The story so far…
When I was up there, stranded by myself… did I think I was going to die? Yes, absolutely. And that’s what you need to know going in because it’s going to happen to you. This is space. It does not cooperate. At some point, everything is going to go south on you. Everything is going to go south and you’re going to say, “This is it. This is how I end.”
Now, you can either accept that… or you can get to work.
That’s all it is.
You just begin.
You do the math. You solve one problem… then you solve the next one. And then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.
The Martian (20th Century Fox)
Now, for those of you who know me personally, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the 2015 movie hit The Martian.
I particularly enjoy the talk at the end of the movie, where Mark Watney is speaking to a new group of NASA recruits who are embarking in the astronaut programme about his recent visit to Mars. The way that he talks about how to approach challenges and problems is bang on, and whilst starting out on my career path in IT was not life threatening, there’s plenty of analogies that can be drawn from this quote.
My name is Adam Scott, and I’m a Technologist with 15+ years of experience in the IT industry across multiple industry sectors. I have a wife, son and Miniature Schnauzer at home, and enjoy sailing, walking, watching movies and mentoring in my spare time.
This is my personal blog and platform to share some of my experiences and ideas with you, in the hope that it will be accessible to people who are starting out on their journey and those who have a good amount of tenure already.
Before I go through some of my experiences in the industry, it’s probably worth going through a summary of my current role and certifications.
I hold several technical and non-technical certifications and professional body memberships, including but not exclusively:
- Member, British Computer Society (MBCS)
- Member, Institute of Leadership and Management (MInstLM)
- Member, Chartered Management Institute (MCMI)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Professional (SAP-C01)
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator, Associate (SOA-C02)
- Certified Scrum Master (SMC)
- Certified GitLab Associate
- Hashicorp Certified Terraform Associate
I’m currently serving as Director, Cloud and Transformation at Tata Consulting Services (TCS) with responsibility for customers across the UK and EMEA. Each day, I engage with stakeholders at all levels to advise and mentor across a number of subject areas covering cloud adoption, cloud transformation and navigating the cultural challenges associated with technology change.
Before joining TCS, I served as a Cloud Consultant within the National Security and Public Safety Professional Services practice at Amazon Web Services. I enjoyed helping organisations understand the true benefit of the cloud and deploying mechanisms such as Working Backwards to accelerate the delivery of business value and services.
Head in the clouds 