Well to kick things off, I should introduce myself:
I'm a Knowledge Manager with 15 years of Big 5/blue chip company experience.
I've always been information oriented. I studied Information Science, after working as a Saturday Girl on the Chemist counter of a large high street 'Boots the Chemist'. I would have done that job for nothing, as I loved the fact that you never knew what you would be asked next and I really enjoyed the customer contact. I was lucky, that at that early age I discovered what made me tick, hence a switch of degree course from Geography to BSc Information Science (Hons).
Since then I've progressed through the ranks, learning and developing skills associated with this industry as well as building a good reputation for managing and developing my teams.
One thing that I've learnt recently is that there's a limit to what one's learning when working with a corporate. After a couple of years you start to capture more about the company, rather than building your own functional knowledge. You create a personal database of information which is very valuable to your work colleagues, but worthless to you once you move on. In hindsight I would recommend 'job hopping' in order to develop your personal knowledge of different environments, ways of doing things, attitudes etc, rather than a prolonged period at any one firm, even if you are frequently changing roles.
This premise has been one of the key influencing factors for me to decide to become a freelancer. I really want to experience a far wider range of workplaces, organisations etc, which will potentially benefit from the application of Knowledge Management solutions. I'm really excited about what I will encounter en route and am convinced that one day I will look back to these early days and thank my lucky stars that I made the right decision :-)
10:07:59 AM 
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