Derek Bevan

His Work: Principle Architect (in the Relationship Experience Division within IT, at a large software company)

“I wake up every morning wanting to come to work.” “I want to come to this place, and the place is kind of in my mind a lot of it.” “This is my office—my computer.”

When I ask Derek Bevan to tell me about his workspace he tells me his computer is his office. Mr. Bevan tells me “I carry this computer wherever I go and I have a home office that I like to spend one or two days a week at.” He says he is in a temporary office right now. Derek Bevan explains to me that the nature of his job is that he is constantly travelling to other people’s locations. Mr. Bevan tells me that his workspace has been in various places like a conference room, a coffee shop, and in his car on occasion. He tells me “I don’t like the term virtual office but really wherever my computer is, and hopefully if I have a secondary monitor and a comfortable chair, I have an office.” It sounds like what is more important to him than his physical space is having the right tools.

Derek Bevan goes on to tell me more about his office here. His words come across as well thought out and assertive. He says “I like this space out here it’s really nice because in this case I have a nice window that looks out into an open space and I find myself able to think a little bit better. I think I do my best when I’m driving in my car” “mainly because when you’re sitting in a space where you have a computer I feel compelled to be at it.” He tells me “I like the comforts I have, I like having a chair, I like having a door, being able to have wall space is kind of nice again I haven’t had that in a long time. As you can see I like to put stuff up on the walls. I’m a visually oriented person.” He explains the importance of that “I like to see the relationships visually.” Having the papers on the walls he says “this is my way of dealing with the 15 different things I’m dealing with constantly.”

Derek Bevan says “I always like facing windows. I can’t stand being in a room with no windows.” I ask why that is and he replies “in this particular role I find that it definitely helps me clear my head and think through a problem so I like looking on open expanses, it kind of makes me feel relaxed and I feel more productive ironically ,I don’t know why.”  He tells me he doesn’t have music playing in the office unless it’s classical because it’s distracting to him.

Mr. Bevan tells me about his work with a passion and enthusiasm that I have rarely encountered in everyday life. Derek Bevan tells me that a lot of his work is distilling and digesting information. He says “its endless amounts of learning, its taking lots of different pieces of information that seemingly is disconnected and connecting all those dots.” “I think part of an architect to be really good you have to have a curiosity that’s insatiable, you want to be able to look at those things, you want to go and deal and share with people.”

Later in our conversation when I ask Mr. Bevan to put his experience with his work into a few words he says “Exhilarating. I wake up every morning wanting to come to work. And I mean that in a virtual sense coming to work because I’ll wake up, when I get up in the morning sometimes at 6, I’ll go to my computer and sit down there and I can’t wait to look at some new technology and share it with somebody.” He tells me “I want to come to this place, and the place is kind of in my mind a lot of it. My workspace is very much in my mind.” Telling me more about his work he tells me “The interaction— it’s a joy to work with people. I’m passionate about the technology.”

Derek Bevan tells me he has worked in a cubicle and “hated it, absolutely hated it. I’m a loud person, it’s by my nature.”  He says “it’s a distraction for me because I like talking to people so if I see them I want to go talk to them so I can be disruptive to their workspace.” Mr. Bevan says “So put me in a room and I can channel my energies better.”

He tells me why he has the things he does in his office. “I put things around me that make me feel comfortable, I got my wife up here and I’ve got my family but I’ve also got essential charts and things that I’m interested in and I change these out fairly regularly and in a cubicle you can’t do that.” Mr. Bevan says “it’s a different environment for a different type of mode I think it works really well for team-based things.”  With enthusiasm he tells me what being an Architect for a large IT company is a more independent position and that it’s similar to being a Sherriff in a car. Derek Bevan says he sometimes thinks of himself as a mobile business person. He also tells me that the company moves people around a lot so it’s hard sometimes to make the space your own, and you get tired of moving all of your stuff in boxes.

Nearing the end of our interview Mr. Bevan tells me more about his feelings about his work. He says “there’s history, there’s innovation, there’s technology. There’s feelings of exhilaration and exploration in the possibilities of what we really could do.”