Short Version (TL;DR:)
Having delivery managed the team that won the IT News Award for health category 2021, on a very high note, I am moving on from Readify / Telstra purple as part of the current redundancies at Telstra. I am evaluating my next career move to join an organisation that enables me to contribute to a purpose that makes a difference.
Long version:
Last week, the project that I delivery managed, CHRIS, won the IT News award 2021 for the health category. The week before, I was confirmed of my redundancy as part of the current round of job cuts at Telstra along with 1400+ other colleagues. It couldn’t have been a better time, as it gives me the opportunity to end my current chapter in the organisation on a high note and with a swell of pride for my humble contributions, while walking among giants.
From my early days at our tiny office in Docklands as a consultant, intimidated by the brainpower around me, to my current position leading the same state/squad in Victoria; I have been incredibly lucky to have experienced life at this organisation for the last 7 years and 4 months. We grew from a small crew of 120 people nationally to being acquired by Telstra and the massive growth into Telstra Purple – the largest Australian IT services organisation.
Prior to Readify, I had started out as a developer and end up managing a global team across Australia, India and Canada as a Tech lead and SME. I had a reset to my career returning to a developer role in Readify and grew again, this time absorbing different lessons in a different, fast-growing organisation. Here I started as a developer managing two customers, grew to leading the managed services team in Victoria with a team of 15 members, 12+ customers and internal systems. I further got the opportunity to step into the Delivery/General Manager / Squad leader role, leading a team of 60+ consultants, liaising with HR, Finance, Talent Acquisition, Customers and Partners. I also got the chance to set strategy, optimise processes and policies, was the product owner for key internal systems and delivered high profile projects through a pandemic, locked up in my room.
I am incredibly grateful and proud to have gone through this journey over the last 7+ years.
I have too many people to thank as part of my journey here, Microsoft office 365 analytics tells me that there are 75 active people that I emailed, chatted, or met with in the last 4 weeks and 319 Total people I emailed, chatted, or met with in the past 12 months.
Calling out a few people who influenced my journey along the way –:
- Shailen Sukul, Rene Benetti, Karen Villanueva and Shirley Harrod for hiring me;
- Shweta Shah, Mahesh Krishnan, Donna Edwards, Tatham Oddie, Jo Joannu, Mike Biggs and Lenka for their mentorship.
- The incredible trio Kieran Jacobson, Tien phan and Mahdi Hasheminejad, whose passion, support and raw talent set a bar for me to aspire to.
- Musheer Mubarki for 10+ years of unwavering friendship and support.
- Bill, Thushan, Alex, Amy, Narges, Amal, Sam and Rob Jarvis for their support, pushing the cart with me during the last mile.
- Every person that interacted with me, shaping me into the person I am today.
I would like to also thank my wife who supported me as I took on more and more responsibilities every day and then in the recent months, jumped back to full-time work after her maternity break to support the family when we recognised the cue for the next phase in our career.
I am currently focussing on taking some time to reflect on my career, completing a couple courses that are in progress and exploring options for the next phase of my career.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish all the best to the amazing team I leave behind.
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