DH Employee Anniversary: Patrick McCay

Hey, Patrick. You've been with us for 15 years, and we think that's pretty special.

Fall is the season of work anniversaries for many DHers! Next up on the 15-year anniversary celebration is Patrick McCay. 

We're so grateful for Patrick and his unique ability to present complex technical requirements across DH and to our clients and audiences.

Read more as Patrick shares his most impactful DH moments from the last 15 years and thanks the mentors and co-workers who helped him get where he is today. 

Please tell us about a time at DH that you got better? What did you do? What did that unlock for you? 

Coming from a technical, development background I didn't have a lot of client-facing or public speaking experience in a professional setting. My early reviews mentioned, as an opportunity for me to grow, that I could work on my delivery of technical information, especially when presenting to non-technical audiences. My manager Sean Grieve (VP/GD, Architect) and I discussed this at the time and decided it would be a good thing to focus on in the coming year. 

Please tell us about a time at DH someone else made you better? What did they do? How did that impact you personally and professionally? 

Sean worked with me to develop goals and a plan so that I could begin getting myself out of my comfort zone a bit more and getting myself more active in areas in which I hadn't previously been as involved. This coincided with a decision I made to shift my role from a developer into a definer. Making the shift from Principal Software Engineer to Director of Business Analysis allowed me to get involved earlier in projects and enabled me to work in a cross-capability capacity to shape the work and to influence every project across the organization.

Both Sean and Geoff Thorne (SVP, Technology) encouraged this role shift which helped me to rally the clients and the internal teams around the project milestones and objectives. They placed me into more client meetings and got me involved in both internal and external presentations where I could gain more experience in presenting technical information and findings to a variety of different audiences. This has increased my value to DH and our clients, enabled me to collaborate more effectively, and allowed me to further established strong working relationships with clients. My ability to present complex technical requirements to audiences in an approachable easily understood fashion has become something I am really passionate about, and I am grateful to Sean, Geoff, and the organization as a whole for the opportunities I've been given throughout my years at DH.