I learnt a few lessons recently that ultimately led to a job change, relocation and launching of a new venture. Tech Battalion was born at the cusp of a timeless lesson about human dignity and building those around you.
First Feasibility
I looked over at Lisa, beside me on the balcony on a sunny Winter’s morning. “We have to go this year, Mark. You can’t keep promising that we will go.” She was right. We didn’t relocate before, although we tried to force the stars to align. I did say we would do it, but it wasn’t feasible then. We didn’t have an appropriate mastery of a desired skill set to make the transition sensible. I was looking for that moment of first feasibility and I may have nearly missed it.
Subconscious Self-destruction
The National CEO of a major auto-maker once told me that he had never turned down a promotion. I applied this to my own life for a role I was in two minds about, around the time I was assessing my first feasibility for relocating to the UK. In the end, taking the promotion was the right thing, but it led me towards an exit.
Landing the Role
Moving overseas required either my wife or I to get a job. We decided that as long as we had one job, the rest of the ugly deterrents that could face us would be kept at bay. I dealt with recruiters, online job postings and personal connections. The most fruitful was the recruiter option - he led me to companies that needed to make rapid placements.
The result of moving was leaving a management role for a technical role at a lower salary.
Motive
Why relocate at all?
One appeal for relocation is international exposure. Moving far away from what you’re used to results in adoption of new ways of working. Comparing operational methods between organisations is a sure way to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Additionally, we realised that we want options for our future. With a weakening South African currency, retirement emmigration is unaffordable for most. Moving to a strong currency has its benefits in that sense. One can always move back from a stronger position later.
Arrival
My life transformed from managing a team to responding to team leadership. Perhaps the skill to learn in this circumstance is how to effectively gain momentum from a fresh start repeatably. I previously wrote code in my free time and always had a technical project that was slowly moving forward. This changed to technical work all day and creative projects at night. I was challenged to learn new tools and embark on a journey of re-creation.
Edinburgh was a whole new world at first sight. Calton Hill, Arthur’s Seat, Dean’s Village Walk and the Edinburgh Castle blew us away. Adapting to a new culture during COVID-19 is hard, but it is doable when coupled with exploration.
Launch
Before this process even began, Tech Battalion was conceived. The team gathered, the business was registered and Google Cloud became a firm partner.
What changed since I landed in the UK was an idea that animated Tech Battalion itself, moving idle limbs towards military obedience.
A New World
We now attract the best technical hands outside of the UK, fly business class when the client needs them on-site, but mostly let them focus on building sophisticated solutions.
Where before the client got a skilled contractor, they now get a best-in-class engineer and consultant along with a support team. This sounds a lot like the top three consulting firms doesn’t it? The difference is that we pay better per hour, charge the client less and give our people an unparalleled work life balance. They leave us (hopefully within two years) to do incredible feats that seemingly weren’t possible before. Some of them stay and build the vision that is no longer about the Tech Battalion brand, but about the brand of each individual that walks through our digital doors.