The best ways to learn about operating businesses

Introduction

As a contractor gained experience by working in different companies, and projects completed in Government, Medical, Pharma, Transportation (Planes, Trains and Tube Sets), Utilities, Oil&Gas, Media, Electronics, IT and Engineering, Mining, and Financial Services. Lived and worked in Western European countries and throughout the USA. Using Upwork gained clients across Australia, USA and Canada.

One group with five divisions:

Medical

Team Leader on Head and Body X-Ray Systems (Sold to GE). Had to write legal statements on Indian contractors. Who had 2 other contracts and would fall asleep in front of the X-Ray Tube power supply. Some electrocuted and others saved while asleep.

Defence

Trouble shooter on R&D Projects.

Klystron manufacturing

With 12 different systems. Helped by the engineers stripped and rebuilt each one and documented them. The soak test system had its own oil filled transformer. On top an actuator that switched the power to the Klystron. Use Klystrons in Radio and TV Transmitters and Radar Systems.

Defence

Flight Analysis Systems.

Business and Technical Writer Projects

That covers every function in a company. Helps you understand how it works and reading business books. Documenting the processes for ISO 9001 Quality standard certification. Implementing SAP to enable hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reporting.

Medical Equipment

Varian ™ Interviewed team members and Managers to produce the 400 page Service Manual with document set. Philips Blood sampler drafted User Guide. BT/NHS Patient Records Data Centre set of standard operating procedures (SOPs). Pfizer Patient Records document management system SOPs. Alaris Medical produced the FDA Technical File for their Infusion Pumps.

Ph arma

Dosage Labels for GSK. BBSRC R&D Project Technical and Financial Reports. Completed the Motley Fool Investment Analysis Course.

Planes, and Trains, and Tubes Sets

SAAB 8 Seater Maintenance Manual. 737 and Cessna Maintenance. Stockholm Express Train Sets, and Northern and Jubilee Lines Tube Sets specification writing, software quality and EMC testing. All of these required testing and reports.

Utilities

Hewlett Packard Microwave Analyser Test Systems and over a million sold.

Wessex Water Sewerage Works control system used dodge Indian products! So we had to manually move the sweeper round. British Gas Retail Card System specifications. National Power telecoms services unit led a team of four Technical Authors and ten administrators on the Power Station document set standardisation project and then documented the processes and procedures to obtain ISO 9001 certification from BSI for 100+ projects. British

Telecommunications System X Exchanges reworking specifications from 200+ to 20+ pages.

Hewlett Packard UK Government Network document set procedures.

Oil&Gas

First role in Europe based in Paris for UCC as IT Support Engineer on PDP8 Terminals with Analex Print, Card Reader and Satellite Link. Lumus Engineers run Oil and Gas well simulation programs on large UNIVAC Computers with Fastrand drum discs. Day job 08:00 to 18:00 and Nights 20:00 to 00:00 or later. Sometimes on top of PTT Towers with strength meter adjusting dishes for maximum signal so Le Figaro Newspaper Journalists could download news stories from around the World. GE based at Exxon Petrochemical Europort Site and installing Process Computers around Europe in Power Stations, Steel and Rubber Works and Petrochemical Plants.

BP Support Engineer installing PCs, Laptops, Servers, Hubs and Routers. Hanging-off North Sea Rigs adjusting dishes for maximum signal. Mobil Exxon North Sea Oil&Gas tax reporting procedures. Shell documenting global email system, satellite support for Shell Trading and due diligence report on Project Group.

Media

Reed documenting academic journal search engine functions. Reuters News terminals User Guides.

Electronics

Lucas Dashboard test systems. Ultra Electronics R&D Projects troubleshooting.

IT

Support Engineer on PDP 8 and PDP 11 Computers for Electronics and Engineering clients. Varian Computers Test Engineer both for clients in the South East of England.

Engineering

Siemens different projects in the UK and Germany writing reports on status. BAe Defence Systems troubleshooting projects.

Mining

Bailey Control Systems writing operating manuals for stone, ore and slate mines. SMFG Writing, proofreading, and editing (MS Office with Visio), using Business, Operations, IT, and Finance (P2P / SAP) inputs to deliver a Trade Sale document set.

Financial Services

Started at the London Stock Exchange supporting data feeds. Then running round the city unblocking dealers after the 1988 crash. Back to help the team upgrade the Server Farms to give a 50% overload buffer. Inter Dealer Broker and entered all the brokers trading floors in London. Barclaycard documented 2,000+ requirements and process descriptions for each requirement of the card processing platform. UBS and CSFB documenting the trading systems. Capita worked with DevOps teams to document the Share Registration, Fund Management and IFA Portal Systems and Disaster Recovery. Figured out how to do Audit Trails for Internal/External Auditors.

Conclusion

What an enjoyable life experience working with different people from around the World. Felt human when people from Asia, Africa or South America and North America stated a Scottish accent was hard compared to theirs.