2013-05-23T21:24:07-04:00 Colette Mason http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=colette-mason Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Colette Mason Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1111759 2011-11-24T07:58:40-05:00 2012-01-24T05:12:02-05:00

Colette Mason http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colette-mason/
I did have one permanent job back in 1994, working as an IT support bod. I did it for 11 months then left, disillusioned, stifled by the acute lack of "challenge" and opportunities that seemed to accompany a permanent position.

The highlight for me during those long dark months was the annual appraisal. I only had one, but I had high hopes for that session.

I hoped my employer would recognise all that unpaid overtime, the lunches worked through, going the extra mile in a crisis, coming in on a Saturday to do some sys admin work on the Unix system.

Life would be rosy and my reward for my hard work would be that I could attend a two-day training course on network administration I'd spotted. I reasoned with myself that I'd done enough free overtime to cover the cost of the course, so it seemed like a fair swap. (...ahh the naivety of youth...)

The appraisal came and went. The glimmer of hope I got when the appraiser said "we'll see what we can do about the training" fizzled out and became a "no" about 3 months later. So did my enthusiasm for being a "permie".

Shortly after I went freelance and I never looked back.

I needed the instability. The unpredictability. The variety. The constant stream of opportunities. Something that was sorely lacking plodding in a permanent job for a few years at a time before jumping ship to repeat the whole sorry business again.

As a freelancer, I was doing something new every few months - picking up new knowledge and skills each time that I could take to the next assignment. I was there for as long as the assignment and then it was perfectly OK to move on with no stigma!

With my increased fees I could invest in myself. I could pay for any course I wanted to do, buy any text book, or pick up a key piece of equipment or software I wanted to to keep my skills sharp - and constantly evolve new ones. For me it is the perfect lifestyle.

That's why I was pleased to see the arrival of "National Freelancers Day" (Did you know 23 November is National Freelancers day? If you didn't know about it don't worry there's always next year. Pop it in your diary.)

For me, freelancing was the perfect escape route from the rat race. But for the UK economy, are
freelancers so important they need a "day"? Let's have a look at the evidence.

Figures released by Kingston University and The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) for National Freelancers Day show that the number of freelancers in the UK now totals 1.56 million or 1 in 20 in the UK workforce. This is up from the previous figure of 1.4 million, revealed by the University's initial study in 2008 - this is a 12% increase.

In a recent press release, PCG's Managing Director John Brazier welcomed the research figures, commenting:

"The figures underline the steady growth in the sector in turbulent times, and confirm a widely held belief that more and more skilled and talented individuals are opting for freelancing as a work/lifestyle choice. Freelancers are offering industry and commerce a flexible talent stream when and where it is needed."

Even the Prime Minister thinks freelancing is a "good thing" when it was given a ringing endorsement by David Cameron who said:

"I have a huge respect for all those who make the brave decision to branch out on their own and take control over the way they work."

Government has not always shared this view, small business red tape, problems getting finance, and the dreaded IR35 legislation have made running a freelance business onerous at times. Many of my IT friends have given up and trained to be electricians or plumbers for an easier life.

Let's hope this renewed respect from Westminster turns into action and the freelance sector is encouraged to flourish even more quickly, and give the UK economy the boost it so desperately needs.
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Colette Mason http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colette-mason/
Understandable thought that is sometimes - no one can be a master of everything they attempt in life - my question is where did those personal opinions come from and is it a fair assessment?

I read a book by Alan Cooper called the "Inmates are Running the Asylum", which is Alan's take on technology and why it drives some people crazy - and you have to admit he has a point with his theory.

In the bad old days of computing, in the 80s and 90s in particular, many, many software programs were written by developers who excelled at IT, were very nerdy, not commercially minded and got the product finished and out of the door. It usually was shipped to the customer with a massive thick doorstep of a manual that made you feel it could solve any stumbling block you threw at it - except it didn't. Ever.

The problem with having nerds creating programs without any checks and balances from the marketing team is that the geeks created clunky, inflexible, functional bits of software that suited their way of working - but wasn't really designed for Joe Public to use with ease.

