I am allowed to take a longer time in this section because I am on the older side of life. Mycorporate career path was largely in telecommunications and technology, and quite interesting really given where technology has taken us. In fact I was part of a team who tested remote access from home into your corporate network through Ericsons technology, alas we had working from home capability. 

During uni days, my friends and I worked as a waiting staff for a great Melbourne catering company. This was one of the most intriguing jobs, largely because I enjoy watching people. my friend and I would always snoop into the fridges to see what very rich people really ate when there were no guests there.

My corporate beginnings started as a commerce graduate in Strategy and Planning with Pacific Access.  My boss was Scottish and I really didn’t understand much he said, but I was too scared and shy to say so.  He was a perfectly nice, stiff man.

My first project was to analyse telephone traffic and shopping purchase data for the folk between Rockhampton and Mackay in regional Queensland.  There was also an “Avant Garde” group working on the new thing called the internet. They wrote in code! (what did this mean ?- I later found out it’s mainly zeros and ones) They were allowed to wear “casual” gear to work, yet we all had to maintain suits and big hair.

One of the executives had a thing called a mobile phone in his car and it looked like a black brick attached to curly wire.  He looked quite bizarre when he spoke on it. He liked it a lot.  He also had a convertible car. It was late 80s, and it was a time for aspirational thinking and long lunches paid for by the company. 

I was later headhunted to join Ericsson, a huge turning point in my career. I learnt about the infrastructure of voice and data networks and worked on some huge projects. I was given a tiny Ericsson flip mobile phone and I felt like I was in a spy movie.

Ericsson was the best place I ever worked. Why ? People were clever and formally trained and appreciated each other. It was truly an international company, so I loved learning about different countries through the people I worked with.  I also related well to engineers and them to me.  That time I had a German boss, once again I didn’t really understand him but was too scared and too shy to say so.  He was a perfectly nice man, who blushed a lovely soft pink when he laughed.

I have also taught part time in the business schools at Monash and Victoria Universities.  It was very daunting being amongst students who knew much more than me. I was also paid to mark exams papers, working from home way before COVID, which was fun and quite different back then.  I think I gave away too many distinctions.