Chris Drane

Director, Philomaths

Ceremony: 26 April 2016, 2.00pm

Speech

 When I was a full-time professor at UTS, graduation day was my favourite time of the year. As I entered the door down there, I reveled in the joy and pride emanating from the graduands, their families and their friends. I also felt that I had played a role in helping some of the graduates to complete their degrees.  The last time I taught here was 2003, so today it is unlikely I have helped any of you, unless you have been a very careful learner, but the academic staff deserve to feel proud today.

I believe you are graduating at a very good time.  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are hot topics, and everyone from the Prime Minister down seems to be talking about improving Australia’s performance in these areas.   Being UTS graduates, your teachers have prepared you well, and you already have some experience of the work place.  You are coming to the market with the right qualifications at the right time, so your prospects are strong.  You have every chance of having a successful career, and I very much hope you are able to take advantage of this opportunity.

You are also lucky that you have chosen fields where the technical work can be enormously enjoyable and satisfying.  Indeed, in technical fields, you can achieve a wonderful state of flow, where time ceases to matter and you are consumed by the beauty and complexity of what you are creating.  For much of my career, the work I was doing was so much fun that I would do it for free. Fortunately, my wife was always strongly of the view I should not share this insight with my employers.  You have also the opportunity to move into sales, marketing and management.  In management, you may not experience flow, but you will experience excitement, challenge and learn more about yourself.   When things go wrong, you learn even more about others.  I have been lucky to be able to alternate between technical and executive roles in my career, so do not feel that going over the dark side is an irrevocable career decision. Indeed, I encourage you to give both sides a try.

Now, you may have noticed many of us are wearing fancy dress.  In a world that is so busy and determinedly modern, we embrace a tradition that can be traced back about 800 years, and wear medieval gowns and hoods.  The University is only one of three organizations that has survived from the middle ages, so it is a remarkably stable institution.  Most of you will not be employed in stable institutions.  You are entering a highly dynamic workplace.   Politicians like to use phrases like ‘Creative Destruction’.  Creative destruction does create wonderful new technologies and opportunities.   Working in startups or companies on the creative side of the equation is challenging, exciting and just plain fun.  However, being on the destructive side, when a company is approaching its end of life, it is definitely challenging, certainly exciting, but simply not fun.

Either by choice or fate, most of you are likely to have many employers.  You will find whole fields of your profession will be replaced by technology.  Many of you will be your own employers, going on to found start up companies or build a lucrative brand around your own skills. 

Given this turbulent job market, I thought I might share some thoughts as to how to thrive in such a changing environment.  Your employer is unlikely to look after you for the rest of your career, so it is important that you spend some time looking after yourself. 

The first area you should do this is in terms of your brand.  Of the many positions that I have held during my career, only one was the result of an unsolicited application for a position. Networking comes naturally to those of you who already have a sales and marketing bent.  Networking is more difficult for the technically oriented, but it is still very important.  Fortunately, technology does come to the rescue here.  If you do nothing else, join Linkedin, and be diligent in linking up to every substantial contact that you make in a career.   You will be surprised how quickly this network will grow. This network is valuable if you find yourself on the job market again.

For those of you into software development, and that is probably the large majority of you,  I recommend you become involved in the open source movement.  It is not only a way you can give back to the community, it can also help your career.  First, by working on an open source project, you will establish a strong network outside of your employment. Second, given your open source work is public, potential employers are able to see just how good you are at writing software. Third, it is a way of developing your skills in new trendy areas. It is very easy to rely on your current skills, but in the dynamic job environment, the need for skills does disappear, leaving you of interest only to legacy projects.

Also take care of your health, physical, mental, and financial.  Modern jobs can be so exciting and demanding that it is easy to become totally consumed by it.  I used to tell my direct reports that I considered it part of their job to make sure that took care of their health.  I know I probably sound like your parents, but eat well, find time for physical exercise, cultivate awareness, be careful with your money and make time for the others in your life.  Although in the short term you can work 80 hour weeks and spend every non-working moment glued to your smartphone, in the long term it is not a sustainable strategy.

So in summary lead a balanced life by taking care of yourself and care for others.  These are sentiments that could have been expressed at a graduation ceremony 800 years ago.  However, my final thought would not have been given 800 years ago, because it would have only applied to kings and nobles. More than any other generation of graduates, you are likely to be given great opportunities to create wealth, become well known, cultivate your mind, build friendships, enjoy leisure, help others, and find meaning.  The choice is yours as to what you strive for.  So, finally… be careful what you wish for.

About the Speaker​

Adjunct Professor Chris Drane has had diverse career with senior roles in both academia and industry. Between 2003 and 2011, Chris was co-founder and CEO of Seeker Wireless Proprietary Limited. Seeker Wireless developed advanced cellular location technology and sold systems to operators in eight countries around the world, including Vodafone, Claro, and Mobily.

From 2001 to 2003 Chris was Vice President of Research for Cambridge Positioning Systems, where he was responsible for their longer term research into innovative cellular location technology. Currently, Chris is the Director at Philomaths; an expert witness consulting agency specialising in location and telecommunications systems. Philomaths is the proprietor of the Golf Mentor web-app, which is designed to help golfers improve technique.

Chris has been with UTS since 1991, first as the Professor of Computer Systems Engineering then as Adjunct Professor.  He was responsible for implementing the final stages of the Computer Systems Engineering Degree, as well as guiding the research performed within the Computer Systems Engineering group.

Chris completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a PhD in Physics at the University of Sydney.