The Welcome Post

Well first, I'd like to welcome you to the blog. I'm not much for writing introductions to blog entries that haven't even happened yet, but I feel compelled to put something down to at least give visitors an idea of what to expect now and in the future.

First up, if you're asking if this is a technology blog the answer is an emphatic… maybe? It's more like a blog about technology careers. I've spent years in IT and I've been "at the keyboard" for many of those years. However, after surveying the tech blogosphere for half a decade, I've come to realize that there is so much content out there in and around what commands to issue or how to work around bugs that I probably don't have much to add to that conversation.

I also don't have much to say about how to engage technology buyers and get deals executed. While I do have some thoughts around the sales process - I've spent my career on the customer side; my passion is about using technology to advance and improve an organization. So, with apologies to those on the vendor-side, I likely won't be talking much about how to win over customers and influence communities. There are lots of people who can talk about that.

What I do plan to write about is how to move forward in your technology career. That "technology" piece is important; I have little advice that will be relevant to accountants or firemen. Maybe something will be tangentially useful, but my career has been spent in IT so that's what I have to talk about. I've spent over twenty years in an "up-through-the-ranks" career that (I hope) is very much still in progress. Because I’m still working, if you have questions about transitioning into retirement, I may not have amazing insights for you. But accept my sincere congratulations on running the race! Go see the world!

Speaking of travel, I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to speak on multiple continents about how to stand out and get ahead - primarily at VMUG events around the globe. I've found that often after my sessions are over I have great conversations with people afterward who want more advice or specific examples than I can give them in a 45-minute presentation. Though to be fair, I've also had people get up and leave after 3 minutes of the talk - you can’t please everyone. (Side note - if you haven't attended a VMUG or another tech community event you really need to get out there and engage with people in similar job roles. More on that in a future post, but don't wait for it. Just trust me and do it.)

With that in mind, I thought it could potentially be useful for me to give you some of my thoughts on how to grow and also spend some time talking about stuff that might be useful to you if you're a manager. I'll be discussing some leadership skills and practices that have served me well and that I think have been beneficial for others. Even if you aren't a manager, I think these posts will be relevant to you as well. Early in my career, I often felt like there was a "secret language" that management spoke that I didn't understand. To be fair, there may be some terms and phraseology that are unique to managers and senior leaders, but I promise that it's not secret. I think it's useful to see some of the things that are on the minds of folks in those roles - even if you aren't in one.

While I can generally spend hours and hours talking about this, I tend to find blogs that roll on for nineteen pages to be too much for me to fit into my daily calendar to read. Therefore, they seem to never get finished. In order to be respectful of your time, I'm going to try to limit every post to a reading time of fewer than ten minutes. That means at the average American reading speed of 200-250 words per minute, you're looking at less than a 2000 word entry. I promise that if I write a long one, I'll break it into two parts and/or provide a warning at the top and a TL;DR at the bottom. That only seems fair.

I’m excited to get some of these thoughts out there. I’m being careful not to commit to any cadence. While I’d like to say that I’ll drop a new thought every week, someone recently pointed out to me that such a pace will result in 104 posts in a two-year period. And that’s a terrifyingly large number. Let’s just leave it at this: I’ll post as often as possible when I feel like I have something of some substance or interest to say. I think there’s a lot of content out there without me trying to crank something out if nothing is really on my mind.

Okay, I think that's enough introduction. Let me end with this: please reach out if I can help you. If you have questions, or just want to provide feedback, please use the comment section or feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@steveathanas). If you prefer long-form, you can always email me.

And with that, welcome to the Transformational Technologist!