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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

#231

Post by dsq »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #135
HWR_14 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unsurprising, as the standard workplace is toxic, otherwise WFH would not be so popular.

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

#232

Post by dsq »

Many workplaces are collections of fiefdoms, ruled by managers who constantly jostle for prestige and budgets. They jealously prevent their workers from helping each other across department lines, or even fraternizing. If you are in one of the rare non-toxic places, stay there even if you don't make too much money, or move purely for the money without expecting anything else.

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

#233

Post by kelipso »

steponlego wrote: post #156
hobs wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"read stuff written for other job titles" - happy now?

Nah I already decided not to click. It’s constructive criticism, take it or leave it. I just can’t even imagine a more bland, tired phrase than “consume content.”

> I just can’t even imagine a more bland, tired phrase than “consume content.”

Haha thank you. That phrase really put me off the article.

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

#234

Post by BeFlatXIII »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #57
throwawaysleep wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I little reorganization yielded a $385,000/yr cost optimization. And your reward for that was? Were you rewarded? Did they give you 30K as a bonus? Or was it just the weasel words of "this will be considered favourably at performance review time." I am aware of about a 50K a year in cloud waste. But in my org, I know I won't get anything for reporting it as I am not going for a promo (promos pay a lot less than job…

I'm curious, would you say any of your motivation and feeling of reward in your job comes from doing a good job, or helping your organization achieve it's goals? Or does your motivation and reward (what gets you out of bed, what makes your job tolerable or enjoyable) come mostly/only from maximizing your paycheck? Or other things?

Paycheck only most days. Shipping something of quality on ship days.

The employment is a means to funnel money to the valuable aspects of life.

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

#235

Post by BeFlatXIII »

giantg2 wrote: post #169
nickvanw wrote: post #5

I would put it even more simply: just knowing Engineering isn't enough if you want to excel past a certain point, unless you're going to go extremely deep and become a subject matter expert in something (storage, hardware, etc). That is something most people are not going to do, because it requires dedication and to be extremely intelligent. Instead, you can go very far by understanding a job one "hop" from your own…

"because it requires dedication and to be extremely intelligent." I'm a dumb-dumb. Being a dumb-dumb in two domains isn't very helpful either. Everyone wants experts.

That's what lying on your résumé and practicing believing those lies for the interview are for.

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

#236

Post by brodouevencode »

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…

Wow, there is so much dissent in the replies here. Here are the top three recurring themes of those:

> You'll make enemies poking your nose around.

And? You make another worker in another department angry, so what? Managers in other departments are very inviting (unless they're up to no good, in which you'll be doing the company's owners even bigger favors by exposing them) because they want to be seen as having work that's necessary to the business. The people who will see you as an enemy are at a dead end anyway and not likely to ever have any influence over you.

> Did you get any of that $385,000? Of course not.

It would be nice to get a piece of that cost savings. My previous role was largely in finops, so this is near to my heart. Companies should give incentives for any proactive cost reductions and revenue generators. But that's not the point - you did the right thing by fixing something that was broken because you were genuinely curious.

> I don't have time for all that.

You have to make time to learn your company just like you have to make time to work out, learn new skills, network with people, and grow your wealth and family. Learning the inner workings of your company does pay off just like the others, maybe even more so than some of them.

FWIW @SassyGrapefruit I commend your efforts. You're the type of person I want on my team.

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

#237

Post by brodouevencode »

Some companies have this baked into their DNA, and I'm very fortunate to have worked for a couple of them in the past 10 years. There have been a lot of benefits to this, but the one that sticks with me the most is the appreciation other teams show when you empathize with their problems.

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

#238

Post by SassyGrapefruit »

senttoschool wrote: post #228
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…

> It is a tremendous advantage to explore your organization fully. Visit its other offices and learn what your colleagues do and why they do it. Especially as an engineer. You can literally write your own ticket. Last year I was bored and I started to break down our cloud spend. This took me on a little detour. That detour involved a team that was following a process I could not understand. Turns out they didn't unde…

maybe, but I'll keep doing it anyway.

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

#239

Post by SassyGrapefruit »

gardenhedge wrote: post #165
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…

Wow, what are you going to spend that $385,000/yr on? /s I don't see the point of your recommendation.

Corporate finance doesn't work that way. If someone sets something up that costs $500K a year and it can be done for $150K a year. $150K is the baseline thats how much it should have cost in the first place. Otherwise why wouldn't I set it up to cost $10million a year then retract to $150K then say "Oh gee I saved you millions of dollars you owe me!" We as employees have a responsibility to our organizations to ensure they are trim and healthy. It's how we grow and achieve bigger things.

I have been rewarded in the past and am confident I will rewarded in the future. The individuals that set it up kooky will be retrained to avoid that situation in the future. I feel bad for all the jaded folks they must live very depressing existences.

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