On making the mid-career Switch

When I started my career as an engineer, I was keen on experiencing as many roles in the end-to-end software stack as possible. I switched teams, projects and even organisations. I even made the cast of the "Switcher" video that our HR careers team produced to promote growth opportunities through switching jobs! I once switched roles just before being promoted too, starting over as a junior engineer in a different part of the org build a tech stack I had zero prior experience in. Even after switching tracks between management-and-technical to becoming Principal Engineer, thinking I would remain firmly technical - I switched to back management for practical lifestyle reasons. But even within management, I switched between management roles just so that I could experience as many facets of business as possible, so that I could one day maybe run my own company! I also switched from a tech platform product service provider to big corporates & also was lucky enough to experience start-ups from concept to business launch. 

I once switched jobs by exiting permanent to freelancing the month before my bonus was due. My last switch forfeited share options and a retention bonus to boot!

So I was very intentional about becoming a "Jack of All trades, Master of some!" general biztech manager.  I am mostly self-taught & experienced my MBA by learning on-the-job, so switching careers was natural and pretty easy, I'm an adaptable guy! 

Or so I thought ... Until now…until my current Switch-in-progress ...

I've started to view switching as a function of tenure, so my assertion is thus: That it actually gets harder to switch as the years go by. If you've left the technical track for some time, an experienced manager for example, switching back to technical engineering gets much harder. When you see yourself as in the"experienced 21+ years" category, you best be ready for a little discomfort...

So my most recent switch from executive leadership into operational management as an engineering manager - is the hardest switch I've made to date! I suppose it was expected - having spent the last decade executing strategically and delivering through others primarily, occassionally rolling up my sleeves by necessity. Whenever I got in the trenches, it was usually short-lived - to lead from the frontlines, setting-up frameworks, run rehearsals, entrenching new processes & instilling new behaviours, coaching then handing over the reigns to managers and then watching those upcoming leaders grow. That was the most rewarding part of leadership for me, one could call that my superpower (i.e. growing leaders).

As my story goes, in 2020 I made a conscious decision to leave behind an industry I knew like the-back-of-my-hand (video) & start over anew in cloud native platforms, back in the "engine room" of software development so to speak. From enjoying big strategic planning and owning a technology roadmap with 200 people responsibility, working on commercial contracts and negotiations, spending big money and having direct bottom-line impact to P&L – to going back into the engine room, building small software teams, with the opportunity of having massive impact on a global scale with the biggest tech company on the planet, working with the best and brightest minds - sparked the Switcher in me to start a new adventure!

Forceably disrupting, reinventing myself so that I could at least add two more domains before retiring. A lot of folks told me I was bloody crazy, others called me brave (being a little "late" in my career after landing relatively respectable senior posts). I personally, wanted to rekindle the flame of adventure that was on its way out!

Man, what was I thinking!! :-) 

Reinventing myself has been hard, very hard! With 15 months into this journey, I still have some miles+++ to go to becoming comfortable in my new (humble) shoes. Not a good feeling for someone tenured with loads of experience, says the ego!

For those folks thinking about making a similar lateral/downward move to a new domain/company, be prepared for a journey of ups and downs! 

Expect constant battles with your ego! Mind your hubris! Let go of past successes! Come to terms with Imposter Syndrome! Let the resistance pass through. Be like water, my friend. Empty your cup...Leave your ego at the door...

Here's some reflections I use regularly to re-calibrate when I feel the force of resistance is strong (i.e. the desire to pack up and leave because I've seen better):

1. Think back to the core driver of why you've made the switch, why weren't you satisfied & what drove the change?

2. Welcome your new critics - don't be too defensive by bringing up your past accolades (they just don't matter, what matters is what are you bringing to the table right now).

