Jon Durrant talks us through his past and present as an IT professional, from his pivotal time at PlayStation to his thoughts on the future landscape of IoT, and shares his wisdom and advice with the community.

Can you share a bit about your background?

I am an IT professional and have been in the industry for more than 25 years now. Most of that time was within corporate organisations as an IT Architects of one type of another. I transitioned to a different model a couple of years ago and started my own business. So I sell training courses on the Udemy platform: IT Strategy, Data Strategy and Raspberry Pi Pico development. I do some consulting and I also influence or educate as a YouTuber.

I have seen changes in technology and culture throughout my career. When I first started my sexuality as a gay man was something that I had to keep in the closet. Bullying of LGBT+ was common and we had no legal protection. I’m glad to say this has changed fundamentally and the workplace is somewhere we can be ourselves.

There is still more work to do and I have struggled more in recent years with recognition of my dyslexia in the workplace than my sexuality. I plan to talk a bit more about this on my YouTube channel in Dyslexia Awareness Week, so look out for that in October.

Did you come up through a “traditional” techie route or has your career taken twists and turns along the way?

Is there a traditional route? Yes I took a “traditional” route. I graduated from University of Brighton with a BSc in Computer Science and then became a junior software engineer on a local project (Embedded C Development). I only did that role for 9 months before returning to the University to do a PhD in Object Orientation and Distributed System Design. It took four more years to complete the PhD before I returned to being a software engineer (Java).

Though I will probably never recoup the lost earnings from doing a PhD, I enjoyed it greatly, and it helped me look at problems differently. This helped me move quickly from software engineer to an Application Architect or Lead Developer and then to Solution Architecture and Enterprise Architecture.

Like a lot of IT Architects, I remained in that individual contributor role for quiet a long time before I progressed into management. It has always been technical management of smaller teams and still having a hands on technical guidance role. Often working on things like IT Strategy or roadmap planning. Aligning the business with the IT division and platforms.

Reflecting on your career, is there a specific moment that stands out as pivotal or defining?

I joined PlayStation in the UK as an Enterprise Architect and was asked to assess the landscape of corporate systems in the UK and plan a 3-year roadmap. There was massive cynicism from the business that this was just bug fixes and upgrades, and from IT that there would be no money. The work though got focus from the executive team who began to see IT as an integrated part of the business and an enabler for business growth. Changing the view of IT from one of cost to an investment for return.

This one piece of work transformed my career within PlayStation and moved a cultural change from a small piece of work in the UK to global changes. With me quite quickly ending up with a global Senior Director role.

What piece of advice would you give your younger self as you embarked on your professional journey?

Engage the business and think of yourself as part of the business, not just an IT professional. For example, if you work for a retailer on stock control systems, you might well be a Java software engineer but you are also a retailer. Embracing the language, culture and business context of the organisation will help you deliver change and get noticed.

Looking ahead, what’s your big prediction for the tech landscape in 2024?

We are nearly at the end of the 3rd quarter and so I think we all know that 2024 has been the year of AI. Specifically generative AI. We have seen massive strikes in Hollywood around fears of AI and generative AI services becoming commonplace in the corporate landscape. Will we see generative AI be misused to influence the US president elections in November?

Let me look a little bit further ahead to give a more interesting prediction. I think the other massive change to the tech landscape is IoT. For a longtime, this has been talked about and now I think we are really beginning to see it. Our consumer devices are becoming internet-connected, controlled and data providers. Ok some of this I think is hype, do we need an IoT kettle for example?

The next interesting transformation on IoT I think will be around scale. Right now it is mass consumer devices that get IoT enabled, devices that will sell millions of units. There are a lots of much smaller local problem spaces where IoT may makes a difference, in Agriculture, Retail, Property Management, and just about every field. I think we will see the evolution of small-scale solutions at a reasonable cost.
Already hobby-built Iot systems are something within the grasp of even the beginner. We have seen several IoT projects shared at Brighton’s Breaking Breadboard meetup group.

Considering your involvement in Silicon Brighton and community-building, what does the concept of ‘community’ mean to you personally? How important is it in the tech industry?

Community is very important and something I have not used enough. It can help us learn but more it is about building bridges and connections for our professional evolution. Whenever I have wanted to recruit as a line manager I’ve first thought about my network and tapping people I know could deliver for me. Being in people’s network through community is how to get the first opportunity. Not just in recruitment but also in business opportunities.

As an introvert sometimes I struggle with community. Putting myself out there is a challenge. I use “personas” and “costumes” to help, to become someone slightly more outgoing to help me put myself out there.

How do you balance staying updated with the latest industry trends while ensuring continuous personal and professional growth? Any specific resources or practices you find particularly valuable?

That isn’t easy. Working as an IT leader I used to find this very challenging having little time for self-development and research. As an IT leader, I found services like Gartner and Forester hugely valuable to accelerate my knowledge in that space. Those services are expensive, though some of their content does come out for free and it is worth following both organisations on social media.

For development on specific courses, I find Udemy very good. The courses are short and quite specific allowing you to hit a learning goal. The reviews, description and course structure is available to browse before you buy. Plus a very open refund policy should the course turn out not to be what you expected.

We can’t learn everything about IT but wider awareness is also crucial. I rely on web and social channels to give me that. Services such as LinkedIn, The Register and Tom’s Hardware have served me well.

As someone who has contributed significantly to the community, how do you see mentorship playing a role in the development of the next generation of tech professionals?

Mentorship has been crucial in my career. I’ve been successful by delivery transformation to business and spanning the divide between the technical world and business strategy. That presents me with so many unknowns. I have often used mentors over relatively short periods (less than a year), to help me develop a wider understanding of some of these business spaces. From retail store management to HR leadership and financial treasury operation.

It may seem hard to put yourself out there and ask for a mentor, but most people are flattered to be asked. If you want a catalyst for learning and developing then I think mentoring is one of the best strategies. Think of it in terms of the widest skills development rather than just tech skills, but business acumen and influencing skills. Through mentoring can we develop rounded professionals.

If you want mentoring in Solution Architecture or Enterprise Architecture space, why not give me a shout?

Is there any additional wisdom, experience, or anecdotes you’d like to share with our audience?

IT is fun both professionally and as a hobby. I’ve spent years building big corporate systems from finance and HR platforms, to massive data warehouses. Though I got satisfaction for delivering these, I confess I get more by building a computer system that can move. I think we are so used to interacting with screens and keyboards, that making a robot move and interact is so much more fun. If you agree then do come along to Breaking Breadboards. A community of tinkers who are all on the journey to make fun tech or tech fun or both.

Anything else you would like to promote to our community?

Why not follow some of my journey into Robotics, IoT and other fun tech on my YouTube Channel. Building lightsaber IoT wall lights, robot arms, robot droids, weather station and so much more.