A change for the better #2 - Aggreko to SSW

In the last 2+ years at Aggreko I have worked with Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server, Office SharePoint Server 2007 and a number of WPF, Silverlight and ASP.NET projects.

There had been some discussion of a new role within Aggreko in the solution architecture arena. I also spoke to Adam Cogan who has the title “SSW Chief Architect and Microsoft Regional Director”…

This fortuitous communication, which turned into an interview, resulted in an offer from Adam Cogan of employment as a Senior Software Architect at SSW …

I got through the interview and I decided to take a role at SSW…

If you know of Adam, then you will know that he has rules and standards for everything. If you have not heard of him, then I suggest that you have a read of those rules and see what they are all about.

The first set of rules that I read was the Rules to better Email and they helped me be more productive even before I accepted the job…

Check out rule #32 in SSW’s “ Rules To Being Software Consultants Working In A Team ”

#32 Do you enjoy your job?

The expectation from Adam is:

• #1 is to put your heart into your job and enjoy yourself
• Get your Employee Responsibilities (Scheduled recurring events) done
• Improve SSW to a better place every week
• Improve yourself to better person every week

If you find yourself not enjoying your job this is not necessarily a bad thing. You should make a commitment to give it a go and try to make it work. When you have decided you are unhappy you should talk to your boss and figure out what is making you unhappy. The fact is that there are some jobs that you are not suited to. It is probably best for everyone that you start to think about moving on and trying something that may make you happier.

I totally agree with this and at Aggreko I was supported by many people. I spoke to my boss Andre Vermeulen about the things I was not happy with, and we came to an understanding, but it is difficult for a large company to move at the same pace that I do. I found working with SharePoint 2003 is really just unacceptable.

In my new role at SSW I will be tasked with:

• bringing SSW’s rules to European clients
• helping organisations be more proactive with the Visual Studio 2010 ALM offering,
• migrating TFS 2005 and TFS 2008 customers to the joys of TFS 2010
• enabling SSW to have 24 hour operations

On top of this I will be using SharePoint 2010 and CRM 2005 in order to implement intranets and CRM for clients.

Its going to be a fun ride, and if you want to take your company to the next step and you are in Europe, please contact me.

If you get a chance, check out SSW’s Rules. I am sure you will find something that will make you more productive and happier…

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