After recently reading a post on Troy Hunt's blog post on creating and maintaining a personal brand, I decided that it was time to seriously get my blog up and running.
I have set up websites on this domain name many times in the past, using Squarespace, Drupal on AWS Free size instances, and Ghost on Free size Azure instances. However in all of those times, it really was mainly just to play around with different publishing platforms. I immediately gave up when they broke, and deleted those instances, vowing to start a new one again, but not doing so again in a hurry.
But that article was the kick I needed to be more serious about this task, as it really spoke to how my professional life has panned out so far.
When looking for jobs in early 2016 after moving on from a previous role, I found that a lot of the positions that I knew I could do, however I didn't have the paper behind it, and therefore, how would a prospective employer know that this was not just resume embellishment. As such, the only jobs that my resume said I was qualified for was Help Desk, as I only had those specific certifications, not the MCSE and other certifications required by most organisations for Systems Administration roles. However, I did have 5 years of experience managing and maintaining Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, VMWare ESXi and other Systems Administrator level software.
Luckily, I was head hunted by a recruiter in a IT contractor supplier company, and got a contract role at an LHD in NSW Health, in a Systems Administrator role. However, I still haven't finished all exams required for the MCSE, so when or if the contract ends, I'll still be in the same position of not having paper to match my experience. I also would like at some stage to be back out in my own consulting business, and this blog can be used to show my credentials better than any certificates.
So, this blog will be my public record of the work I do, and the experience I have with particular software systems.
I have set the blog up on a Raspberry Pi Zero W, since I saw these come on sale in Australia via an Australian reseller. In the beginning, this is easier and cheaper to have this set up to run off my home internet than Cloud Services, especially as I have used the free trials on all of them.
So, this is how it will run for the short term, while I get this up and running, and start adding content. I will eventually migrate it out to Ghost Pro, when the website hits are large enough that I can justify the monthly cost, which I cannot at the moment.
Stay tuned for new articles, and I will keep evolving the website to suit the requirements of the blog, such as subscriptions etc.
