I joined Her Majesty's Post Office, as it then was, as an Engineering apprentice, doing what the public expected a PO Engineer to do, climbing poles in moorland snowdrifts, mending cables down pollution filled manholes, fitting phones in rich people's houses ("take off those boots !"), etc. When I finished this apprenticeship, since I was regarded as something of a Wizz Kid, I was sent into the transmission field. That included Intercity telephony, Transatlantic audio circuits, Multiplexed Telegraphy and the like - very high tech for the day (60s), and all using valves (heard of them ?) .
Later I transferred to Broadcast Television, looking after the BBC and ITV transmission circuits and maintaining standards, switching feeds around between companies when required - using clockwork mechanisms... Coronation Street (an early UK soap - still going !) was in my hands, distributed countrywide. Granada studios were just down the road, as we were located in Manchester. I also looked after early mobile radio (VHF and UHF) and microwave (SHF) transmitters (I wouldn't stick one in my ear !), plus stockbroker Closed Circuit TV as a sideline...
I was interested in developments and, when a company TV studio was built, became the resident Engineer operating cameras etc. for a private network for executives (Confravision), reaching as far as Sweden. I also did some electronic design work (I'd done a HNC in electronics by then) to enhance the facilities, using embryo digital multiplexing technology.
Too good for that place, I entered an internal competition (75) and gained my promotion to engineering management. Initially doing long term planning of trunk networks (forecasting), I then moved to Junction Cable planning (those linking local towns) for a while. As I was by then computer literate (ALGOL), when one of the managers left I picked up his computer programs (running on a London IBM 365 mainframe), and started enhancing them - punched tape programming. Also took over the batch computer planning responsibilities running on our Bristol and Ispwich ICL computers ('batch' meaning we used sweatshops of girl typists to badly punch data cards following our crudely scribbled instructions !).
My job around this time was very financially oriented (costing various options), so I built up a program suite to plan and cost (over 20 year periods) any options that could be devised (waste minimisation, discounted cash flow and the whole financial works). Our boss was always changing his mind, and asking 'what if' questions - the recosting took 3 weeks manually, but my programs gave 100 options in 10 minutes, and could be repeated in half an hour, so he had to make a decision at last...He hated spending money ! We were costing installations that cost 250,000 UK Pounds or more, so big business in those days.
These programs were so successful that I rewrote my job spec (I had understanding bosses once :-), but not my salary (they weren't that understanding !), to be a specialist computer software engineer and rebuilt the group, moving in to digital transmission systems and optical fibre cable planning when it was only a gleam in a designer's eye... By this time Microcomputers (CP/M) were on the scene and I set up the first operational multi-user micro database system I think in the U.K., running planning, design, costing and monitoring suites with full colour outputs - fighting the backward 'computing' groups all the way to get it off the ground. It used TurboDOS and MDBS software. I wrote over 300 complex programs in all (BASIC and Assembly, most with Database calls). Trained a few undergraduates in computing (sandwich courses) on the side too, as well as doing a part time degree myself for the fun of it. As a result the North West Region (that's the area I covered) stole a head start on the rest of the country and was the first to completely digitise its network.
Still I was never one to let grass grow, IBM PC's came on the scene, primitive by today's standards but better than the 8bit 64k machines I was using, so I wangled one or two (budgeted as 'engineering supplies') and started working on colour graphics, producing maps and the like. When networking PCs became possible I evaluated the available products (Novell, IBM, Ethernet) and upset IBM by publicly saying their's was the worst :-) But my view prevailed and we went for Novell (adopted as company standard 3 years later, with no credit to me ! ) and I transferred the project onto those, before gaining another promotion (85) this time to the dreaded and unimaginative 'computing' division - I like a challenge...
Mad. First thing I noticed was that my considerable previous computing expertise (I was an accredited IDPM computer professional by then - the only one in the Division) meant nothing to them. I was an 'engineer' thus 'stupid and ignorant', it was a closed shop of static and outdated ideas - surprise, surprise ! Now I had my own group of managers (I had a few staff before but nothing significant) and immediately came into conflict with the top computing boss (just recruited from outside the company). He thought he was God, but so did I ! Sadly he had the bigger thunderbolt, so we spent the next 3 years fighting - I proposing a 'professional' solution, him saying 'it was not the answer he wanted to hear' (it didn't give the business to his corporate 'sponsor' - guess the colour) and threatening me with the sack.... His standard greeting when he came visiting was something like "What are you doing now you bastard ?" - I paid little attention to these attempts at 'team building' ;-)
In this period we reorganised yearly (bosses need an hobby, they have no real work to do after all...), so I was working as Computer Services Manager, Applications Manager and other combinations for various people (anyone he though might 'tame' me ! ). Eventually the BT board decided they would join in the reorganisation fun (their attempts at 'management' having proved disastrous - does nothing ever change ?) , so more (consultant originated) musical chairs and I was working in Rochdale for a Manchester boss, whose own boss was in Sheffield - so we spent more time travelling to meetings than doing any work (on mainframes now in COBOL, PL/I, CICS/IDMS/UFO, mostly for BT's CSS flagship system). Another expensive and disruptive 'improvement plan' and my boss was in Preston, her's in Newcastle, his in London and nobody in our supposedly 'environmentally friendly' company got any work done, except for the filling stations !! Still we did have the biggest commercial computer installation in Europe, it had 'eaten' the Manchester, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Preston, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen ones - and was still hungry ! Such is 'bigger is better' megalomania... Pity it kept crashing ;-)
By now I'm billing manager in charge of a billion pounds a year in revenue (with a group working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) but can't buy a penny pencil - I've no personal budget, nor can I obtain a box of floppies for my out of date 8086 PC, yet I represent my specialism nationally (Technical and Applications Systems) at some Board meetings to decide computing policy affecting 30,000 users ! My considerable 'Quality' management training (TQM, QMS to BS6570/ISO9000, all the 'guru' money making schemes) told me something was decidedly amiss here :-)
I'd had enough of dictatorial corporate stupidity by this stage (especially the hypocrisy of spin about how 'people matter' when the imposed actions proved they didn't, e.g. pay freezes for us, bonuses for the board, and a Chairman's letter saying that experienced staff were holding back the company !), so waited my time and took 'voluntary redundancy', so that I could pursue my private research interests full time. Best move I ever made ;-)
Over 28 years I'd seen a stagnant, unimaginative Government bureaucracy develop via various levels of competitive self-organizing freedom to an equally unimaginative centralised corporate bureaucracy - should we be surprised ? I started off knowing nothing, and ended up doing nothing, but boy was it fun in the middle ! So there you have it, I've experienced enough to fill a couple of lifetimes I think, so I'm having a go at a third now... This time under MY control (self-organizing along with my equally autonomous international colleagues). CALResCo is the dynamic result, hope you enjoy it.