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Diary of a Non-Techie in a Drupal World

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Let me introduce myself – I'm Steph, the newest member of the Ixis team. I've now completed 6 weeks in my new role as Business Development Manager at Ixis.

The directors have taken a leap of faith employing a non-techie to drive forward their thriving Drupal development, hosting and support business.

Although I was familiar with open source systems in a previous life I had only really dipped my toe into the world of Drupal. I must admit I was a little anxious that everyone would laugh at my amateur hour attempts to converse in Drupal speak, especially as my initiation test was to “go to London, set up and run an the Ixis sponsored exhibition stand at Drupalcon” – the national Drupal conference attended by 1500 people from 54 countries - an easy first day on the job then?!

However, I spent 4 days in the company of some of the most awe inspiring and creative people I could have hoped to meet, which was probably the best training I could have wished for and the whole event was a great success for the business and raising our brand profile.

I'm now picking up new techie terms every day, from Drush to Puppet and not forgetting the cURLS

Most recently, I've been working on proposals for our larger clients including the British Council, the British Epilepsy Association and launching TES Growing Ambitions.  

Its also been a hugely productive month in the hosting department, despite being a member of staff down there have been several new launches and lots of progress towards automating provisioning of new servers (hat tip to Peter L .)

Finally, I'm preparing the office ready for our new starters as the recent recruitment drive has been going well.  We are always on the look out for new staff members though so do keep in touch.

Here are some highlights of my first 6 weeks living in Drupal world:

  • Learning what its like to share an office with 8 techies

  • Meeting and speaking to our lovely clients

  • Seeing that despite the doom and gloom spread about the recession, that businesses who are ripe and ready for work can thrive

  • Meeting the lovely folk at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus who constantly strive to support our businesses

  • Meeting Prince Andrew HRH who came to launch the new Enterprise Zone building Vanguard House

  • Attending T-Shirts and Suits coffee morning hosted by David Parish at the beautiful new Leaf Cafe on Bold Street

  • Seeing Mike C – one of our directors being interviewed for BBC Granada news

  • Rallying the team to take part in “organised fun” including quiz nights and our contribution to the British Epilepsy Association tea party charity fundraiser

  • Eating my body weight in biscuits whilst introducing the team to my weird and wonderful tea collection

I'm now looking forward to planning how I can continue to drive forward the Ixis business plan and get more enthusiastic developers, site technicians and linux sys administrators through the door as we try to keep up with demand.

So this time in 6 weeks whilst you are warming your mince pies by the fire getting ready for Santa to bring you one of our Druplicon Stress Balls, I'll still be dreaming of a Drupal Christmas.

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