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Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

matthewgrohman.substack.com

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Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#131

Post by Zetice »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #128
SassyGrapefruit wrote: post #30

I travelled to Yellowstone National Park. I wandered into the back country office and spoke with the ranger. She was super friendly and informative. One interesting fact she shared is that Yellowstone is almost 4,000 sq. miles and receives 5 million visitors a year. 99.9% of those visitors never travel more than 50 feet from the main road. This means that most of those visitors experience less than 1/10th of 1% of th…

Ah, the days when you didn't have a manger asking for status updates daily on your deliverables that are vaguely defined. Having time to investigate interesting detours I get it. But sometimes there are people focused on their 1% and see you as part of that.

Er, isn't that kind of the point? That you should be aware of the real cost of you "investigating interesting detours"?

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#132

Post by mediaman »

ghaff wrote: post #119
mindcrime wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every company I've worked for, from startups to Fortune 500, it was very clear what products the engineers contributed to, and what that product portfolio revenue stream looked like, and what it meant to the business (right down to the product margins). This sounds quite remarkable to me, and definitely does not match my experience. I've found that most engineers have an incredibly vague notion - at best - of how the…

I'd be a bit surprised if a sizable portion of engineers at a public company didn't have at least a rough notion of how their companies make money. It's right there in the quarterly and annual earnings reports. (And while reading SEC filings at a very detailed level is a skill you need to learn, the basics are pretty straightforward.) But maybe a lot of engineers just can't be bothered by any of that stuff. What is a…

My experience (not specifically with engineers) is that very, very few people read the 10K, 10Q or other public statements of the company they work for.

A friend of mine used to be a management consultant for one of the big firms. On one memorable project she worked with senior executives of a large ($1b + revenue) non-tech company that had retained the consulting firm, to do an operational diagnostic. It became incredibly clear that many of these senior execs had never really read the company's financial statements in any detail, that they did not understand that the company was cash flow negative, and that they did not know that the company's debt load was increasing over time as it financed losses with bond issuances.

At the same time they were spending incredible amounts of money on luxurious office furniture and trappings.

Stories like this were common. Most managers knew their area, but did not learn about the business more broadly. (Could be selection bias with firms that hire management consultants!)

So, kudos to the engineers who read these and have a rough idea of their company's financial position and how the business works. It's not clear that this is the median experience.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#133

Post by burntwater »

I work in live entertainment - theater, concerts, corporate shows, theme parks, etc. While my job is multidisciplinary, covering tech areas such as lighting, sound, video, projection, etc, to be REALLY good at the job requires a much broader scope.

My physical and electronic inboxes are full of marketing mail from a slew of industries; IT, medical, construction, industrial controls, business, and so on. Why? Because in the entertainment industries we are regularly called upon to solve problems that require out-of-the-box solutions. The more exposed you are to other industries and the tools they have, the more you can think "oh I remember seeing Gadget X that the Y industry uses, I think maybe we can adapt that to our purposes."

I don't do it nearly as often as I'd like, but attending random trade shows can be a goldmine for learning about alternate solutions, there's a LOT of industry specific solutions out that you would have no idea about and would never think to search for.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#134

Post by HWR_14 »

nixpulvis wrote: post #38
SassyGrapefruit wrote: post #30

I travelled to Yellowstone National Park. I wandered into the back country office and spoke with the ranger. She was super friendly and informative. One interesting fact she shared is that Yellowstone is almost 4,000 sq. miles and receives 5 million visitors a year. 99.9% of those visitors never travel more than 50 feet from the main road. This means that most of those visitors experience less than 1/10th of 1% of th…

But just like at state parks, tread lightly. I've gotten in trouble before while exploring and then being accused of putting my nose where it shouldn't be. It can look like you're wasting your time looking for distractions, or trying to dig up dirt. Not everyone in all parts of your company is going to like you poking around. You also risk picking up new responsibilities if people catch wind that you might be offerin…

My friend got fired from his job for sticking his nose in other departments. Which is very strange because his boss told him to look at transferring into another department because he would have to transfer in the next six months or get fired. And the department he stuck his nose into offered him a lateral job. But because he failed to keep the bosses of each department apprised of where he was in the process, he trod on some toes and got fired before the lateral position could become official and it had to be an internal hire. Total mess.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#135

