Background
Firstly, thank you for making the effort to come over to my website. I'm Mark, originally from Blackpool but living in Manchester since 2014 and definitely feel like a Manc at heart, I love the city.
I feel very lucky that I always had a clear understanding of what I wanted to do. I remember being in Year 9 in my IT class thinking that I really loved working with computers and by Year 10 I had decided that I wanted to go to University to study Computer Science. Unlike a lot of the people I worked with, I was never a huge techie though, I didn't learn to program until I started at 6th form and didn't really do anything in my free time. I am sure there is a blog post to write here at some point.
After graduating from uni with a 2:1, I embarked upon a career in the tech world and can honestly say that I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I have worked across a number of sectors in my career:
- School Travel
- Creative Agency
- Environmental Consultancy
- Insurance
- Investment banking
- Public health
- Consultancy
I got my first team lead role at 26 which was a baptism of fire and turned out to be much bigger than that. Since then, I have spent the last 14 years or so in various leadership positions.
Why a blog?
Let's start by saying that I have never written a blog before and it is something I have often thought about over the years and always talked myself out of. Knowing what to talk about is one of the hardest things and most people I have worked with have really technical blogs, something that I love to read. I always felt as though I was never as 'qualified' as them to discuss these kind of things, imposter syndrome has definitely been part of my life.
So, what has changed? Well, I realised recently that there is a lot to say about working in the tech industry which isn't focused around deep tech dives or specific topics such as agile. Coupled with the experience I have gathered over the last 18 years I am hoping that the things I will be writing about will be of interest to people and hopefully can help someone.
I also intend to have a reasonably broad range of topics on the blog, something that really resonates with how I see myself as a consultant.
Quick fire questions
Cat or Dog?
I don't sit firmly in one camp or the other here as I have a love for both. I currently have a British Shorthair cat but if I had to choose, I would sit on team Dog.
Coca Cola or Pepsi?
Diet coke is a staple of my life.
Burger or Hot Dog?
I have had some mean hot dogs in my time but come on, you can't beat a good burger.
Superman or Batman?
Probably the toughest question on my list.... Superman is awesome and I have a lot of love for him. But there is just something about Batman, the charisma, the tech, the lack of superpowers but being completely bad ass. Batman for me.
Fire or Ice?
I am going to think of this in relation to me having super powers aka Iceman / Pyro. Not in terms of their characters because Pyro is not the nicest of guys, but simply which power is cooler. I feel my daughter would be so excited if I had Elsa like powers so gonna have to choose ice.
McDonalds or KFC?
I am amazed that more people don't share my view that KFC is clearly the elite option here!
Windows or Mac?
I was a Windows man for most of my life, got my first Mac when I was 30 and I can safely say that I would never look to move back.
Football or Rugby
I do enjoy both sports but definitely more of a football fan, an Arsenal fan for my sins.
Getting in touch
If you like what you have read, or even if you don't and fancy a constructive discussion then please feel free to get in touch with me on X or LinkedIn via the shortcuts in the header.