Posts Tagged ‘career’
January 28th, 2009
I recently stumbled across Anne Fisher’s “Keep your job: A 10-point survival guide” (CNN Money) which is a relatively bland list of suggestions (mostly paraphrased from Deb Bright) for keeping your job in the current uncertain economic climate. I suppose there are going to be more and more of these kind of articles as time goes by and layoffs increase, but one point jumped out at me:
#7 – For now, forget about work-life balance. A major preoccupation when the economy was humming along nicely, “having time for outside interests has to go right out the window now,” says Bright. “You need to concentrate on doing whatever it takes to make yourself indispensable.”
Now this is complete bollocks. Apart from the old adage “if you’re indispensable, you can’t be promoted”, dropping a proper balance – ignoring the bigger picture – and focusing entirely on work (/money) is partly to blame for the current mess. This advice also assumes the current recession/depression is short term – if not, you’ll soon burn out and be no use to anyone, you family, yourself, your company.
“That’s why a time like this, when the bubble is bursting, is a
great time to see how important it is to think about the big picture,
and what matters not just to us, but to building a sustainable economy
in a sustainable world.”
–Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles
You need to keep a big picture perspective – a nose-to-the-grindstone blind approach will ensure you’ll miss any wonderful opportunities change may throw your way. Remember that Bill Gates started Microsoft in a hotel room in the depths of a recession.
“It’s times like these when tremendous competitive success can be
achieved. It’s times like these where companies can shift positions in
the marketplace. It’s times like these when leaders can become
followers, and followers can become leaders, because we are in a period
where everything is now going to open and unfreeze.“– Michael Porter, Harvard University.
- Don’t give up your work-life balance. If you have a family, you need them to keep you positive and support and motivate you. Even if you don’t, you need a life outside the office to maintain a sense of perspective and true happiness.
- Don’t stop learning. Read, study, listen to podcasts and always sharpen your core skills (thanks Luke) – expand your mind whenever possible. If you do get canned, you want to be on top of the market and current trends – and in the habit of learning new skills rapidly.
- Don’t work for the kind of boss who doesn’t appreciate you unless you file daily status reports. You want someone who is in touch with your achievements, someone who knows what you are worth at a moments notice in case they are called on to defend you / your team.
- Don’t work harder (unless you are currently slacking) – work smarter. There will always be someone who can (and will) put in more hours, you want to be recognised for being smart and efficient.
- Don’t stay in your comfort zone. The current economic climate should be all the incentive you need to get up and going and push yourself. Don’t assume your job is safe, these are still early days in the crisis and nobody knows exactly how things will turn out. Use the opportunity to self-motivate!
- Don’t live in fear of being retrenched. If you hate your job, don’t work to keep it purely out of fear of the alternatives – you’ll only hurt yourself and your team in the long term. Realize that you may still be left without a job – through no fault of your own. A common sanity saving approach to the threat of violent crime in South Africa applies here too – take what precautions you can, and get on with your life.
- Don’t accept an attitude of entitlement from anyone, including yourself. You do not deserve employment simply because you have a degree / experience / live in a 1st world country etc, you earn your right to be employed, as does (or at least should :-) everyone else.
- Don’t believe you have absolute control of your future (or that anyone else does). Read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, it will change the way you look at and deal with the world. Sometimes sh1t just happens.
- That said, also maintain an internal locus of control. Realize you can influence your life and your outcomes – you are responsible for many of the good/bad that happens to you, and your attitude directly influences your happiness. Do what you can to improve your own situation.
- Never, ever, lose your sense of humour. Find something to laugh about (humanity in general always works for me) – after all we live in a crazy world where Scott Adams’ economic opinions are taken seriously :-)Update: Three people so far have pointed out an important omission, so I’m cheating and adding an extra item.
- Don’t moonlight (or kill the golden goose – thanks Luke). Some people seem to think they can hedge their bets by moonlighting on the side – a backup plan just in case. This is a fallacy – your efforts need to be focused exclusively on your best option, your current job (if it’s not your best option, you’re doing something wrong). If you don’t focus, the result will be obvious – and you need to be performing at your best.
