Hello (or ’bout ye - as we say in Norn Iron, I mean, in Northern Ireland).
My name’s Mark McClure and I’ve loosely followed a career themed around a love of learning - and earning.
Started out as a teacher way back in 1982.
(Hello RHS in Newtownards!)
I must admit that a desire for increasing earnings also featured prominently in my 20-something mind - once it dawned on me that skills in the classroom had little to do with how pay was calculated.
So, in 1987 I left school teaching and moved to England as a technical instructor in one of the ‘hot’ IT technologies at the time - minicomputer systems.
No web + No Home Computers + No mobile phones + No Email = Bliss?
More career change was in the air however, because the personal computer (PC) networking revolution was gathering pace.
A ‘chance’ encounter in the spring of 1989 with a small ‘black box’ that some R&D engineer had brazenly hooked up to the back of a minicomputer I was responsible for, led me to get curious about what it was…
… and ultimately to be headhunted into the very same fast growing Local Area Networking (LAN) company that had designed it.
Those were heady and fun days.
Business air travel was actually pleasant(!) and I had lots of opportunities to teach computer networking courses all over the globe.
And on one such trip to Japan I found that my personal and professional lives suddenly and beautifully intersected.
This would eventually lead to my decision to move to Japan on a permanent basis - and I transferred here in the early 1990s by planning for and then trusting in this unwritten vision statement:
“move to japan - build a career - start a family“.
Aside from the ever present risk of the “Big one” (earthquake) my experience of living and working in Tokyo has been enjoyable - although it’s a very busy, expensive and overcrowded city!
And I certainly better understand the phrase “corporate samurai”!
It’s sometimes said that we teach most what we need to learn.
In my case I figured that I’d taught long enough and it was time to put the learning into practice.
To do that, I changed roles from IT educator to IT engineer in 1997.
Still based in Tokyo but traveling throughout the Asia-Pacific Rim countries, I got to grips with various computer networking projects for a US multinational electronics components manufacturer.
A 1998 trip to China was my first exposure to how fast cities like Shanghai were expanding.
There then followed a surprise layoff (Japanese-style) in the summer of 1999.
‘Fortunately’, the Y2K and Nasdaq Tech stock manias intervened to keep me in Japan - and I got hired by a Wall Street Investment bank 3 months later.
Lots of high pressure projects, tight deadlines, late nights and weekends. These people pay the big bucks - and expect their pound of flesh.
So, what’s new?!
While at the bank the student in me also came to the fore again.
And with great support from my family and employer, I finally, at the 4th attempt, earned my Cisco CCIE certification in Dec 2002 - the “IT equivalent of the MBA” (that’s the only way I can explain it to non-IT folks.)
Never, ever, ever quit - and all that jazz.
Took a lot of money, sweat and tears - but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
As my 40s marched on, an interest in “Personal Development” deepened and led me to study life, career and business coaching with the wonderful folks at the International Coaching Academy.
http://www.icoachacademy.com
After graduating from their certified professional coach program in mid-2006, I had thought of pursuing a coaching career within the bank.
They had after all supported my studies as part of a career development program.
However, the arrival of a global IT outsourcing project became the trigger for dramatically changing my career game - and I finally left in early 2007 “to pursue other interests”.
So what’s next?
Well, this career transition is perhaps the most challenging - since it takes me from the familiar roles and habits expected of an effective corporate employee - to the “uncharted waters” of what I have generically termed as an “Internet Business Owner”.
This blog is one part of that Internet business - and acts as a spotlight for the coaching and mentoring products, services and knowledge that I believe will help others embarking on their own successful career changes.
–Mark McClure
