and they will be many. I'm going through the same transition at a start up and it isn't easy. The biggest thing I'm finding is that even though you are supposed to be a strategic thinker and solve business problems, you will be asked to get back into the weeds and do what your last job required. While you are playing super hero to your technical comrades you will be testing the patience of those who expect something different. Don't throw in and help and you could be seen by those constituents as not being a team player. Knowing when to do that can be tricky. Eventually you would think that hiring over time will mitigate that but it may be a long tough slog. The other thing I'm running into is finding that delicate balance of where my ability to take charge and own things and stepping over my boundaries are. While I'm dithering wondering if I'm going to piss someone off, someone else is unhappy as I'm not meeting their expectations. So there are macro changes to deal with, that being telling people what to do and expecting them to perform and micro that are more subtle where you have to take some chances and learn from the bumps and bruises you will get when you are wrong. So keep an open mind, you are no longer the expert in this arena, surround yourself with people who do know and can help you, be humble and take lessons to heart, and one thing I never see managers do very often, learn your craft, the promotion is only the beginning.
I had to call and get a copy of windows blah.3.something validated so I could continue, the rep on the phone was like 'well we show that the os was installed on ' and asked me 'why art thou not installing it on the previously mentioned licensed machine'... to which my
reply was, 'I am putting this copy of windows on my work laptop, the other machine has a copy of linux running on it', at which point he became very quite
and issued my key promptly and even hung up without asking me 'does this help', 'are you statisfied','do you even care'...
no Bill, I don't... if I need a Vista I'll climb a damned mountain... its cheaper and better for my health...
when are they going to extend this to my phone calls, hell I curse and use more prophane language on the phones than anything I put on the internet. Remember the movie demolition man???
thanks for the chuckle! I'll bring it in pieces and beat you over the head with it so that my resignation letter sticks to the top of your head.... maybe this is a potential use for the easy button....
Ahhh, now I see.... if I would just crawl out of the cave towards the light, I might realize that the darkness I had experienced was only a localized phenomenon and that it was indeed time to either find another job, or in the utopian platonic point of view, gripe, complain and threaten until things changed and all were lifted from the darkness of the cave... (I sure hope I'm using my freshman college english references correctly...gaaads).
"This Is Why Programmers Get The Big Bucks. The whole reason you gave them Aeron chairs, unlimited M&Ms, free catered lunches, and the kickass computers with the 30" LCDs is so they can deal with new bugs Microsoft introduced in their code by messing up a DLL that used to work." --
Try a 5 yrs old computer, an uncomfortable desk,a chair that must have been bought at some office furniture auction from the 80s, a monitor that makes me feel like I have the eyes of a 75 year old and a boss that says fun is the enemy of productivity....
if you have any input into this class make sure that it addresses the fact that development time lines are getting shorter and shorter and demand for features greater and greater. We have been told that when we are asked to give a 'swag' at a time
line to keep in mind that if the business thinks we are going to take too long, one of two things will happen...either
the project will not be approved or they will attempt to go and buy a product that they can install and customize. Now my experience has taught me that buying software still requires discipline and usually does take every bit as long as writing it from scratch but this is the thinking we find ourselves in these days.
I work in the I.T. business also and so did my now ex wife. We have a 8 yrs old daughter and she a 13 yrs old son. When we first got together she wasn't in the industry and when she approached me on the opportunity to do so as a consultant I warned her that this was not a family oriented business. I worked an enormous amount of hours and when she started her new job she was traveling some but the time away began to grow and eventually took a toll on our marriage. My opinion is that it might not be the industry that led to your breakup but the management principles in place at your job. High stress and long hours certainly exist at a number of I.T. shops but I believe that they are found in other industries also. I hope I'm wrong in saying this but it would be more correct to say that the culture of the I.T. business seems to thrive on the long hours and stress as a kind of 'badge of courage'. I wonder what the overall divorce rate is in our industry and how it correlates to other industries that are also high stress. Maybe like an air traffic controller or police man, or now days a soldier.
Again Europe leading the way in weirdo economics and policies! So I'm guessing that everytime some product comes their way and has significant market share that the government with its sense of 'fairness' will step in and through legislation 'level' the playing field for other less than successful products???
