Community

September 17, 2024

Why would someone with an Information Systems degree from Carnegie Mellon, an MBA from Vanderbilt, and an ALM degree from Harvard take a job as an on-call Admission Attendant at Seattle Convention Center for the starting pay of (Seattle's minimum wage at the time) $18.69/hour?

Good question.

Here are my answers, and they're all true.

1. I needed a new deal.

2. I liked the new building.

3. The commute was super easy.

4. I had never worked front-of-house before.

5. After the pandemic, I needed to leave the apartment.

6. Freelance writing rates were under pressure, and I needed a paycheck.

7. After fifteen years of remote work, I wanted to work with people again.

8. I was spooked by the prospect of AI eating all our jobs and figured a union position would be safe, or safer.

9. I wanted to gain exposure to different industries, different walks of life, and different kinds of people.

10. I enjoy conferences.

In retrospect, it was an excellent decision.

I discovered things that I didn't know I could do.

I met people. Lots of people. I even made new friends.

I received good feedback on how to be a better manager.

I got a sense for how facilities operate, how they're staffed, and how much effort goes into making things run smoothly.

I had the opportunity to observe different communities -- how they interact, how they're dressed, how they carry themselves, the vibe.

And I had the chance to think deeply about what I wanted to do next.

"I wonder which way I ought to go."

The answer was to return to where I started, to my first part-time job, my college major, and my first full-time job: Databases.

It's the ideal time for someone like me to get back into the game.

The tools are better than ever, more accessible than ever, and with AI, it's easier than ever to go from idea to reality.

That's why I went with Microsoft Power Platform.

• You'll find Power Platform right there behind the waffle menu at just about every major organization on the planet, which means that there's an endless surface area of potential clients.

• Microsoft Learn has a large and well-curated library of documentation and learning paths, making it easy to pick up new skills.

• There's a growing community of users who are generous with their time and insights on message boards, mailing lists, and YouTube channels.

• The easy stuff is super easy. The hard stuff is tricky but solvable using the resources described above, plus Copilot.

It also helps that I've done this kind of work before, and then spent two decades writing about business technology, all the while poking my head into the O'Reilly library of tech books.

Nevertheless, my past experience was necessary but not sufficient.

To reskill, I relied on the resources provided by the community.

With that support, I've been able to build some very cool software, upon which I plan to build a business and relaunch my career.

In June, I signed up for the Power Platform Community Conference in Las Vegas, September 18-20, 2024.

In August, my story was selected for the PPCC's Got Power Award Show.

On Thursday, I'll share my story (along with a sample of what I'm building) with the community.

It's exciting to be here in Las Vegas, and I'm looking forward to a fantastic #PPCC24.

Bringing my card tricks to Las Vegas