Returning to work on the 16th April, with a somewhat blase attittude, “lets just see just how good my personal brand really is”.

I have always been sceptical about “Personal Brand”. Yeh Richard Branson, Alan Sugar and Steve Jobs are all household Names / Brands, but after being pushed into the Transition Centre I was convinced I was just a number, in fact, a nine digit number starting 7011……

For years I had been trying to do all the right things with the right people, demonstrating business benefit in most of what I have delivered. YES… Some things I could have done better, some things I could of pushed harder, but I had never seen much in the way of evidence that I had a personal brand to speak of, let alone a good one. NO promotions, NO decent pay rises etc etc

To my amazement, on the 11th April, (2nd day as a re-deployee) I get a message from an old colleague and friend, “Did I want a post in his team?” After some discussion it transpired that senior managers in his part of the business were determined not to let me go, to the point there created a post for me. They had heard I have been moved to the Transition Centre, and they were seriously concerned about the impact that would have on parts of the business. My first re action was , “How can one man (number) be so important??”, but I accepted the offer of a new role.

So Two weeks with same desk, same Pay, same responsibilities, different Manager, different dept, different line of business later, here we are. I am a member of a new team, which is a very eclectic mix of people, from Geneva, Exeter, Edinburgh, Ipswich, and now Gloucester. So far (two weeks in) it has been thoroughly enjoyable working in a well-managed, well-motivated and knowledgeable team.

Now all I need to do is shake the “anger”, “frustration” and “confusion” that the four week journey, towards, through and out of the other side of the transition centre has left me with??.

• Good Pay
• Great flexibility
• Agile/home working
• Great Leave entitlement
• I also get free broadband
• and in this case a corporate that does not do compulsory redundancy

However there are some downsides too (driven by trying to maintain shareholder value)

• Many many business transformations (re-orgs)
• Many Cost reduction challenge/initiatives
• with re-orgs & cost come staff ?head count challenges

Did I mention they don’t do compulsory redundancy. well that is one saving grace

So as of 10th April i am classed as a redployee, in the “transition centre” where I still get paid for looking for an internal post, re-training is available, so I could take the opportunity to gain some decent Cisco, Oracle or Linux skills. Time will tell.

On the plus side, looking forward to a NEW challenge and NOT collecting a P45….

So?I signed up, only to find a number of my friends were already using it,

Great forums, community support, and most of all constructive feedback from real friend, not the dirty look from a stranger if yoiu put a pound on,

Sorted

I am running an HTC Desire HD, with Cyangenmod7, and it got the APN setting first time, I did however use the community provided android app to fine tune the APN settings. An excellent example of the community support model that GiffGaff owes its success to.

Fantastic value for money, 8p / min for most call unless you get a goody bag, I am using the 10 quid goody bag, 250 mins, truly unlimited SMs and truly unlimited internet (but you are not allowed to tether). Even if you brought a brand new android device for say £400, it comes in cheaper than a contract device over 14 months!!! Yes 14 months, NOT 24 and a loads of minutes you don’t need..

Auto top up on low credit, auto top up for goody bags is in the pipeline, so while being a PAYG service, it has all the flexibility of a contract and more.
Only TWO issues I can see at the moment.

1. O2 does not have the best 3G coverage in the UK, but does have outstanding 2G/edge to back it up, so for calls, text & email you can’t beat it, the foursquare app get a bit upset on 2G, but every other app I used just gets on with it
2. I would like more than a TOP5 breakdown on my call and SMS usage, online perhaps, that said this is a rare feature for a PAYG service.

Get your GiffGaff SIM Here…….?http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/species5618

Looks set to be another day of testing, finding and fixing other peoples cock-ups.

Some people just don’t get system readable data must be consistent….

‘Bob23′ is not the same as ‘Bob 23′

May have to go all Rambo with a big gun….

Test from android maps to WordPress integration….

So the hunt was on for something different, original and most of all very me.

Thought about various electronic references, ohms law, resonant frequency or Q formulas, but a bit to obscure for main stream people.

So along came bar codes, plenty of forums later, I started to look at standard type 39 barcodes, but to get something meaningful in, and have a chance of it scanning, it would need to be VERY long
So 2D barcodes had to be considered, QR Code seems to be the current 2D format that most people recognise, and is supported by plenty of moble phone scanners.

Still has to be quite large to scan, but it just had to be done.

After 2.5 hours sat in a Gloucester tattoo studio, I now have a QR Code Tattoo, best of all it scans too!
Though i am not sure if Greg will ever do another QR Code.

Test test

Running app on HD2, with andriod from xda-developers