Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

This is just a short post to say goodbye as I’ve left global-roam for another job. A friend recently informed me of an opportunity that I’d be insane to pass up and so I’ve jumped ship. Not a sinking ship mind you. I just saw a port in a different shipping lane.

I found working at global-roam to be fantastic learning experience. Prior to joining, I hadn’t been in IT for a number of years. The amount of useful junk that I’ve crammed into my skull in the past 13 months has my head spinning (in a good way).

These are exciting times for the energy markets and for this company in particular as it undergoes its restructuring. The ETS has been all over the news. Everyone is bricking themselves for a hike in their home electricity bills. Talkback radio personalities are doing their best to scaremonger and every second person you talk to is an expert.

Now that I’m leaving, there’s a bit more room on the bus. That means there’s more opportunity for innovative individuals to get in at the ground floor (Yes smart-arse, this metaphorical bus has an elevator). You may not be an energy market expert at present, but if you can demonstrate the ability to learn and a can-do attitude, then I’m sure the company will be most interested in hearing from you regardless of whether positions are advertised or not.

That being said, it was a pleasure working at global-roam and I’ll continue to follow this blog with interest.

One of the benefits of working at Global-Roam is the strong emphasis we have on self-improvement. We do everything short of eating books and articles concerned with marketing, software development practices, and creativity. Very regularly we brainstorm, philosophize, furrow eyebrows and pull serious faces in an attempt improve some aspect of the company.

One day, the boss-man (aka Paul McArdle, or as telemarketers like to call him, Paul McArdie) was bulldozing his junkmail collection when he happened upon an advertisement for The Warren Centre’s 2009 Innovation Lecture (http://www.warren.usyd.edu.au/bulletin/NO58/ed58art1.htm). He was about to feed it through the woodchipper when he noticed that the guest speaker was Dr Lars Rasmussen of Google Maps fame.

He immediately emailed the rest of us to see who might be interested in attending. He already knew that interest would be unanimous and yet unfortunately the company coffers were not bottomless. With grave finality (and maybe a hint of sadistic glee) he announced that there would only be three tickets purchased, and that he himself would attend. The reaction to this news was immediate and the air was cold with a sense of hostility (and perhaps the onset of winter). Tempers flared, teeth gnashed and Paul appraised the scene from atop his desk, rubbing his chin. Animals. How could he dispense the tickets without creating dissent among those who would miss out? Should it be first-in best-dressed? Should they be doled out based upon performance? Organised cage matches? Or perhaps he could just throw the tickets into the crowd and let God sort it out..

Then the most obvious question struck me. “Hang on. Is this during work hours?”

“It starts at 6pm”.

“PPFFFFFFFT!”
Tears flowed as I tried to stem the flow of coffee from my nose. Before I could react, excuses were flying around the room like angry hornets.

Shane the Canadian chimed in: “It sounds pretty cool eh, but I’ve got to write another hilarious blog post. They don’t write themselves and I have too many NEM-Watches to sell eh.”

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