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and they will be many. I'm going through the same transition at a start up and it isn't easy. The biggest thing I'm finding is that even though you are supposed to be a strategic thinker and solve business problems, you will be asked to get back into the weeds and do what your last job required. While you are playing super hero to your technical comrades you will be testing the patience of those who expect something different. Don't throw in and help and you could be seen by those constituents as not being a team player. Knowing when to do that can be tricky. Eventually you would think that hiring over time will mitigate that but it may be a long tough slog. The other thing I'm running into is finding that delicate balance of where my ability to take charge and own things and stepping over my boundaries are. While I'm dithering wondering if I'm going to piss someone off, someone else is unhappy as I'm not meeting their expectations. So there are macro changes to deal with, that being telling people what to do and expecting them to perform and micro that are more subtle where you have to take some chances and learn from the bumps and bruises you will get when you are wrong. So keep an open mind, you are no longer the expert in this arena, surround yourself with people who do know and can help you, be humble and take lessons to heart, and one thing I never see managers do very often, learn your craft, the promotion is only the beginning.
hell my place of employement would either ask me to choose, life or work or would ask us all to stay at work and not leave the building...
I had to call and get a copy of windows blah.3.something validated so I could continue, the rep on the phone was like 'well we show that the os was installed on ' and asked me 'why art thou not installing it on the previously mentioned licensed machine'... to which my reply was, 'I am putting this copy of windows on my work laptop, the other machine has a copy of linux running on it', at which point he became very quite and issued my key promptly and even hung up without asking me 'does this help', 'are you statisfied','do you even care'... no Bill, I don't... if I need a Vista I'll climb a damned mountain... its cheaper and better for my health...
when are they going to extend this to my phone calls, hell I curse and use more prophane language on the phones than anything I put on the internet. Remember the movie demolition man???
thanks for the chuckle! I'll bring it in pieces and beat you over the head with it so that my resignation letter sticks to the top of your head.... maybe this is a potential use for the easy button....
Ahhh, now I see.... if I would just crawl out of the cave towards the light, I might realize that the darkness I had experienced was only a localized phenomenon and that
it was indeed time to either find another job, or in the utopian platonic point of view, gripe, complain and threaten until things changed and all were lifted from
the darkness of the cave... (I sure hope I'm using my freshman college english references correctly...gaaads).
"This Is Why Programmers Get The Big Bucks. The whole reason you gave them Aeron chairs, unlimited M&Ms, free catered lunches, and the kickass computers with the 30" LCDs is so they can deal with new bugs Microsoft introduced in their code by messing up a DLL that used to work." -- Try a 5 yrs old computer, an uncomfortable desk,a chair that must have been bought at some office furniture auction from the 80s, a monitor that makes me feel like I have the eyes of a 75 year old and a boss that says fun is the enemy of productivity....
if you have any input into this class make sure that it addresses the fact that development time lines are getting shorter and shorter and demand for features greater and greater. We have been told that when we are asked to give a 'swag' at a time line to keep in mind that if the business thinks we are going to take too long, one of two things will happen...either the project will not be approved or they will attempt to go and buy a product that they can install and customize. Now my experience has taught me that buying software still requires discipline and usually does take every bit as long as writing it from scratch but this is the thinking we find ourselves in these days.
I work in the I.T. business also and so did my now ex wife. We have a 8 yrs old daughter and she a 13 yrs old son. When we first got together she wasn't in the industry and when she approached me on the opportunity to do so as a consultant I warned her that this was not a family oriented business. I worked an enormous amount of hours and when she started her new job she was traveling some but the time away began to grow and eventually took a toll on our marriage. My opinion is that it might not be the industry that led to your breakup but the management principles in place at your job. High stress and long hours certainly exist at a number of I.T. shops but I believe that they are found in other industries also. I hope I'm wrong in saying this but it would be more correct to say that the culture of the I.T. business seems to thrive on the long hours and stress as a kind of 'badge of courage'. I wonder what the overall divorce rate is in our industry and how it correlates to other industries that are also high stress. Maybe like an air traffic controller or police man, or now days a soldier.
Again Europe leading the way in weirdo economics and policies! So I'm guessing that everytime some product comes their way and has significant market share that the government with its sense of 'fairness' will step in and through legislation 'level' the playing field for other less than successful products???
Ummm, let me know how that works out for you...