Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

* out of all blog posts ever written by me, excluding me’s in other parallel universes

Hi, I’m Ben and I just completed 7 months of work experience as a noobie software developer at Global-Roam.

I have to be honest: this is the first blog post I have ever written. It’s probably not very good and I know that it’s too long. Nevertheless, I promised I would compile a post on my experiences at the company, and when I make a promise I always deliver (at least 50% of the time, and anyway, Todd threatened to mark my “post on the blog” task as failed if I didn’t). Hopefully this chronicle of my adventures at the company (a tragedy, mostly) will be at least mildly entertaining, capture some of my insights, and give a sense of what it’s like to be a Global-Roamer (at the moment anyway – it’s changing fast). It is a great place to work if you are motivated, open to learning and trying new things, love customers and have a burning desire to be remarkable (like my colleagues, who seem to believe they are a collection of spies, wizards and gods that make it rain – just check their business cards).

My journey began on a sunny day in November 08 when I walked through the glass doors of Global Roam’s office, and into my first real job as a software developer. On my desk sat my two new widescreen monitors, a quad-core desktop, my very own business cards, a copy of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen Covey) and a requirements document. Not bad! A sheet of glass separated me from the rest of the development team (5 developers at the time, though most of them were either on holidays or working from home that day).

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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.