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November 5th, 2007
Recently Derivco hosted the first GIBS Leadership Forum event in Durban. Keynote speaker was Brand Pretorius, chairman and chief executive of McCarthy Motor Holdings.
At the end of his speech one of the things he was asked was how he managed a work/life balance and his answer has been rattling around in my head for days. He said that if he could do it all over again he would spend more time with the ones he loved, and that by the grace of God his wife and sons still loved him.
I seem to daily face the tug-of-war between my desire to provide financially for my family (now and in the future) and my desire to spend precious family time with them – the two usually being mutually exclusive. I love my family dearly, and don’t want to miss out on time with my wonderful wife and amazing little boys as they grow up – I am privileged to come from a wonderful family with parents who sacrificed a lot to spend quality time with my brothers and I (my parents are about to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary – rare indeed) and I believe it made a huge positive difference to all of us.
On the other hand I want my family to be financially secure and happy, now and in the future – and I need to work hard to achieve this. I know money can’t buy happiness, but ever since my little boys were born (and we made the decision for my wife to be a stay-at-home-mom if possible) I feel an even greater need to achieve at work – to provide. Money freaks me out sometimes. If you add the fact that I love what I do and where I work, and I always have far more ideas and plans than I ever have time to implement or follow through, it becomes even more difficult to maintain a balance.
Happily I think I do a pretty good job maintaining a good balance (my wife will disagree at times :-) and I believe it benefits me, my family and my work. I force myself to remember that although there will always be someone at work who can and will put in more hours than I do, I can still do a great job focusing on working smarter and harder rather than simply working longer hours.
It helps every now and again to listen to someone I respect and look up to in a business / leadership sense like Brand Pretorius, who has been there and done that. It also helps to talk to others in the same boat – I am definitely not alone.
March 16th, 2007
Over the years I’ve gathered a bit of experience on both sides of a job interview, so here are some of my suggestions for candidates (including recommended reading) since I often find myself sending these out in response to queries about Derivco.
These are biased towards technical developer type interviews since that’s my area of experience, but I reckon most of them are generally applicable – still, see the disclaimer below and as always caveat lector. I think they’re common sense, but apparently not for some candidates…
- Find out as much as you can about the position you are applying for, especially if this is not your first interview for the position.
- Be positive, and show enthusiasm for the position (and the company in general). Nothing worse than a negative, unenthusiastic candidate – we love what we do, so we expect you to do the same. Attitude is important.
- Try and find as much about the company as you can – Google, Google news, friends or people you may know who already work there… shows enthusiasm and passion.
- Be honest and open, admit when you don’t know something, or can’t do something (especially important in a technical assessment or code walk through). I’ve seen candidates who refuse to admit something has them baffled – they end up um-ing and ah-ing and annoy the interviewer(s) who have other important things they could be doing.
- Depends on the position, but perhaps bring a portfolio of previous work (the things you are really proud of achieving). Also feel free to mention previous projects which may have failed overall (e.g. for reasons beyond your control) but which you are still proud of (or proud of a component / idea which was your own).
- Should go without saying, but you’d be surprised – be a little early, and make sure you’re well rested.
- ASK questions, as well as answer them.
- Don’t lie! Mad that I feel it necessary to say this, but I’ve seen candidates tell outright lies or make claims they can’t back up. We will check your working background, and we will catch you out in tech assessments – you’re only hurting yourself here.
- Dress smart, but not overly so (no suit and tie required – unless that’s your most comfortable gear, or you’re applying for CEO :-)
- Turn off your cellphone / pager / pda! As unbelievable as it may sound, I have witnessed more than 3 interviewees forget this common courtesy – one of them even answered a call!
Essential reading:
The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (Joel on Software, v3)
and if it’s a developer position, so is:
Why Can’t Programmers.. Program? (Coding Horror, Jeff Atwood)
Standard disclaimer: I don’t speak on behalf of Derivco, these are my *personal* comments. Although many of these *may* assist you with interviews for positions here, they also may not – they may not even apply – and in some areas may even ensure you *don’t* get the job :-)
August 25th, 2004
From the Scobleizer – very useful tips in general!
