“Planit introduced me to a wider variety of industry sectors. This has not only given me exposure to a wider spread of technologies and project delivery methods, but also provides interesting challenges around working with different people with different needs on a fairly regular basis.”
Mike Dear, Consultant, Planit
Mike Dear spent the first 20 odd years of his career working for Legal & General. “Showing my age and how quickly technology has moved, I still vividly remember the green screen mainframe terminals we all used when I started out!” he says.
Mike spent eight years as a Business Analyst before deciding that it wasn’t what he wanted to pursue longer term. He started looking at other roles in the IT space and was drawn to testing, so applied internally to become a Senior Test Analyst and was delighted to get the role.
“In a slight twist of fate, the first major project I tested was a new core administration system that I had been the Business Analyst on,” Mike says.
After five years as a Senior Test Analyst and when obtained his first two testing qualifications, Mike promoted to Test Manager for one of the divisions in the organisation.
“This was a thoroughly challenging and rewarding period of my career that also led to me achieving my Advanced Test Manager qualification, but then the organisation began restructuring and I decided it was time for me to look for new challenges elsewhere,” he says.
After a short break, Mike decided that consultancy was where he wanted to head and this led him to Planit in 2016. He joined the office in Reading, where he is now a Consultant.
The change for Mike has been working in a wider variety of industry sectors. “This has not only given me exposure to a wider spread of technologies and project delivery methods, but also provides interesting challenges around working with different people with different needs on a fairly regular basis,” he says.
Since joining Planit, Mike has been impressed with the level of support and training on offer to all staff. Whether you need to get some input or advice on a particular item, or are on the bench and looking to develop your skills, there is always someone willing to step in and help.
The second element is the feeling of equality across the company, the fact that you can access senior management easily and feel that you are talking to them as equals speaks volumes to me about the inclusive nature of the organisation.
Whilst I enjoyed working for my previous employer, I certainly have no regrets about making the change to working for Planit!” Mike says.
Mike’s depth of industry experience and knowhow has enabled him to quickly stand out in Planit and be recognised with two Supernova awards. These awards came about as a result of positive client feedback.
As for his most memorable experience so far, Mike has fond memories of the regular Tuesday evening curry with the Planit team working in Jersey. Then there was the time the fog rolled in, resulting in all flights home being cancelled.
“Some Planit staff made it on to the ferry, some got a hotel for the night and managed to get back on Saturday, while one adventurous colleague took a travel route that took him 24 hours to get back home,” Mike says. “In comparison, the flight is normally only 40 minutes!”