It’s been a bit tricky for me. I’ve always received contrasting advice. Recruiters tell me that I don’t have enough time in my current job built up to move on. Mentors tell me to move onto something bigger and not settle at a non-ideal place for too long.

In the end, one is in the best position to assess what to do. If you are no longer learning, if there are no more challenges, if there is no space to explore your leadership qualities, if you cannot go on training courses that you need…then perhaps you’ve given your part and done all you can in that position.

My view is that if it’s no longer fun, no longer exciting, then it would make sense to start looking elsewhere to see if challenges exist outside of your current employment.

For me the realisation came when I decided I am ready to go out there and risk it. Risk failing, risk not getting the job, risk making mistakes. If you no longer feel uncomfortable to put your reputation on the line then it’s time to pursue the career you really want.

Now on the serious side. Ok you’ve finished uni and have gained employment in an office job in your career path or at least something interesting. What to do next?

Whether you are in your desired role or not, the process of developing yourself has not finished, in fact you are probably less than half-way there despite your recent three years at university.

I recommend finding a professional organisation for your industry if one exists. Becoming a member of a professional society can do a number of things for your career. First of all, you can get recognised in your profession and commence your path to become a certified professional. It allows you to come into contact with peers in your industry. Thirdly, you are then more aware of continuous education opportunities.

While it’s great to have a degree, so do most people in professional employment. Getting certified, taking on further studies and creating networks will help you excel much faster than your average graduate.

Once I graduated, I joined the Australian Computer Society (ACS). Due to the degree I studied, I was able to get recognition straight away. I became a certified technologist and ICT practitioner. As long as I continue to invest 20 hours each year in my personal development, I will eventually be granted the title of ‘professional’. In this time, I’ve become aware of what types of work exist in my industry and have attending interesting lectures.

A professional isn’t automatically a professional just because he/she was able to pass all the units in that course and receive a degree. Having an external body recognise your industry qualifications compliments those letters that appear on your business card after your name.

In my last year of studies, I was so desperate to have a post-student life that I didn’t contemplate going back, not until I had spent a few years in the workforce.

After working in the public service for 15 months, I’m still unsure of when to pursue further formal education. I have been told that it’s best to work for a few years as a career path will become clearer once I have some industry experience. This makes sense as then I’ll be able to decide whether I’d like to specialise in one area or study a new stream altogether. It also allows me to explore what options are available to study while I work.

At this point in time, I’m not sure what area of studies I’d like to pursue. One interest is to learn more about accounting and ensure I have financial knowledge to complement what I’ve already learned. It’s known that once you get to the managerial level of ICT, budgets and cost come in to play much more. Being financially literate is an advantage when justifying expenditure and conveying ideas. The only issue with studying accounting is that I may be planning too far ahead.

So the other study streams I think are plausible would be to pursue project management or business analysis courses. While both are expensive, they would be a step in the right direction. Prine2 or PMP courses would be great to have under my belt. Similarly, specific courses relating to business requirements and business analysis would put me in good stead also.

I’ve seen people complete their Bachelor’s and post grad diplomas all at once before entering the workforce as a graduate. While this would be desirable, I didn’t have any fuel left in me to continue studying at the end of my degree.

I hope to check back in a year’s time to see how I feel about it then. Maybe I’ll have some courses under my belt by then. Here’s hoping.

The purpose of this blog was to document the concepts I was learning towards the end of my University degree.

Obviously this hasn’t happened but it’s never too late to get things started. As I have other internet profiles of a more social nature, I’d like to turn this blog into a repository of the topics that are of a more professional nature.

Without further ado, I’d like to kick off a series of BA related posts by starting with my enthusiasm for the job title.

So at University, I was first introduced to the position of Business Analyst. “You’ll tell the IT programmers what to do”. This is what some of the lecturers would tell us. There was a gap between the business and IT areas of an organisation. This barrier was perhaps a communication issue or even a cultural issue.

We were told we’d be the problem solvers in the organisation. Understanding the business needs while also being familiar with the technology and its limitations. It was a good fit for me at the time. I was very interested in IT yet I struggled with programming and preferred learning about business. That’s when it all made sense. I didn’t need to be a programmer to work in the ICT field. I could also study business related units whilst having a specific target industry.

So here I am. Graduated from the Bachelor of Business Informatics. Along the way I’ve acquired an interest for Disaster Recovery Planning, information systems, IT project management and Information Security. I’ve also realised there are areas that I didn’t develop so well such as accounting and cost benefit analysis. I have a few skills, a few interests, the desire to learn more still.

Despite my education, I feel that there is a lot for me to figure out. The career path of Business Analyst isn’t clearly defined. While we have thousands of BAs in Australia, the position hasn’t been around long enough to really understand what the specific streams are and what qualifies you to enter this field.

As I attempt to become a business analyst, I look forward to sharing what I learn along the way.

Gnome user interface in Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala

I first started using the Ubuntu GNU Linux operating system in May 2007. Since then I have tried both desktop user interface alternatives: KDE and Gnome. Early on, I preferred Kubuntu’s KDE interface as it was easy to use and slightly reminiscent of Windows.

The only downside was that applications often crashed causing me to restart the computer many times. I never encountered the same trouble when I used the Gnome interface in Ubuntu.

So that was my problem. I didn’t like the Gnome interface but it was more stable and it seemed like it was the favoured interface by the Ubuntu team.

My last use of Kubuntu was in this year’s release in April of Jaunty Jackalope 9.04
KDE had changed a lot in that version. I never quite got used to it and on a couple of occasions I messed up the default interface layout. After that laptop got stolen I didn’t use Ubuntu again until the Karmic Koala 9.10 release.

This time I decided to try out the default Gnome interface. Now that I have used it a couple of times before (and it hasn’t changed much) I was very pleased with the way it worked. The fact that this is the latest Ubuntu release surely has something to do with that also.

Now I am happy to work with two panels and can navigate the menus with ease. I have gotten used to the default Gnome applications even though I don’t use many. My favourite and most used applications include: the open office suite, evolution email client and gwibber microblogging application. I am trialling tomboy notes and trying to find a use for ubuntu one cloud computing. I use google’s picasa instead of f-spot and I don’t bother listening to music or burning cds/dvds. I also don’t use instant messaging but there are various alternatives to try.

I hope to try Kubuntu again in 2010, I may actually become fond of the new look KDE. Until then, I am happy with Gnome. It doesn’t over-use my hardware resources and I don’t mind the simple and plain look it has.