Two decades ago today, the world was breathing a collective sigh of relief as as the direst predictions of Y2K turned out to be overcooked.
I was one of those, at the time running an IT support business and appearing on a fortnightly tech segment on the local ABC station. Little did I know that Y2K had already set me on at least two career changes.
The radio show itself had been as a result of the Y2K bug. In early 1998 I heard a pundit giving some dangerous computer advice on the-then 2BL – now ABC Sydney.
His advice risked locking small business owners out of their accounting systems and it wasn’t hard to imagine the devastation he could cause for any proprietor following his instructions.
So I dashed off a fax to the show’s producers – the ABC didn’t accept emails from the public in 1998 – arrogantly suggesting it might not be a bad idea to think twice before inviting the guest back again.
Two weeks later Bob Hughes, ABC Sydney’s then weekend announcer called asking if I’d like to come in and talk about Y2K and some of the other issues I’d raised in the fax.
I rocked up the following Saturday morning and did ten minutes on air giving, what I hoped, was a useful and plain English overview of the Y2K bug dispelling some myths and hysteria as well as some useful tips on checking for problems.
Then, without warning, Bob opened the line for listeners’ calls.
After what felt like two hours of stumbling my way through a range of random callers, Bob said “see you in a few weeks” and I was on the roster.
I ended up doing ABC shows for the next 18 years. First on ABC Sydney Weekends and then on the national Nightlife program with the evergreen Tony Delroy.
It was one Thursday night spot with Tony that started my writing ventures. I appeared with Yvonne Adele, now a professional MC and public speaker but then making her name as Ms Megabyte.
Yvonne had been working with John Wylie and Sons on the Australian edition of their flagship PCs for Dummies but her commitments were making it hard for her to give the project the time it needed. She put my name forward to work on them.
Having already written one book on small business IT which had been born out of the feedback from the radio spots, PCs for Dummies was an obvious move and it led to four more titles.
That writing in turn led to a Smart Company column covering small business tech issues which I stuck with for ten years as I moved on from my IT support business and dabbled in other ventures.
As the other ventures didn’t have the success of PC Rescue, I found myself increasingly relying on freelance writing for income which eventually led to contributing pieces to the mainstream newspapers on tech and NBN issues.
Eventually that turn to journalism saw me spend two years News Editor at Mumbrella and now a role at a Australia’s main IT professional organisation.
All of this started with the Y2K bug. It’s funny how things take you where you don’t expect.
It wasn’t just me that saw Y2K deliver a career change, for the Australian IT industry, the year 2000 was its peak. That year saw the dot com boom peak and the introduction of the GST. It was a good time to be in tech.
But good times don’t last, and the combination of Y2K passing, the GST being implemented in July 2000 and the tech wreck coming at the end of the year, many Australian tech professionals found themselves driving cabs or working on building sites.
The industry lost many good people and only in the last few years, two decades on, has it truly recovered. But that’s a post for another time.
What a fascinating story and a great journey. As someone who has intersected with you in most of your roles, may I say what a pleasure it’s been. Where’s the next kink in the road I wonder?
Thanks Robert, appreciate it. Let’s see how the next few years go.