When I was in my primary school, I was asked what would I be when I grow up? My first choice was to be a teacher since I idolized my teachers. As I progressed from primary to secondary to high school, my choices changed when I was exposed to other subject matters. "Input, I need input". I sounded like Number 5 in "Short Circuit". I was more interested in foreign languages, chemistry, computer science, electronics, politics, etc. The former passion has led me to attend Thai, German while I was in University, Japanese while i was working in Fujitsu and finally Tagalog when I was based in Philippines. The only regret I have was that I did not put enough time to pick up Swedish when I was based in Sweden. Chemistry was my best subject and became my first cross road to decide on my academic choice. I decided to pursue a combined degree of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science due to peer influence (one of my senior showed case his winning papers from MIT). The chosen degree suited me as the degree will allow me to pursue two of my interests (computer science and electronics).
What You didn't learn in University
I never for once would dream that I will move into training although I have always have the passion to learn new technologies. It started when I first entered the work force. I was working for Telstra Australia and I was given a project on RS232 and UART programming. Picking up new knowledge areas became a common necessity as I climbed up my rank and moved around the industry domains. I found that I have the knack of picking up new technologies and knowledge very quickly. Some of the technologies and skills that I have become an expert in are listed below :-
- The Japanese workflow library LSVLIB and Unix to Windows NT porting expert while I was in Fujitsu,
- RPC, DCOM, MFC, SQL and globalization resident expert while I was in Siemens,
- I started to share my design pattern pattern knowledge to my Australian and USA peers ,
- I pioneered in using Struts, JSTL, MVC and Spring3 in my web based projects,
- I became the Thunderhead resident expert in IBM e-document technologies while working in a large e-document Insurance project,
- I have added SOAPUI, DIAMETER, JMeter, Seagull to my knowledge base arsenal as I moved to telecommunication projects.
- I became the SME for a large swap out project in Philippines where I picked up Fuse ESB technologies and mapping of the NSN (Nokia Siemens Network) charging system interfaces to Ericsson's charging system nodes (AIR, SDP, CCN).
- I picked up the new multi-screen OTT/IPTV technologies when I was sent to work in a large Singapore OTT project as the Solutions Architect. My knowledge was further honed when I was sent to Sweden to join the elite PDU team in Sweden.
Working with something new that I didn't learn from my university course materials became a norm and necessity as I picked up new challenges. I also learned that while passion and dedication are the basic ingredients to learning new technologies, the art of learning can only become successful if one is creative in applying the right technologies to a solution problem. I remembered one of my Siemens' software development manager complimented my skills and that he was amazed at my ability in applying the Microsoft technologies to come out with innovative solutions to design brand new products to the high-end Siemens access control system.
Becoming a trainer
I first realized that I have the potential to become a good trainer when I was able to articulate my new found knowledge to my peers and juniors. My first dabble as a trainer started when I have to the opportunity to present in-house training sessions to share my knowledge. My recent engagements have included training as part of my role. One of the attribute to become a great trainer is that one must be the expert in the chosen subject matter. I matched this criteria with great flair as I have always been a great learner of new technologies. TAL became my first official external role as a trainer, What differentiated me from other trainers is that I have adapted my training materials to be part of an exercise towards building a functional project; an in-house betting website for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Learning thus became an easier exercise for my students. Unlike standard companies training courses, I have learned that customization the content towards something the students have in common helped my students to pick up the knowledge. When I was presenting to the Vodafone-Hutchison technical architecture team, the brand new HTML5 technologies, I specifically chose the company's brands to be part of my presentation. Working in Philippines consolidated my role as a trainer where I have the opportunity to prepare several training sessions and customized training materials (Operation Guide, Training Objectives, Evaluation Questions, Training exercises, Power point presentations) when the standard Ericsson product training materials were not available. The Philippines experience was also a good baptism of fire as I survived the "cultural shock" element when I presented my training sessions to other cultures and nationalities.
Do you have what it takes
I can't predict the future but I am giving this a go as my next progression from my accomplished technology career. This is my first step. Besides the need to build up my new network, I will have a lot to learn especially on the business side. Starting this technical training / learning shop is a new frontier for me. I certainly hope I have what it takes to take me there.
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