A little more serious tweeting today. A little about my experiences in my career.
Hopefully I can get to responses amongst a number of responsibilities.

#Thread

I have been working in the IT industry for almost 20 years.
It has been great and I have grown a lot.

I have had the privelege of being able to travel globally for my roles, meet some amazing people and eat some incredible food (which I love to do).
But it has also been a very challenging, more so in the first 10 years than in the last 10.

I started working at Hitachi whilst at Uni, once a week and all holidays. The money I was making was more than I had ever had. Of course I spent most of it I didnt really have a financial plan.

I spent most of my time absorbing and I was fortunate that I had a great technical mentor. I was equally oblivious to the goings on around me, too engrossed in this world of IT business and technology so everything seemed great.

When I finished Uni I was asked if I wanted a fulltime job. Success! It was a lot tougher to get a job after the dotcom boom but I had! I was now a "Professional Services Consultant". This was huge and paved the way forward for me into the role I am in today.

But I was not prepared. For all the technical training and mentoring I had received, nothing had prepared me for how to manage the systems of oppression while trying to "provide a service" and remember the "customer is always right".

I experienced oppression in the workplace, at customer sites, coporate events and functions. I experienced it because of my Indigeniety, my age, my appearance, my opinions.

Sometimes insidious and sometimes blatantly open.
Sometimes attempted to be hidden behind a joke and other times full blown gaslighting and violence.
I did not have the confidence or skills to respond in the way I would today.

Whenever I did stand my ground, I was called aggressive and got scheduled in to meet with HR to discuss me being nicer, and more accomodating.

Around 2009 I approached my manager and explained that I think I was about to break. I had been having outbursts with customers and colleagues. The stress and pressure of the job, and the expectations that went against my values was wearing me down.

I was told that I should leave the company - clearly the best thing to do was to runaway...no help to be found here.
I was devastated. I stayed because I did not have the confidence to find another role. But I did not know what to do.
My work and relationships started to erode.

Still in 2009 and I was on my honeymoon, just arrived back from the holiday part A happy time right? I recieved an SMS to come into the office tomorrow and bring my laptop.
Well that could only mean one thing. But as it turns out it wasnt all bad.

Being made redundant had freed me of the chains that I felt had been slowly taking me down.

I am forever thankful and fortunate to have the most incredible and staunch partner who supported me through this time and still does to this day .

I am also thankful for my great friend from Gunnedah. A Blackfulla that I met playing WoW. He was not working at the same time and we hung out almost everyday, two brothas, one squig herder and one black orc! #WarhammerOnline Yarning and supporting each other.

Taking that redundancy time to reflect, reconnect, redefine and redsicover with my family and friends, close and far, was something that I know now was pivotal for who I am today.

Looking back, I was torn. Torn between how I was raised and who I was being molded into.
Torn between my values and those that I was being trained to adhere to, to overwrite my own with.

After some time I secured a new role. But by now I had realised more so what I didnt want, than what I did.
I resigned after 6 weeks.
In the exit interview I was asked "We have broken you havent we?"
I laughed. My response was blunt. You can't. #NoMigalooCanBreakMe

I returned to Hitachi in 2010. Not because I felt like I was valued in the past, or some sense of respect or loyalty. I returned because the team I would be working with had my respect. The leader of the team was compassionate, wise, strong and caring.

Diversity was valued and encouraged. People were included and in many senses of the word, the team was a family. Empowerment was not an milestone in a project of improvement because it was core to the team values

Those values continue today and I am very proud to continue to champion them. At times it feels like we live in this sphere of control that isnt mirrored outside. However, I have found that when you lead with your values you lead with truth to yourself.

And that is what I try to do everyday now.
But there needs to be greater focus on this in the tech industry. We do not prepare young people of diverse backgrounds and lives on how to survive the ongoing oppression. And it is not being changed fast enough.

There are of course leaders and progressives in the space, and I encourage people looking for roles in tech organisations to seek them out, find those that align to your values.

But for every one of those great places to work, theres multitudes with:
- none or very few women
- no LGBQTIA+
- no cultural/age/disability diversity
- and no blackfullas.
We need to do better. We need to be better.
#InsertDiversityEqualsGoodBusinessQuotableHere

And yes, we see you parading out your trainees, your un-paid interns and your tokenistic hiring.