Ever wonder what it’s like to get a job at a big company? Well, our HR department invited me over to spend a couple of hours talking about interviewing. The third part, just posted today, was a mock interview where we did a whiteboard code session so you could see how the interviewer and interviewee think through an interview question.
Part I — What is it like to interview at Microsoft?
Part II — Riding the recruiting shuttle
Part III — Mock whiteboard session
I’ve interviewed a couple times at big companies now and find the process is similar to Microsoft’s, so many of the tips are useful too.
September 3rd, 2003
I work here.
Update July 2006:
Since this post keeps getting around 11% of the recorded 1st entry hits on this blog (according to Google Analytics) I think it’s time for an update, and a FAQ to answer the most common Derivco-related questions I receive.
- Firstly, the website is no longer in the “cheese” category :-) The current Derivco.com website is a huge improvement on the 2003 version.
- Yes, it is a fantastic place to work – I’m not being facetious, it really is a world class company. Brilliant people (plenty of highly intelligent geeks), exciting and ever-changing projects, beautiful location and fun environment.
- Yes, Derivco is hiring in all sorts of areas. See the website for details. I am however biased towards Flash ActionScript developer candidates :-)
Since Derivco’s address is already easy to find, check out the office and surrounding Forest Park via Google Earth [alternate link] (choose to run the linked KMZ file if you have Google Earth installed, and it will fly you directly there). If you don’t have Google Earth installed, then install it (!) – or use Google Maps instead (lower resolution though, and not nearly as fun).
Update September 2006:
Derivco vacancies / positions are not currently listed on the Derivco.com website, but you can find them via Google or on sites such as Career Junction (search for “derivco”).
Derivco Offers Bursaries
Derivco is offering Bursaries for the 2007 academic year for students studying towards a Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Computer Science, Mathematics or Statistics with an average of 75% per subject taken and who will be studying for either their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in 2007.
We are also looking for bursary students who will be studying to their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in the 2007 academic year in the areas below or any other relevant Project Management/ Business related area, with an average mark of at least 65% in the subjects taken.
* BComm IT
* BComm Economics/Finance
* Business AdministrationStudents who will be studying towards their 2nd, 3rd or honours year in BComm, BA or BSoc Sci in Human Resources Management in 2007 are also invited to apply as we will be offering bursaries in this area as well.
Should you know anyone who would be eligible to apply please contact Vukile (Vukile.McKenzie@derivco.com) or e-mail their CV as well as the most recent copy of their results to bursary@derivco.com.
Please note that you need to be a full time student at a Tertiary Institution in order to take advantage of this offer.
Update March 2007:
I posted an entry with some of my job interview opinions, experience and suggestions for all those who ask. Use at your own risk: Job Interview Opinions.
Update September 2007:
Derivco wins IT Company of the Year (KZN) at the Computer Society of South Africa (KZN Chapter) gala event.
Update August 2008:
Derivco is now a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and is a platinum sponsor at Tech-Ed 2008. Check out the new Flex derivco.com site.
Update late August 2008:
Hiring for IT positions is on the go again – Derivco IT is looking for skilled IT people at all levels. Head over to www.derivco.com, email your CV to cv@derivco.com (remember to state what specific or type of position you are applying for) or ask questions here.
Update November 2008:
Derivco will be hosting a SQL Server Enterprise Architectural Summit in December. Speakers are Stuart Ozer, Gert Drapers and Thomas Kejser (members of the Microsoft SQL Server dev team and of SQLCAT – SQL Customer Advisory Team).
See the Derivco site for details and to apply (only experienced DBAs considered :-)
If you have any general questions, post a comment below and I’ll respond when I can. You can also email me directly if you prefer.
Usual disclaimer yada yada applies – I may love working @ Derivco, but I don’t speak for the company or any of its clients. This blog is my personal scribble area, everything here is from my own viewpoint and is often written by an insane Perl script anyway. I am not responsible for any comments left on this site or post either, so don’t get any funny ideas.
