February 18, 2019 at 4:49 pm
I had a lot of fun back in the late 90's / early 2000's with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), mainly in Excel. It was relatively early days in office automation and I had a couple of jobs where I eventually earned free rain to get creative with Excel VBA in any way I saw fit. It was an opportunity to easily and rapidly build lots of simple to use but intelligent forms/applications packed full of business logic to streamline and clense data capture and replace old paper-based systems and processes. At the click of a button a completed form could be automatically routed via email around various parts of the business to collect senior signoff (more button clicking) and pass on unambiguous information such as product orders, ready for manufacture. The new processes completely transformed the way teams captured info and worked together.
Excel VBA was a great tool for producing rapid solutions to problems. I certainly had fun learning and applying it and watching colleagues embrace the power of clicking buttons to do their work - they loved it, and fed me an endless list of requests of things to automate, most of which were very rewarding to implement.
February 18, 2019 at 5:58 pm
jevitts - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 7:46 AMWhile developing and managing this type of application is definite FUN and challenging, I'm strugging with legitimizing myself as an IT professional. Should I make the move to a more structured IT firm? But then I'll lose the autonomy that I have now. Will a traditional IT role pay better? Possibly, but then I'll most likely be siloed into one type of technology or process. I'm curious about the greener grass on the other side, but I'm having a hard time letting go of this team and this application (it's like my baby). If anyone has any advice, it's surely welcome.
Wow, I'm really glad they re-ran this editorial! It's fun to go back and laugh at what the younger you was worried about. 🙂
FunkyDexter - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 9:42 AMShould I make the move to a more structured IT firm?
Ultimately you should do what makes you happy and if you're enjoying what you're doing now then there's a strong argument for sticking with it. It'll probably end eventually and you can look at moving then but you certainly shouldn't agonise over any missed opportunities in the meantime because a) you don't really know whether they would have been positive or negative and b) there will still be opportunities when you are ready - IT is not going away.That said, if you do think you're ready to start actively pursuing an IT career not then I'd recommend looking at small IT companies rather than big ones. Because they're small they tend to require everyone to muck in and you get to wear more hats than you would in a large organisation. You'll be a bit of a sys admin, a bit of a DB Admin, a bit of a developer, a bit of a salesperson, a bit of a systems analyst... you get the idea. That's the sort of position I've been in for most of my career and I've loved it.
only to lose it due to stupid Internet access problems
You should come up with a process to prevent that in future.
Your advice was spot on! I wanted to say thanks! 🙂
I ended up leaving the team about 6 months after I wrote this. You mentioned "it will probably end eventually," and it did. The project was downsizing and I'm not one to go down with the ship, so I began looking for new opportunities. I eventually landed on the other side of the country in Southern California on a small development team where I spent 3 years really honing my Admin skills and working under a brilliant SQL developer and expanding my Dev skills. I'm now 1 month in at a new company - one of those "more structured IT firms" I was looking for, where I'm the primary DBA overseeing 1k+ databases.
Thanks,
Jessica
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? -Robert H. Schuller
February 22, 2019 at 5:43 am
What's wrong with getting creative with job titles, Gordon? I always enjoyed getting away with designating myself the "Chief Staff Non-Technophobe", and "Head Technowhiz Not In Charge" was another favorite which fell by the wayside primarily because I got put in charge of the IT department (such as it was) for a dot-com.
Of course, I am a self-admitted subversive when it comes to naming things. I also took perverse pride in not only naming a custom ETL app "CPL Transmogrifier" but also keeping that name through the official sprinkling of corporate and military holy water.
February 22, 2019 at 6:57 am
gordon.feeney - Tuesday, December 23, 2014 3:45 AMAnd more directors of this-that-and-the-other whose titles suggested they had been given carte blanche to come up with whatever terms they thought sounded cool.
What's wrong with getting creative with job titles, Gordon? I always enjoyed getting away with designating myself the "Chief Staff Non-Technophobe", and "Head Technowhiz Not In Charge" was another favorite which fell by the wayside primarily because I got put in charge of the IT department (such as it was) for a dot-com.
Of course, I am a self-admitted subversive when it comes to naming things. I also took perverse pride in not only naming a custom ETL app "CPL Transmogrifier" but also keeping that name through the official sprinkling of corporate and military holy water.
My self-imposed title was Chief PITA (Pain in the Arse). Kept life interesting...
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
February 22, 2019 at 4:00 pm
For myself, I think it is being pleasantly surprised occasionally in my work and that can mean a lot of things. If it's just about punching a checklist then I'll probably lose interest quickly.
February 23, 2019 at 12:50 pm
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