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PHBs Getting "Secret" IT Training
An anonymous reader writes "As if all of us aren't already already aware of this, PHBs don't know jack squat about computer technology, and they won't seek any training from their own IT staff because that would be an admission of "weakness" so instead they are getting outsiders to train them in secret." Lucrative work for the secret tutors I s'pose. I guess getting tutored in secret is better than just floundering in ignorance.
I have seen the people that they hire when not in secret. Seriously, I had a guy in two weeks back to train me on my new I-series server. I helped him set it up then showed him how to connect to the internet, then I skipped the training in disgust.
Based primarily on the experience of one tutor, they imply that there is this vast underground of executives secretly trying to figure out their e-mail. Facts, people, I want facts! Show me more than one over-priced tutor, or even 10. Anonymous surveys, large industries, etc. That would be real news. Not some journalist interviewing someone they met at a party and calling it news. ++
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
When I was fresh out of college in 1991, I interviewed at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture, I believe). They showed me the typing room where all the secretaries were typing things. I thought it was a little primative.
When I talked to the partner, I asked where his computer was. He said that he had one sent up if he needed to do a presentation or something.
I could tell he just didn't get it.
Needless to say, I didn't get the job.
You seem to be rather young and without a great deal of work experience, but with a great deal of (maybe justified) ego.
I was like you once. Then, I happened to marry a wonderful woman, a successful entrepreneur who had saved her money until she could start her own business, then struck out on her own. She was quite succesful, and not just because of the high quality of her products, which she designed herself and made in-house. She was that successful because she has great people skills and could teach those skills to her sales staff. There are other businesses whose product is as good as hers, but not so many who are as good at making customers *want* to buy from them over the others.
One day, fully cognizant of my BOFHier than thou approach, she bought me a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence people. It made all the difference.
For a number of years, I worked at a corporate-oriented ISP. Not all of our new sales people had experience in the ISP and networking fields. We hired good sales people, even if they'd never worked in our business before. It fell to the engineering dept. to help them learn what they needed to know. As I developed better people skills, I became *the* person in engineering that they would go to with questions, and they learned. Far more than to my boss, who was a brilliant engineer and sysadmin, but whose overly technical explanations often left non-tech people with more questions and no more comprehension than they had at the start.
Our best salesman was a guy who walked in the door knowing nothing about the computer business. He'd been in advertising sales before, and was good at it. He didn't stay ignorant. After a few months of talking mostly to me, he was not only the top-producing salesman, he knew more about networking than any of the others. He didn't know how data is encapsulated on a T-1 and I didn't try to tell him, but he sure knew what he needed to know to sell one, and he knew who to go to if he didn't have the answer.
Your career will go much more smoothly if you develop the people skills to go with your technical skills.
BTW, if you think academic and research environments aren't filled with at least as much politicking and ass-kissing as any corporate environment, You need to put down that crack pipe and get clean . Sorry, sometimes my old attitude comes back. Academic/research environments are just as bad, and often worse than, the corporate world when it comes to those things.
It behooves everyone, however, to take the time to learn at least the basic operations of the tools REQUIRED to do their job. I think anyone would agree that this is a reasonable statement.
I cannot see any sane tech expecting an executive to be able to recompile a kernel, or tweak a protocol stack.. but honestly... It is nowhere near the shadow world of technology to learn to press the "online" button of a printer.. nor is it unreasonable to expect even an exec to learn that the cd-rom is not a cupholder, or to learn that the monitor is not the CPU.
Yes, others have skill sets that techs don't. However, the level of base ignorance, often willful, of the operation of the basic tools required in Marketing or Management is staggering. A computer is one of those tools. It is akin to a carpenter not knowing how to use a drill, a farmer not knowing how to use a tractor, or a mechanic not knowing where to put oil in a car.
Sure, the mechanic may not know how motor oil is refined out of crude oil, a carpenter may not know how to fix the motor on his drill, and a farmer may not be able to repair a blown gasket on his tractor... but they all know how to use those tools in their proper function, or they don't succeed.
Management and Marketing has some degree of contempt for technology, even though it is their lifeblood. They take it for granted, and as such, they treat techs accordingly. Techs look upon those people with derision because they spend SO much time dealing with RTFM cases. Techs are just as overworked as anyone else, and unfortunately, the problem Marketing and Management persons think it is beneath them to learn to use the tools they need.
M&M's need to learn to use computers, so I'm all for training, secret or otherwise. The less stupidity a tech has to deal with on a daily basis, the more sociable the tech will inevitably be. The rediculously arrogant on both sides need to be canned in a hurry, period.
The lack of consideration and social skills is not simply the domain of geeks, friend... They span the board.
Yeah, I have no social skills. I'm what you would call a dork or a nerd. But thats ok, because am not here to be please everybody.
You don't have to please everybody - but you will find that your life goes a great deal easier if the people around you like you.
If you recognize the fact that you have no social skills, then, if you are technically minded as you say - why don't you point some of your intellect towards social skills? I used to be in the same situation - a geek in highschool (and still today) I never talked to anyone, never went on dates etc. However, after I decided that I wanted to get better social skills my life changed instantly - for the better.
Right now I have a good deal of Unix experience in an enterprise environment - yet, I just took a sales job. Why? I want to be a better sales person. I want to understand all aspects of business so I can go into business for myself one day. As it happens I am selling computers, just something I happen to know about. I find it makes your life easier if you try to fix what you might consider weaknesses in your character. It has worked for me quite well so far. It is something to consider.
As far as the holier than thou attitude, yeah, so what? I'm choosy about the people I like and if I'm condescending its because a lot of people who're above me are there not because they're better than me but because they have the "Oh so called Social Skills."
If you are technically minded, you are likely logically minded as well. Technology involves solving problems - so does social skills. However, it also involves understanding other peoples feelings and empathy. A great book to read and begin to understand this is the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. It would probably be worth your time to read, especially if you know that is is a weak area of yours.
You certanly sound angry at the people who have "Social Skills" so why don't you point a little logic of yours in that direction? It is easier than you might think.
I don't see the point -- as long as I do my job and get my stuff done, whats the point and the problem?
Whether you are employed or not quite often depends on your social skills. Really, if you keep pissing off the PHB, they will replace you, and if you have no social skills, you will never even see it coming.
You could almost rewrite that line by saying:
I don't see the point -- as long as I write crappy code that barely works, whats the point and the problem?
No, that is not fair to rewrite it like that - but it is an appropriate analogy for how other people might feel about your attitude. Most people see having social skills as an INTEGRAL part of getting along with co-workers. And, getting along with one's co-works is part of your job.
All that most "informed bosses" can do is kiss everyone's ass and pretend to know everything. And serve everything as sugar coated lies to the clients and investors.
Yes - and that is THEIR JOB They are in business - they have to be able to sell. You can make fun of the PHB's who can't use the computers (and there are many) but how many coders understand a balance sheet, and can sell their product effectively? You know, amongst the PHB's the last thing they want is an engineer near a client - engineers (generally) are not good salespeople. If you don't have good salespeople - you don't have a job and pay the bills. You are stuck coding free software (which is just fine) but you can't pay the power bill to keep your system running.
I would much rather not pretend to empathize with such people.
Part of having social skills would mean that you understand WHY they are doing what they do, so that you can in fact have REAL empathy for them. Not fake empathy. Faking empathy is not a socia
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!