I started out fixing people. These days I fix computers, networks and the odd very confused printer.
No computer science degree, no bootcamp. Just a habit of teaching myself whatever's in front of me, and a career built on it. This is how that happened.
My first career was in physiotherapy. Mornings were patients, charts and the quiet satisfaction of helping someone walk out a little better than they came in.
But I was always the person poking at the technology around me. New gadget, new software, new way of doing something? I wanted to know how it worked.
Mornings were still at the hospital. In the afternoons I took a part-time job at a telco, helping an IT engineer who'd broken his arm. He knew what needed doing; I was his hands. That meant assembling servers, mounting them in racks, and whatever else the day threw at us.
I picked it up fast. Fast enough that the telco offered me a contract role, and not long after that, a permanent one. Saying yes meant leaving the hospital.
I took it, and I've never looked back.
I don't have a formal IT qualification. What I have is the habit of learning whatever lands on my desk, whether it's a technology I've never touched or a project nobody else wants to own.
That's the part of IT I love most. It never stands still. Something I mastered five years ago has been replaced twice since, and I still get a kick out of working out the new way. Staying curious has done more for my career than any certificate. (I've collected plenty of those too, all self-studied.)
Nobody handed me a curriculum. I learned from people who took the time to show me, and from a lot of trial and error. So now I make time to mentor the people I work with, and pass on the shortcuts it took me years to find.
People say I fix things by nature. I'd like the people I mentor to end up saying the same about themselves.
I've been lucky to be recognised more than once: awards for innovation, technical skills and customer service, among others. Being named a finalist for Technical Excellence in the ARN Innovation Awards 2024 was a proud one for someone who started out with no IT training at all.
Supporting my kids and my wife is the job I care about most, and the one I'm proudest of.
I love cooking. It's hands-on, there's always something new to learn, and the results get eaten.
Mountaineering, rock climbing and anything else that gets me up high and offline. It turns out problem-solving on a rock face is very good practice for problem-solving at work.
You don't need permission or a perfect plan. Say yes to the unlikely opportunity, learn the thing in front of you, and keep going. The skills you already have will matter more than you think. Mine started in a hospital.
I'm a principal consultant in Sydney. I work across the whole Microsoft 365 stack, from the desktops people use to the identity and security that sits behind them, and I make it secure without making it painful to use.
Notes from the work: modern workplace, identity and security, mostly Microsoft.
Small checks for Microsoft 365 admins. They run in your browser; the ones that need a sign-in read only what they need through Microsoft Graph, and none of them send your tenant data anywhere.