On my Twentieth Service Anniversary - a Retrospective

December 11th 2020, was my 20th anniversary since starting at IBM. I wasn't quite sure how to start this article: I just knew I wished to write something down. 

Like many career IBMers, I've learned something - usually several things - every day, solved problems, made mistakes, helped others, been inspired, and sought out support from areas and people I didn't know existed in the matrixed yet siloed presence that is our employer. On balance I am grateful for much of my experiences, and especially for the people who I've gotten to know, respect, and care for.

So, with apologies to non-IBMers who would be unfamiliar with the org structure (although I've otherwise tried to avoid internal jargon and initialisms) I dedicate this post to everyone I wish - and need - to thank. You all have been an important part of my life.

The Facts:

Life events

1. My elopement in the autumn of 2000 to an Irish citizen, which led to my applying to multinationals based in Dublin, Ireland in the first place;
2. My trans-Atlantic move from North America (I'd lived in both Canada, my home country, and the US, where I attended undergraduate studies) to Europe; and
3. One intercountry, intra-company move. 

For reasons I won't delve into, I was compelled to move deeper into the EU, and with its consistently high ranking in quality of life for ex-pats and given my passion for "classical" music, Vienna was the only logical choice. Now, if only I could actually feel proficient in the local language. I have found Austrian (and in particular, the Viennese flavour of) Deutsch to be difficult to understand and use, compared to the High German I'd learnt the basics of ages ago in middle school.

Roles

Most of my contacts know that IBM is a vast company in many senses: this has allowed me to pursue what seems like a series of disparate careers: 

1. Software localization toolset testing and change management (1.2 years);
2. Natural Language Processing and patent filing/paper publishing (5.3 years);
3. Web personalization and IBM.com program management (2.5 years);
4. Search Engine Optimization and web site/social media marketing consulting (8.5 years);
5. Ontology and Taxonomy development/curation and more patent filings (1 year); and
6. Cyber and Information Security Incident Response (1.5 years).

All of them have been globally funded, which meant working primarily in English and with multidisciplinary and international teams. Fortunately roles 1, 2, and especially 4 (and to a lesser extent the rest of them) have permitted me to dust off my Japanese language skills.

I started in all of them as a newbie, picking up a Java programming certification (role 2) and the GCIH certification (role 6) along the way.

Business Units

In chronological order (roughly) I have belonged to:

1. Software Group (now defunct)
2. CIO
3. Transformation & Operations (during part of which I had a sub-contract in GBS, which is our Consulting division)
4. CHQ Marketing, and
5. CISO (first in E&TS, now in Systems)

The Painful:

Colocation

I've chosen to refrain from writing a novel on this one. Although I could.

People

It may be Nietzsche-esque to say so, but on (the odd, thankfully rare) occasion, there has been conflict and strife, politics and questionable events. Often related to the above.

The Great:

I will always try to wrap anything up with positivity.

Working on what matters

Supporting our customers means supporting everything from a country's government, infrastructure, economy, healthcare system, and society. Even during my stint in Marketing, I interpreted SEO as a means to ensure that our existing and potential audience could find helpful and interesting information that was pertinent to them. Dedication to every client's success is a core IBM value, and it has applied surprisingly well to even the internally facing roles that I've held.

Innovation

Developing inventions encourages creative problem solving, improving the status quo, and while there is some remuneration, I feel the most intellectually and emotionally fulfilled in coming up with ideas.

Awards

I represented the Lotus brand worldwide in the early tenure TechConnect event which was sponsored by Nick Donofrio. This was in 2004. I also spoke that year at a Women in Tech conference, also about our innovative approach to textual language identification.

In 2012 I won an Employee of the Month award for my work within the Consulting division, supporting a Telecomms customer in analysing the language they used on their Support pages, comparing them against the queries that their visitors entered, and aligning both to better address the topical matter.

People (again)

In this context, I could tritely say that it's the people whom I work with, whether for years or just for one incident, who contribute to making the long hours, occasional frustration, and the most concerning of situations worth dedicating my best to coping with. And I would be completely sincere in doing so.

The Distinguished Engineers I admire and have worked with; the new IBMers I try to mentor; the Legal experts and BISOs (and their delegates) whom I now work with, and the Academy of Technology people I hope to become better acquainted with - all touch my life even outside of the work context regularly. The account teams whose incidents I investigate - they too, may fleetingly pass through my calendar and inbox, but they matter to me. 

In particular there are two managers whom I'd like to thank profusely for their enormous impact on me, but only one is available.

The one remains my first liner, and I owe him an enormous amount: he was the one who laterally moved me to Austria into role 3, literally sight unseen (which in itself seems miraculous), nominated me for the Employee of the Month award, and then hired me internally again to my current position. I more than suspect that he'd been ushering me gently but firmly for months towards my next role.

The other passed away tragically in an accident last year (a few months after he left the company). Without him having provided several years of funding and finally directed me in role 5, I wouldn't have been around to be picked up for my current position. But I'm sure he would have enthusiastically been happy to have seen me reach this milestone.