Tuesday, December 23, 2008
I have a friend named Sam, and she is working herself to the bone. She works for an Acme Corp in the financial sector, and through a cascading series of managerial failures, she is now saddled with a crushing workload meant for four people, on a project for which she’s had no training. She’s smart and resourceful, so she’s making her shlub bosses look great, but she’s working 16 days, 6 or 7 days a week, and has been for months. She’ll be working Christmas Eve the same way.
The punchline is that because of the turmoil in the industry, she will not receive a raise or a bonus this year, and because she’s been working non-stop, she is going to lose a considerable amount of paid vacation time when the new year comes.
I’ve pleaded with her: Sam, this is not your fault. You have the right to require adequate resources and training to do your job. This situation exists because people who were supposed to be responsible let the ball drop. You’re the fall girl. When you’ve completed this assignment, someone several layers up the chain will get a pat on the back and probably a promotion. Just say no!
Read the rest of Get what you want »
Friday, December 19, 2008
I’ve been busy this month. I said I was talking to a company with the goal of working fewer hours and doing it from home, in order to have time to work on my own side projects. That particular company has fallen on hard times, and the owner may have to let people go. He can’t consider hiring right now. So, I embarked on my normal “job search procedure”:
Read the rest of How to Conduct a Job Search »
I talked before about discipline. I’ve fallen back into the habit of reloading my reader if there is a moment of down time. Here’s what I did to fix that:
I dusted off an old computer that wasn’t being used, and I installed Ubuntu on it. I placed this old computer on a book shelf across the room from my desk. It’s not a convenient place for a computer to sit because I have to stand to use it.
I have a router that allows my family’s computers to all be connected to the internet. Normally on a home network the router will assign a dynamic IP address to any computer that tries to connect. That’s how mine was until I set up my main computer with a static address — that means the address never changes, and is always reversed for that one computer.
Once I created a static IP address, I was able to tell the router: Do not allow the computer at that address to access this list of sites, between 6:00am and 6:00pm.
So now I have a main computer which is free to search for, say, code snippets, or stock photography, but cannot go to my rss feed, my e-mail, or any forums I frequent during business hours. To go there, I have to walk across the room, get on my linux desktop, and stand up while I access any of those.
I’ve created a barrier between my wandering brain and the work I need to get done! Take that, ADD!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Update on my life. I’ve been doing many things I had on my back burner for the past 3 weeks, and it’s been really great. I’ve set up the Linux e-mail and document station in my office that I’ve been meaning to build. I’ve cleaned out my 100-year-old detached garage that was literally full, floor to ceiling, with whatever nonsense all the previous occupants of my house filled with it from ancient hand drills (totally cool), to piles of rotting clothing from the 70s (totally not cool). Great way to get over your fear of cockroaches, let me tell you!
I’ve spent a lot of time with my loved ones, been able to attend political events in my area, write letters I’ve been putting off, read books I’ve intended to read.
It’s been a good time. Then there’s the part about the money.
Read the rest of Interview Process, Part 2 »
Thought I’d share this, I thought it was pretty good:
Davy Brion: Career Advice for Young Developers
I’ve been goal mapping in the past day or two, and I’ve generated two really plausible options to reach the goal of acquiring $2 million in liquid assets within 2 years, and with the constraint that I need at least $3,000 per month income to support my family.
The first is employment at a company that I’m not prepared to make public yet. The job pays substantially less than what I made at Ideal, but it’s a telecommuting position, and I plan during an upcoming negotiation to ask for a 4 day work week. That will keep me afloat and leave me almost half the week to build other projects.
The product or suite of products I’m researching the market for right now is in the medical services industry, possibly targeting veterinary practices. I’ll talk in much more detail about that later if it turns out to be worthwhile. I might also do a post about where to start with this sort of market research.
Read the rest of On the Horizon »
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Last we spoke, David had been fired, I was developing a goal map and polishing my resume. I said I would ask Jesper for a budget and a raise, but it turns out he had other plans.
The Lead Up
Jesper never liked David. He agreed to take David on board in order to get the cash from an investor who (rightly) didn’t trust Jesper to grow the business. I think Jesper’s plan was always to sabotage David and get him canned. He succeeded.
Jesper never approved of David’s expenditures — Jesper simply doesn’t believe in long term investment. It’s like that portion of his brain was extracted surgically. If it doesn’t produce cash in Jesper’s hand that day — that moment — then it was bullshit, period.
Read the rest of Lack of Work »
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
This is perhaps the culmination of my drivel: many close friends have told me that this writing is odd because it doesn’t sound like me as I am in life. It has a certain preachy quality to it that I haven’t settled into, so the voice sounds inauthentic to me.
It’s been clear to me since day one that I am not really achieving my goal of an unbiased account of my way toward the top. Instead, I am relating lessons I’ve learned previously and had the chance to digest and reflect upon in the form of allegory. My intention has been to write until I find my stride, and maybe in this uncertain moment, I have.
I think that allegorical style of writing is very useful for its intended purpose, but not necessarily for my purpose.
At this point I’m in the woods. I’ve run out of insight, and I am playing it by my gut. This is where I’ve wanted my writing to come from all along, but it’s different than what you’ve read in the past, I think. There is no call to action, and no prepackaged life lesson to be found.
The Time of Silence
I’ve decided to write a synopsis of the previous month or so because I’m hitting a wall with my writing. I normally like to package things in terms of the lessons I’ve taken away or practical advice I have about the goings on at Ideal or in my career generally. The issue is that this last month-plus has been intense and I can’t properly reflect upon it at this close distance. This is why I’ve been more quiet than usual.
Maybe a later post will have a full treatment of the material, but for now, let’s call this a journal entry to get my audience and my head up to date.
Read the rest of A Synopsis of the Previous Month »
Stop the presses. The CEO of Ideal, David, has officially resigned his position.
I was already generating options for my future a la goal mapping, but this changes the dynamic.
What I know is that he was ousted through some political machinations by Jesper.
Read the rest of David Quits Ideal »
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
My original exit strategy for my employment at Ideal had three basic phases:
- Kick ass at my job by designing superior products, and organizing my team to be efficient and productive
- Use the momentum of my success to simultaneously negotiate for options, and a larger, more visible role in the company.
- Use my role in the company to steer it toward a liquidity event in which we go public, or more likely in the current environment, we are bought by a large competitor. I exercise my options just before the event, then leave the company with at least $2 million in cash
The Goal Mapping exercise threw my grand plan into the shadow of doubt. There are too many dubious steps along this path: factors I can’t control, assumptions I can’t test, too many steps along the way to make the path very probable.
So how to recover? I need to generate more options. I need to consider alternate paths, perhaps more risky moves. I’ll try advanced goal mapping, and write about it here.