3. Think about your biggest vulnerabilities in the new role. How do you plan to compensate for them?

4. What can you do to gain more control over your local environment? [Think: Circle of control/influence]

5. What are you avoiding?

6. Why are you avoiding? Why...5 Whys...

7. How are you helping your colleagues achieve their goals?

8. How are you NOT helping or even hindering their progress?

9. How might you be contributing to your least enjoyable relationship at work?

10. How could you have been more effective in a recent meeting?

11. Ask "What haven't I considered?"

12. Ask "Why is this thing the way it is?" 

13. Ask "Am I part of the problem here or the solution?"

14. Ask "Could I be wrong here?"

15. Practice silence & patience. Before raising something, Ask: Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said, by me? Does it need to be said, by me, right now?

The learning never really ends - to achieve personal mastery is a journey that has no end.

Having said that, reinvention is not for everyone! Switching careers can be hard. It can be daunting. It can also be quite lonely. Be sure you're up for the challenges ahead. Seek counsel from folks who've walked the path before.

#personaldevelopment #careeradvice

Diving deeper with personal analytics

In my first post of 2022, I shared some analytics of my life tracking data for the last 6 years. I couldn't help myself going down the rabbit hole with additional questions that could be used to trigger additional self reflection, which would then spark me to make deliberate changes in my life. It was quite fun going down the rabbit hole playing with AWS Quicksight and manipulating data fields to get to the answers I sought. 

When I have more time to play around, I think an AI/ML personal assistant should use my data to help me with insights. I believe there will be a market in personal analytics or metrics, or personal telemetry that I've coined the termed personametry back in 2015. At that time I wanted to build a product based on my RAGE model called personametry. Alas, that project is still on the backburner, and I've made a ton of excuses (to be honest) not getting it off the ground. Yes, my work got in the way, reality of family and financial obligations, then complacency and comforts-of-life (aka laziness). If I was serious about it, I would've made a plan. I resigned to keep tracking my data, keeping abreast of the progress of personal assistants, productivity apps and personal tracking devices, looking for the timing when things begin to fall into place!!

If you have additional questions you think might inspire changes & personal improvements, let me know in the comments section!

How do I breakdown my 24-hour days?

This is an interesting question. I decided to splice my 24-hours into "periods" and so I ended up with 8 (eight) partitions of the day. Since I track the start and end of my activities (tasks) captured in Harvest, I should be able to see how I utilize my time in a typical day. There is a missing element of productivity/impact as a result of that activity, which is a topic for another day.

Here is the code for splitting up a day, using a datetime field, in Quicksight:

I don't start my day at midnight and count 24 hours. Rather I account for the 24 hours from the point of going to bed or starting my day at 4am. I used to consistently begin my days at 4am for 2016-2020, but since relocating to Cape Town, it's been a struggle. I'm going to have to renew this habit in 2022. The partitioning of 24 hours days is not impacted though.

In addition to splicing the parts of day, I could look at how my routines differ between weekdays and weekends. For weekdays, I haven't yet filtered out real workdays, that is, not a public holiday or a leave day. 

With this new partitioning I can then answer these questions like:

2021 Life/Work streams review with 6 years data points

It's that time of the year when I review my personal time keeping metrics showing how I've spent my time over the previous year. I've been doing this exercise diligently since 2015, when I created a framework for myself called "RAGE" Reality, Aspirations, Goals, Expectations. Using ideas from software engineering and product management, I decided to map out my personal (life) and professional (work) streams across the many dimensions I was involved in (Muslim | Individual | Professional | Husband | Father | Friend | etc.). I focused on Time as the key metric to track, since time is one of the most important resource that should never be squandered. 

The idea is simple: if something is important to me, then I should be spending time in that area - but if I end up spending little or zero time on that thing, then that thing must have not been as important to me as I thought it was. 

Tracking time allows me to answer questions like: 

• Am I spending time in the areas that are important to me? 
• Which areas am I over indexing on that negatively impacts my other steams, robbing me of value?
• Am I giving each stream the necessary amount of attention?
• What decisions do I need to make when the data and anecdotes (feelings / instincts) don't match up?

