Humble beginnings

I’ve been lucky enough to have mentored and spoken with quite a few people taking the first few steps on their career journeys. I find it interesting that many new grads focus on getting a role or internship with the big name corporations. You know the ones.

At the time, I was shattered upon falling at the last round of interviews to enter the graduate program for one of Australia’s largest telcos. Looking back now, I’m actually quite grateful for the opportunities that opened up in smaller teams instead.

As I was to find out, smaller teams by their very nature, need each person to tackle a broader array of tasks. Now I’m not sure about you, but I get the best understanding of something by doing, completing tasks hands-on. Smaller teams tend to give the opportunity to get hands-on with activities that would otherwise be assigned to someone else on a larger team.

In the world of OSS, with so many moving parts, the broader the base of understandings you can connect together, the better.

So, starting off small isn’t such a bad thing. But as your career develops, there is a saying that applies, “the bigger the dream, the bigger the team.” Bigger challenges require a greater amount of collaborative effort, where the humble beginnings and broad understandings will hold you in good stead.

Where did you get your first opportunities in OSS?

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  1. 15 years back, after I was selected for the job of a managed network services engineer at a new NOC, I was, the next day handed a CD to go (con) figure it all by myself. On top of the CD it said ‘concord’. I walked back to the server room thinking ‘what the hell does a defunct high speed plane ‘software’ have to do with this NOC’
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  2. Hi Steelysan,
    What a great story! You really were thrown in the deep end weren’t you?
    Thanks for sharing!

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