What it felt like to use the program never really entered into their heads - the only concern was "did it work", "did it compile", "did it install" and never "how should this work best for end users?"

As a result, many people over the age of 30 will have battled with awkward, frustrating, flaky software that made getting something done extremely painful and protracted. Unfortunately, rather than the customers thinking, "hey these guys have created a pile of useless [use your favourite expletive]", they tended to blame themselves. "I'm stupid", "I make lots of mistakes", "I'm not really clever enough to do this", "I'm not good with computers", "My computer hates me". "Computers are supposed to be complex and difficult". I think that's wrong and a damaging viewpoint for individuals and UK PLC as a whole.

Let's look at an example. Consider this:

Is the end user really stupid if they put a space between the letters and numbers when they type in a postcode? Or is the programmer stupid for not realising postcodes have spaces in them in the real world and making sure their software handled that space, rather than displaying a nagging, error message berating the user for "entering an invalid character". In the bad old days, software always worked this way. After that it probably crashed half way through getting your job done, announcing there had been a "Fatal Error ERR:198a8B3a8br".

These days, savvy tech companies are realising it's important to get customer feedback on how their website works for real people, their gadgets function or their programs help someone "get stuff done" in a fun and enjoyable way. The dawn of Web 2.0 has gone some way to swing the pendulum of control away from the nerds and towards the customer.

However, these companies are still very much in the minority. Plus they tend to be the big household name companies, not smaller businesses. I've never ever been to a business networking event where a small business owner says, "yeah, we checked if customers could use our website without dying of boredom or topping up the swear box trying to dig out our telephone number" - I think that process of checking how it feels to use technology should be made compulsory for business - the online world would be a much better place.

So, technophobes, next time you start running yourself down remember, you're not necessarily a bad workman if you blame the tools - maybe someone sold you the IT equivalent of a pointless solar torch and ran off with your money?]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1034419 2011-10-27T04:13:16-04:00 2011-12-26T05:12:01-05:00

Colette Mason http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colette-mason/
I wish I got a pound for every time someone turns to me with a desperate voice "My computer's just gone...funny". Seriously, I'd be living in a penthouse apartment in Monte Carlo now.

I start imagining...has it spontaneously turned into toasted marshmallows? When you open up a spreadsheet, is there an animated photo of John Cleese doing his Silly Walk slap-bang in the middle of the screen? And then, I look at their face and it's clear they're not dealing with anything remotely humourous or entertaining.

Regular as clockwork, I reply: "What do you mean by 'funny', exactly?" and guide them towards describing the problem more accurately, so I can help them.

I'll let you into a secret - even after 30 years of working with IT I still get stuck with things. I still speak to the screen through gritted teeth mumbling "Why've you done that? WHY!?" and then walk off to get a strong coffee, still complaining as I go.

The way I solve IT problems really quickly is to spend a few minutes analysing what's happened and working out how to describe the issue accurately as possible, then use Google. 99.9% of the time, some other poor person already faced exactly the same dilemma and someone else has answered it.

Here's my three tips for solving IT problems the easy way:

Pay attention to the wording of any error messages.

If you can get a five or six word phrase and you type that into Google with some quotation marks round it, there's a very good chance you will find the answer already described on a website.

Better questions get better answers.

Try to turn the problem into a question. So rather than saying the bullets have "gone funny" in your word document, think, "how do I change the bullet point style in Word?" and then search for that.

Take a break if you're feeling really stressed before researching the answer.

Sometimes it takes a bit of time to solve a problem. You might need to restart your PC or reinstall some software. If you make sure you've got a bit of time to look into the problem it's much easier to follow my first two tips.

So next time you hit a snag, don't rush headling towards the nearest nerd in your life, try these tips and see how you get on. The more times you solve your IT problems yourself, the quicker your confidence builds.

I'll leave you with something that is funny about computers:

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history-with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila." (Mitch Radcliffe)]]>