Click here to check out my writings from previous years and here for an introduction to my RAGE framework for personal development tracking.

To read my 2020 review and reference my personal value system, click here.

2021 Re-starting Life & Work (again)

Driven by my personal planning through my RAGE model, 2021 was the year I hit reset. I uprooted my family and relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town in December 2020. Earlier in 2020, I'd resigned from my C-level position of a very stable and secure job - at first - to take a year long sabbatical to work out my next move. This sabbatical was short-lived due to the uncertainty of Covid-19, I felt it too risky not to secure another job in 2021. I knew one thing for sure: I was no longer interested in building video entertainment technology applications "make people watch TV" and wanted to branch out into something else either in Cloud or e-Commerce. Thankfully I landed the first job I decided to interview for in cloud computing with AWS, Cape Town. A big departure for me because I was going back to core engineering building software, something which I've not done to that level of technical detail since 2010! I was also going to start as a senior manager and not a GM/CTO. So essentially I'd walked away from a high influence, high referent and hierarchical power, entrenched credibility and track record - to starting professionally all over again, from a "big fish, small pond" to being a "tiny fish, large ocean" fella, with zero credibility. I value learning new knowledge, building new relationships and gaining new experiences as more important than positional titles. My wife and kids also left their lives behind which we'd nurtured for a decade since relocating to Johannesburg (from UK), relocating and disrupting their lives to Cape Town with me - they too, hitting reset leaving much loved friendships, community and family-support behind. 

So 2021 would bring a massive disruption to my personal, professional and family streams. Time will tell if this grand reset is working or not. So my personal time tracking data is now more important than before.

This post shares my time tracking data for 2021 compared to the previous 6-years for comparison. Resetting one's life personally and professionally is not an easy thing to do. I've learnt much about this experience that I hope to share in future posts. In terms of the key KPIs of time tracking, 2021 went as well as can be expected considering the unusual context & challenges of Covid-19. In this post I share only the data and limited insights. There's some soul-searching I've yet to do on making drastic changes to my personas, which at the time of this writing doesn't seem to be major...

With year one done, so far, so good...no major regrets although the data has shown I need to recalibrate some streams if I want to get back to previous levels of balance.

On "World-Class People", what a load of bollocks!

(11-Dec-21 clearing out old drafts cache 2012-2016, articles I didn't get round to finishing) 

Lately I've been thinking about our tendency to compare ourselves, our work, skills & knowledge using the term "world-class" as the benchmark, the bar (at least for us in Africa, this comparison is pretty much comes up frequently in boardroom conversations).

I myself have used this term on a few occasions, heck, the goal for my current job was to transform the engineering team & products we build, from being "ordinary" to "world-class", to build a "world-class" engineering team. Three years later, I now see what a whole load of bullshit that really was!! And instead of being used as a powerful motivator for change, it "world-class" carries far more negative connotations that positive...incidentally, I had stopped using the term less than a year into the role, I don't use it with my team anymore, although I have to deal with non-technical executives as well as key stakeholders across the business, who regularly challenge: Do you have world-class engineers? Are they A players or B players? We need champions league players...and so on.

For people coming from the western world into Africa, you will indeed be in for a surprise. Even myself, a returning African after working for decade in Europe, was initially flabbagastered ...

Why & How I did enter consulting?

(11-Dec-21 clearing out old drafts cache 2012-2016, articles I didn't get round to finishing) 

Another one penned but not published. 

I did experiment with my own consultancy for 4.5 years, created Africa Systems and Software Services and subcontracted with TPI Africa Computer Services.... So I did take the leap and go out on my own 🤷🏽‍♂️

I provide specialist Software and Systems Engineering Management Consulting in the following areas:

The sector I offer immediate and expert use is in the Digital TV sector, covering Set-Top-Box software & hardware, Headend systems - for TV services such as EPG (Electronic Program Guide), VOD (Video-on-Demand) and other OTT (Over-the-Top Internet) services. I have a detailed track record of successful engagements in this sector.

