
I admit to a little fear in this move, but what's the worst that can happen?

Will it prove to be the right decision?  Who knows, but Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.


And, NO - I will not musically illustrate this post with Bucks Fizz 1986 post Coach crash comeback single (Mamba Seyra with knobs on!).

Instead I'll ask the question: when this lot lost their founding member, songwriter, and all round visionary, did they really believe that they would still be achieving relative success 40 years later?
(and why did every Radio 1 DJ of the time have a different way of pronouncing their name?)

Depeche Mode - New Life

4 comments:

  1. Wishing you lots of luck! What you do all sounds very complex to me but I definitely agree with the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" maxim. I've only really recently come to fully appreciate just how good Depeche Mode could be. I'd always kind of liked them from the sidelines but found myself particularly mesmerised recently on catching their performance of 'Never Let Me Down Again' during Guy Garvey's 'From The Vaults' prog the other night. Dave Gahan was glorious!

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    1. Thanks C.
      I've come to look at Depeche Mode more recently as a Rock Band (Goth Rock?) with synthesizers instead of guitars

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  2. Good luck. I've been in my workplace for 20 years this September and have been wondering recently if I need to move on. What would my younger self made of me now?

    Funny about Depeche Mode. In the 80s/ 90s I was aware of them but never a fan, couldn't deny the pop brilliance of the singles etc Recently been really enjoying some of their late 80s/ early 90s stuff in a way I never have before and also like C watched them on From The Vaults and was just a little bit blown away by Never let Me Down Again- a song I'd never paid any real attention to before.

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  3. Best of luck. My first job, I stuck with 23 years before they made me redundant (although I did move around jobs in that place). The latest one, I lasted 10 years before they nearly drove me into the grave. Hoping the new one will carry me more gently to retirement.

    I was never a DM fan until I saw them live in the late 90s. That turned me around.

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