I love being a freelancer. I’ve been working that way for a number of years, but in the last 12 months I started to think about moving into a permanent role. With freelancing, you deliver then move on. Often, you don’t have enough time to develop strong and effective relationships. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time freelancing – and got to work for some great people and teams. But it was time for a change.
While working in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), I worked really closely with the Made Tech team. I was so impressed with how this team approached the problem, and how much they evidently cared about their people and wellbeing. The programme Made Tech worked on was one of the biggest in MoJ, and it was a new journey for the organisation. Made Tech helped other teams to up-skill, build pipelines – in essence, to do things the right way. This did not go unnoticed.
A quick skim of the Made Tech site revealed a company that wanted to make real change – and having seen this in practice in MoJ, those ideals rang true. When you see it, when you experience it, when you get such great feedback from Made Tech people, it does make you sit up and take notice. So here we are: I am now a Delivery Principal at Made Tech, but still work with great clients, and (hopefully!) delivering great outcomes.
The joining experience
The pre-onboarding experience was remarkably smooth: my MacBook was posted out ahead of the start date, work accounts were set up in advance, and on day one, I was ready to rock and roll (well kind of – as we started at 8am). But, the enthusiasm on that first call injected us all with such excitement for the week ahead.
The old adage of freelancing is that you arrive at the door, fire up the laptop and away you go – though I do appreciate this is not always the case. So I arrived in the Made Tech world, unaware of the onboarding process. I will call this the “safe landing” into Made Tech, getting to know the company, the teams and the people.
To that end, and rather alien to me, I experienced a week of onboarding! It was full on, but it was such fun, and it really does help you to quickly embed yourself into the company, along with its people, culture and goals. The week consisted of interactive talks from all areas of the company, plus a 2-day collaboration exercise to learn about Made Tech’s ways of working, and the roles of other people on the team. By the end I was thoroughly exhausted, but in the best possible way. I had such a great week.
Onwards!
Though delivery is an aspect of work I really relish, the development of people and teams is one of the big reasons I joined Made Tech. Developing communities of practice to support the teams, and building knowledge bases of the best ideas and ways of working – these are the areas that excite me. To have time to do this and also develop individually is fabulous.
I‘m now working in central government, doing work that makes a real difference. My experience of working in various government departments will, I hope, add value. It’s so good to now be doing this with a company that strives to make a tangible difference to people’s lives. I have made a great decision, and I look forward to the journey that lies ahead…
About the Author
Rob Ashworth
Delivery Principal at Made Tech