These skills, experiences and best practices are easily transferrable to other sectors that touch on Software/Systems Engineering, including Telco, Healthcare & Banking systems.

Telling my story...why I think I'm a Digital TV Expert...

(11-Dec-21 clearing out old drafts cache 2012-2016, articles I didn't get round to finishing) 

this one I penned I 2013 but didn't publish...

So much has changed in 7 years!!

At a recent training session with a life coach, I shared my current challenge of me/my ideas not being taken too seriously and an apparent misconception in the organisation that I'm largely theoretical & academic in nature - that there's this innate resistance from people to consider new approaches. I had spent a decade overseas, gained some solid experience and knowledge (working with the best companies in the Digital TV Software field), and have come back to my home country, South Africa - where I'm interacting with most of the same people that I'd left behind over 10 years ago, having grown and matured and reached accolades that most people (in SA) will have only dreamt about...I left as an Engineer-in-Training, returned as a Senior Manager, dealing with people who were originally (10 years ago) either my team leaders or managers...Although no one says it out aloud, I'm pretty certain that people think "This guy thinks he's a big shot, coming from overseas and trying to change our ways. There's nothing wrong with our way of working, it's worked for us all this time...This best practices spiel is all theory, he's not a person of action, he's a politician - more talk, very little action!". Alas, I am anything but academic, and this post will try to clarify this misconception!

As lame as this might sound, it is well-known fact that working with human beings is really difficult! The coach hit the nail on the head that a possible reason I was facing resistance is most likely due to a mistake by senior leadership of not communicating to the rest of the organisation what my role entailed, especially in the area of introducing changes or best practices. I was probably not introduced to the company as someone who has a lot of value to offer, my positioning and expectations were not clear from the senior leadership, hence people are not sure what to make of me. Indeed this is true since I was initially interviewed for Scrum Master role, but was instead offered a Project Manager role due to my experience; and then later on in a short time, having influenced many areas, especially after resetting the project back on track, the company realised I'm more than just a Project Manager - and so moved to a Senior Program Manager Role, positioned as a Strategic Planner. But there still wasn't a clear mandate from the upper echelons of leadership to say to listen to me...nor was there outright acceptance that most of the existing processes to date were somewhat flawed; and miles away from following best practices.

My experience covers a variety of areas: Software Development, Architecture, Technical Management, Technical Leadership, Systems Integration, Engineering Management, Software Product Management, Software Project Management, Delivery & Integration Management, Agile, Scrum, Software Engineering...

I am equally passionate in all these areas, so wearing the hat of "Strategic Planner" that creates direction for Programs and sets a high level project plan into motion, is somewhat limiting the value I bring to the organisation. I can contribute to many areas in the company, but run the risk of sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong, the corporate structures preventing cross-collaboration; and the tendency of people building empires makes it really difficult to influence change; unless direction comes from the top. Being the person I am, I can't sit still and see things being run inefficiently and somewhat mismanaged - surrendering doesn't sit well with me!

So this coach strongly recommended I must tell my story every chance I get (if I'm meeting new people, etc)...that I need to tell my story so people can understand where I'm coming from, what my insights are, and get people to acknowledge the value I can bring to the team or organisation...

...so this is my attempt at telling my story...How did I get here? What makes me think I have expert knowledge worth sharing with the professional world? Why do I feel I have a sound grasp of best practices? Why am I passionate about Software Engineering? Why do I think I'm Software Management Consultant material??

• Embedded Engineer: Set-Top-Box Developer
• Systems Software Engineer: Fault-tolerant Server-Side Computing
• Entrepreneurial: Ideas to Products
• Software Architecture: Architectural Insights
• Software Testing Experiences
• Software Manager: Project, Programme & Delivery Manager
• Software Consulting: Development Processes, System Integration & General Management