My First Year - Coming to a close

For those of you close to me you will know, I made the decision to leave Lloyds Banking Group in May 2018 to move to a company which satisfied my want to learn and resolve a few other things at the same time.

My aspiration was to move into a more DevOps based world and one that uses some of the latest technology's(or at least ones I thought were cool!) and solve a few extra problems along the way. So I started the Journey over at Call Credit, based in Leeds so nice and local, no change to the commute and importantly had daily Rocket League games.

Fast forward to the end of the year and Call Credit has been acquired by the American company TransUnion and we are now beginning our integration journey into been 1 company although despite a few bumps in the road its all going in the right direction!

If I am honest I had reservations over the last 7 months around if this was the right decision as can be imagined but it was only in the last few months when my first phases of projects were delivered and the Sprint Retrospectives started suggesting I was adding value. The final confirmation for me was the end of year feedback, something I historically have faced with dread, so out the emails went and I honestly couldn't be happier with the feedback. Its not all just praise there is some really good constructive criticism which I have already started working into next years plan. The teams have been really accepting of my eccentric ways and I now feel a lot more relaxed about been who I am around my peers, something that I have struggled with my 10 years at LBG.

In all honesty if I was to list out some of the things I didn't expect to appreciate and now thoroughly enjoy it would go on for ever but here is 10;

1. Pubs on Friday!
2. Warm school dinner style puddings with custard every day
3. A cake trolley that comes round twice a day
4. An environment where everybody pitches in and adds value regardless of if its their core role
5. A great social scene, although if you class playing Civilization 6 till the early hours Social that's up to you
6. A real eclectic mix of people, not just in my direct team but in the wider teams such diversity really does lead to some great conversations
7. Access to great tech, new tech, old tech and an environment its okay to just play and build (and break!)
8. Octopus Deploy - I have fallen in love with this Software
9. Agile methodology
10. Getting a Dog! - My manager has honestly been great about me doing more flexible hours and the teams have really worked to make sure everything remains the same even though I work from home some afternoons. She even makes regular appearances in our daily stand ups.

All in all its been a great second half to the year and I think now I have got my stride on next year should be even better!

Cheers Kurt