I started life as a systems programmer for Statistics Canada. After only a year, I was promoted to CS-2, which was a full analyst grade. I moved to the Technical Assistance Directorate (TAD) and worked on a number of smaller projects for various areas of the Department. I guess you could call us the "in-house IT squad". This gave me lots of practice in project management and what used to be called the "waterfall" method of software development.

A post then came available in the Labour Force Survey area. This was an amazing opportunity for me, as our Labour Force Survey determines our GDP figures. In other words, the Prime Minister himself waited on the phone for our results to come through and they had to be right! This area of Statistics Canada was breaking new ground in a number of areas. The most exciting one to me was the CAPI surveys. (Computer Aided Personal Interviewing.)

We put the survey questions, with all the associated error-checking, on laptop computers and sent the surveyors to homes armed with this new technology. The staggering improvement in data quality was so great that we were soon being visited by countries around the world to see how we got such accurate figures! For me, it meant my first opportunity to program for the Windows operating systems, introduced me to non–Oracle databases (FoxPro, Access and such) and gave me my first taste of the complicated world of data security and networking, as we sent the data from our many regional offices back to Ottawa in encrypted electronic packets. If you consider that it had all been paper and Canada Post mail up to this point, you can appreciate what a huge leap we had taken!

Of course, all of this new technology needed user guides, training and guidance. Here’s where my professional training as a teacher (gained during parental leave) really came in handy! You guessed it, the technical guides, especially the user support documentation, were mine to create and maintain, in both of our official languages (English and French). Alongside the written support, we offered a national helpdesk, which I was asked to manage as well. Based on feedback I received through the helpdesk, I quickly concluded that we needed a separate software testing unit, to verify the code before it went out the door. I wrote a paper on my idea, and on coming back to work after the winter break, was surprised and delighted to discover that my idea had been approved and that I was to design, build, staff and manage the unit. I learned a lot about end-to-end testing in a hurry! We also tested the hardware, as this was the first time laptops had been used in the field like this and they had to take some hard use.

Due to family responsibilities, I had to take leave for a period of time, during which I turned to teaching in order to work closer to my parents. I was about to retire entirely from the public service, when something made me check the redeployment list for posts in the Maritimes. There was a post open – working in Marlant HQ (the east coast headquarters of the Canadian Navy) I went along to the interview and met George, who was to become my boss for the next four years.

Lots of people get labelled ‘genius’, you hear it all the time. George Carson actually was. This meant that most people could not understand half of what he was trying to tell them, because he, quite reasonably, left out all the ‘obvious’ bits. Those bits might have been obvious to George, but it was Greek to the rest of us! In short, I was in a rarefied atmosphere indeed and I knew it. I took every opportunity to learn whatever George was willing to teach and he was both willing and enthusiastic. It was a bit like having my very own university professor on call! A whole new aspect of IT opened wide before me. I learned to build midrange HP-UX systems from scratch, hardware and software, including building my own .tar files, how to correctly approach and troubleshoot a problem I had not seen before and – most critically – how to make sure I left every job properly completed and documented.

In this secret-side post, I had some amazing opportunities to work with and learn from the best in each field. Andy Samoluk, one of the top Staff Officers / Project Managers in NATO, helped me hone my own project management capability, Ron Pothier, one of the most elegant and efficient Java men I’ve ever met, showed me the tricks of the trade (although I don’t think I’ve ever quite forgiven him for scoring an almost perfect grade on a semester-long Java programming evening class we took together – I don’t like being bested!) In short, by 2002, I was feeling strong and capable as a Unix programmer, trouble-shooter and open-source systems gal. I also had the opportunity to manage all of the Y2K testing for our secret-side software. I was glad that George had such faith in me.

Another aspect of this post was the maintenance of various servers, including, Domino, Microsoft Outlook, GCCS, MCCIS and our own military messaging system. I was privileged to be selected to represent Canada as the technical representative at biannual systems conferences to do with our suite of command and control software (a bit like a very big Tom Tom!) This meant travelling to other member nations and negotiating for the changes Canada needed to the software all the nations were using. I studied Getting to Yes and Getting Past No by Roger Fisher & William Ury. I cannot recommend these books highly enough. Not only did we win the changes we needed for Canada, I’m delighted to say, I became far more able to get to yes with my son!

I was at work on 11 Sep when the world changed. I went out mid-morning and by the time I got back, I had to park over a mile away from the base, as there was concern about possible car bombs! When I got back inside the shield, where our systems were, I was told we were stood up – the navy was going to sea! I rang my dad and asked him to pick my son up from school – he said he would asking when would I be home. I replied possibly a month but I’d let him know! What an adventure!!! George and I were the only two IT support who could go to sea, as we were also military. Apparently, insurance won’t cover civilians in a war zone! Sea sickness aside, it was a wonderful experience. There wasn’t much sleep or down time, but the feeling of mission was intense. I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren about this one!

I am now a dual citizen and have much greater freedom as to the work I take on. I’m back into my first love, which is all the technical stuff, but also teaching. I’ve had a stint as an IT Trainer and I loved it. It is a natural shape for me. I’m now working at a local FE college, up to my elbows in their Moodle-based online learning software and working freelance designing online learning.  If you would like to know more about how online and blended learning can provide inventive, engaging and cost effective  , please don't hesitate to get in touch!