Workplace and Career

Shon Ellerton
Apr 18, 2024
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How Joe Escaped From his Niche to Being Promoted

Shon Ellerton
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Apr 4
How Joe Escaped From his Niche to Being Promoted

Joe works for a manufacturing company building aircraft components. He works in the IT department and specialises in writing scripts to migrate data in and out of the company’s SAP environment. It is a highly technical role requiring proficiency across a plethora of technologies including Java, ABAP, PHP, C#, and of course, SQL. He’s very good at this!

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A Clear and Concise Position Description Will Always Get You the Right Person for the Job

Shon Ellerton
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Apr 3
A Clear and Concise Position Description Will Always Get You the Right Person for the Job

Do you frequently come across position descriptions in the job market which are terribly vague, overcomplicated or, simply, confusing? I certainly do. The other day, I received a position description from a governmental organisation seeking a Business Intelligence Reporting Analyst as stated in the title of the brief.

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Lower the Bar to Get Ahead

Shon Ellerton
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Mar 26
Lower the Bar to Get Ahead

Imagine being a regular business jetsetter armed with a flashy new platinum airline card giving you access to exclusive airport lounges around the world. Would you want anyone else without a platinum card to be given access to one of these opulent lounges, even if they paid a one-time fee to gain admittance?

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Your Physical Fitness Is More Important Than Your Work

Shon Ellerton
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Feb 24
Your Physical Fitness Is More Important Than Your Work

OK! You’ve hit your mid-forties. Feel like shit half the time. Gained some weight. No energy. Pissed off with your managers. Overworked, or working excessively with the vain notion that somehow or another, that because you’re working so hard, it will come across as some admirable feat.

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Why All Professionals Need Business Cards

Shon Ellerton
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July 18, 2023
Why All Professionals Need Business Cards

A long time ago, as a kid, I remember frequenting a local steakhouse nearby to where we lived in Colorado Springs. It was called the Trail Dust Steakhouse. It was, essentially, a big barn with an open grill area where the steaks were prepared. Scattered in the large open space were long…

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Is Working From Home as the Norm Sustainable?

Shon Ellerton
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October 1, 2022
Is Working From Home as the Norm Sustainable?

Back in 2016, I wrote an article entitled, Has the Internet Really Brought Us Any Closer Together? It points out that we have limitless access to information and the ability to communicate to others around the world in a way inconceivable not many decades ago. However, it comes at a cost. We may also be losing the ability to form strong interpersonal re…

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Struggling to Find the Right Fit for a Data Role? Try Easing Up on the Cloud Jargon.

Shon Ellerton
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February 24, 2022
Struggling to Find the Right Fit for a Data Role? Try Easing Up on the Cloud Jargon.

Why is it so often difficult to get the right candidate for a data role? The answer: Data architects, cloud computing, and role briefs with unrealistic expectations requiring candidates that they know every esoteric third-party software known to the IT world.

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Landing a Great Job only to find it’s a Dead Job

Shon Ellerton
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September 28, 2021
Landing a Great Job only to find it’s a Dead Job

Before I jump into the five lessons I learned, allow me to add my story beforehand. Otherwise, just skip to them below. My Story There’s nothing like being offered that dream position in a new company. A position of high responsibility. A position that demands the best of your skills and energy to ensure that it is fulfilled. Believe me, it does not come …

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Yes! There is Always Time for a Coffee Chat!

Shon Ellerton
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March 25, 2021
Yes! There is Always Time for a Coffee Chat!

At work, have you ever received an instruction by email to answer a series of questions around how your organisation works, or perhaps, what governance is put in place to make the workplace secure, or any kind of question which warrants a lengthy and complex response? I know I’ve had my share of them. I had one the other day from someone in a related or…

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I’m Happy to Connect but Don’t Try Selling Me Stuff

Shon Ellerton
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January 22, 2020
I’m Happy to Connect but Don’t Try Selling Me Stuff

If you know about and been on LinkedIn for some time, you will know that out there, somewhere, a little person with his ‘virtual’ briefcase wants to sell you crap that you don’t want. We all like to get something in return for doing something but when it comes to making connections in LinkedIn, I’m sick to death of those who send you an invite to connect…

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Not Getting Feedback from Interviews? Here’s a Trick.

Shon Ellerton
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January 12, 2020
Not Getting Feedback from Interviews? Here’s a Trick.

Have you experienced going to a job interview only to then find, after several days, that you’ve heard nothing more about it? You then call the recruiter or agent to enquire what happened at the interview and then you’re told that you’re not the right fit? Or perhaps, the job’s been pulled off the market and they’re no longer recruiting. Or maybe you di…

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Should I Jump Back into a Career That I Took a Break From?

Shon Ellerton
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January 11, 2020
Should I Jump Back into a Career That I Took a Break From?

Have you ever worked in a career that you’ve been doing for years and years and tried very hard to get out of it for a much-needed change? And when the opportunity arises, you do manage to do something different only then to find later, that you might re-consider the old career again?

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Bad Managers Can Do More Damage Than You Think

Shon Ellerton
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December 4, 2019
Bad Managers Can Do More Damage Than You Think

What is often not thought about or discussed very often is how the behaviours and actions of bad managers can affect others including families, friends, and colleagues. In some cases, good managers are often inadvertently taken advantage of to fill in the discrepancies left behind by other bad managers.

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10 Reasons to Consider Contracting

Shon Ellerton
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November 10, 2019
10 Reasons to Consider Contracting

“Have you worked in a permanent role your whole working life?” “Have you been searching for jobs online but only including those which are permanent roles?” “Are you afraid that working as a contractor is not secure?” “Are you concerned what would happen if you are sick off work as a contractor?”

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9 Ways of Being an Effective Technical Lead

Shon Ellerton
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September 6, 2019
9 Ways of Being an Effective Technical Lead

Anyone having been a member of a technical team working on a large or complex IT project without an effective technical lead will, no doubt, have experienced the symptoms of chaos, missed deadlines, high turnaround rate of employees and poor morale.

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Qantas’s Bizarre Complimentary Drinks Policy

Shon Ellerton
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July 21, 2017
Qantas’s Bizarre Complimentary Drinks Policy

For those that regularly travel with Qantas as I do, you may have stumbled across the odd occasion that you may have been requested to cough up $5.60 for your wine or beer. This came as a small surprise to me when I was asked for payment when one of those little mini plastic bottles of wine was handed over to me on one of my flights back home from a bus…

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