Post by ThePowerOfFuet »

HWR_14 wrote: post #134
nixpulvis wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But just like at state parks, tread lightly. I've gotten in trouble before while exploring and then being accused of putting my nose where it shouldn't be. It can look like you're wasting your time looking for distractions, or trying to dig up dirt. Not everyone in all parts of your company is going to like you poking around. You also risk picking up new responsibilities if people catch wind that you might be offerin…

My friend got fired from his job for sticking his nose in other departments. Which is very strange because his boss told him to look at transferring into another department because he would have to transfer in the next six months or get fired. And the department he stuck his nose into offered him a lateral job. But because he failed to keep the bosses of each department apprised of where he was in the process, he tro…

Sounds like a toxic workplace to me.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#137

Post by HWR_14 »

ghaff wrote: post #119
mindcrime wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every company I've worked for, from startups to Fortune 500, it was very clear what products the engineers contributed to, and what that product portfolio revenue stream looked like, and what it meant to the business (right down to the product margins). This sounds quite remarkable to me, and definitely does not match my experience. I've found that most engineers have an incredibly vague notion - at best - of how the…

I'd be a bit surprised if a sizable portion of engineers at a public company didn't have at least a rough notion of how their companies make money. It's right there in the quarterly and annual earnings reports. (And while reading SEC filings at a very detailed level is a skill you need to learn, the basics are pretty straightforward.) But maybe a lot of engineers just can't be bothered by any of that stuff. What is a…

I honestly doubt most people investing their savings in companies read their quarterly reports, let alone most engineers who work for them.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#138

Post by savanaly »

steponlego wrote: post #112

Consume content? Roles? What kind of marketing speak is this? I just can’t even get inspired to click a link to this content, and consume it. It sounds so bland and dull. Hellish 1984-esque corporate neospeak.

It's really not.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#139

Post by hinkley »

geph2021 wrote: post #42
SassyGrapefruit wrote: post #30

I travelled to Yellowstone National Park. I wandered into the back country office and spoke with the ranger. She was super friendly and informative. One interesting fact she shared is that Yellowstone is almost 4,000 sq. miles and receives 5 million visitors a year. 99.9% of those visitors never travel more than 50 feet from the main road. This means that most of those visitors experience less than 1/10th of 1% of th…

Most people can't even describe where the money in their business comes from. I find this quite remarkable, and does not match my experience. Every company I've worked for, from startups to Fortune 500, it was very clear what products the engineers contributed to, and what that product portfolio revenue stream looked like, and what it meant to the business (right down to the product margins). For startups, pre-revenu…

I feel like I have to disagree, on the grounds that many companies mistakenly label indirect profit centers as 'cost centers' and end up cutting off their noses to spite their faces. They strangle R&D and get outclassed in the market. They strangle infrastructure and get nasty surprises that tarnish their reputation.

And then there's mistaking users for customers. If you're a McDonald's customer you might think their money comes from trading hamburgers for cash, and you'd be wrong on any number of fronts. If you're a McDonald's competitor, you would know that they make more money from fries, and way more money from selling soda (hence the discount for a meal). But if you're the McDonald's corporation, you know that you make most of your money from franchisees, who happen to sell burgers and fries and oceans of soda. You're providing logistics and real estate acumen for most of your money. The general public is their customer's customer.

I don't know if they still do but Burger King used to 'steal' McDonald's real estate acumen by building Burger Kings as close to the nearest McDonald's as they could manage. Let them get 10% or whatever higher profits by getting the correct corner lot in the right neighborhood instead of the incorrect lot in the right neighborhood, meanwhile we save tons of money on market research.

Re: Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

#140

Post by [deleted] »

SassyGrapefruit wrote: post #30

I travelled to Yellowstone National Park. I wandered into the back country office and spoke with the ranger. She was super friendly and informative. One interesting fact she shared is that Yellowstone is almost 4,000 sq. miles and receives 5 million visitors a year. 99.9% of those visitors never travel more than 50 feet from the main road. This means that most of those visitors experience less than 1/10th of 1% of th…

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