I’m very excited to announce that I have been accepted as a Fellow of BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT!
I came fairly late in my career to the concept of professional registration (at least in my field), and it was only really JBA’s encouragement and support that hooked me into it. However very soon after looking into it I realised that it was a great fit. I was more than happy to make the public commitment to the IT profession and a code of conduct which aligned closely with my own values. I also wholeheartedly back BCS’s ambition for IT as a force for good in society.
It has been a privilege and joy of mine over the past 30 years to mentor colleagues, to strive for excellence in my programming, to try to be a good person to work with as a computing professional. I feel this should all go without saying, but sadly it is not always the case. MBCS, and now FBCS, has been one of the ways I have tried to put my money where my mouth is.
Of course my faith plays a big part of my career (I don’t suppose there are too many other programmer-priests out there!), and as a Christian I believe in Good News, and in being good news, which applies in every area of my life – work, church, home; all of it. I see Fellowship as an expression of part of the ministry God is calling me to, in trying to lead and influence within my field for the greater good.
But, of faith or of none, I would strongly encourage and recommend professional membership/registration (such as MBCS). I also have half a dream to see if we could come up with a Chartership specifically for software development, but that’s for another day…