" for engineering managers the comprehensive knowledge of the code base and engineering team is usually more important and difficult to acquire than knowledge of how to run scalable engineering organizations"
I know many people who can get productive with a code base very quickly; the number of people I've encountered capable of managing those people is substantially less.
Old People
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Old People
#22The mistake I've seen a few companies make is hiring in the wrong kind of experience (and I'm gonna use that word instead of "old" since I don't think the "old" bit is actually the issue). For example - say you want to "build a worldwide sales channel". Go find somebody who's running a worldwide sales channel and poach 'em... right? Nope. Coz running a successful worldwide sales channel is a very different process fr…
Also, I don't know, wouldn't somebody who built a sales channel (whatever that is) in the past have done so with completely outdated methods? Presumably fax machines and telephones?
Re: Old People
#23Slightly off topic: Are there no male executives left in the world? All that politically admirable use of 'she' was linguistically very jarring, and an unnecessary distraction from a fine article. Have we not pretty much agreed on 'they' as being the gender-neutral acceptable alternative to 'he'?
Re: Old People
#24The mistake I've seen a few companies make is hiring in the wrong kind of experience (and I'm gonna use that word instead of "old" since I don't think the "old" bit is actually the issue). For example - say you want to "build a worldwide sales channel". Go find somebody who's running a worldwide sales channel and poach 'em... right? Nope. Coz running a successful worldwide sales channel is a very different process fr…
Also, I don't know, wouldn't somebody who built a sales channel (whatever that is) in the past have done so with completely outdated methods? Presumably fax machines and telephones?
Maybe if they built it 25 years ago. People that did said thing 10 or 15 years ago I'd think would have used similar methods that could be updated easily. 10 years ago was only 2002.
Re: Old People
#25Slightly off topic: Are there no male executives left in the world? All that politically admirable use of 'she' was linguistically very jarring, and an unnecessary distraction from a fine article. Have we not pretty much agreed on 'they' as being the gender-neutral acceptable alternative to 'he'?
If the idea of female executives it that shocking to people, it's probably a good idea to sometimes use a female gendered "generic" executive. Had the author said "he" rather than "they" I highly doubt that anyone would have made this comment. Further if they had, any complaints about it would be ridiculed as overly feminist or sensitive.
A lot of people fine the use of a collective pronoun (they) for a singular generic to be extremely jarring. The argument against using "they" is actually pretty good - as when it is unexpectedly countered it can cause confusion in the reader, causing her to re-read the sentence wondering what this group that suddenly appeared is. Even when readers know the modern usage of they/them, they will be caught off guard.
Until we all can read "she" in a "male role" and notice it as odd, or until there is a singular, gender-neutral, non-dehumanizing pronoun (calling people "it" is bad too), the use of "she" for generics is a darn good idea.
Well - except in traditionally female roles, then perhaps we should use "he" as the generic pronoun. (e.g. talking about daycare providers, nannies, nurses, etc as "he" in the generic gets equally weird responses).
Re: Old People
#26The mistake I've seen a few companies make is hiring in the wrong kind of experience (and I'm gonna use that word instead of "old" since I don't think the "old" bit is actually the issue). For example - say you want to "build a worldwide sales channel". Go find somebody who's running a worldwide sales channel and poach 'em... right? Nope. Coz running a successful worldwide sales channel is a very different process fr…
Also, I don't know, wouldn't somebody who built a sales channel (whatever that is) in the past have done so with completely outdated methods? Presumably fax machines and telephones?
A sales channel is a system of business relationships through which you sell your product; for instance, partnerships with consulting firms and VARs that themselves have salespeople. An agreement with Best Buy would be a channel relationship. AT&T is key channel for Apple.
The methods you use to build a channel largely revolve around meetings with other companies, so, no, I don't think age matters as much as knowing how to sell a product to a reseller; how that deal is structured (markups, inventory, spiffs for hitting numbers, sales support, subsidized marketing, &c), how you generate and groom channel leads (pilot programs, pull-through from shared direct customers, tie-ins to services or 3rd party products, &c).
Channel sales managers are more like bizdev than like salespeople (although really, bizdev, channel, and account manager salespeople all share most of the same DNA).
Re: Old People
#27I've heard before startups saying "yeah, but once you're a bit older you can't commit to the 14 hour days, you have family and stuff". 14 hour days are bad and wrong anyway, no one should do them, and no one should expect them. Grumpy grownups have probably done them before, but have enough knowledge of the languages that the 14 hours can be squeezed into 9. Anyway, startups should hire the right person for the right…
14 hour days are bad and wrong anyway, no one should do them, and no one should expect them. Can you explain this claim? For what value of N are N hour days not "bad and wrong"?
Well, for the expected day-to-day case:
S = number of hours an employee needs to sleep to be useful (this varies person to person)
C = commute time to the work location
M = maintenance time (how much time a person needs to do minimal human maintenance, eating, relaxing, showering etc)
So the upper bound on N should be:
N Now this doesn't take into account burnout etc. So another factor B, should be put in the equation. It represents the time an employee needs to spend on non-work things (hobbies, family, friends, going to the pub, whatever) to refresh themselves for work and prevent burnout.
The average person seems to have these sorts of values:
S = 8 M = 2 C = 1
so assuming no B (extremely unlikely), this puts 13 as an upper bound on N for long term. However a normal 13 hour day is a LOT. I know for me B is around 2 or 3 and a lot of people think I'm nuts on how much time I spend doing work. I should note, in my case, B is actually higher, however aspects of my work also count towards B - I love my job, and so can spend more time at it in a sustained way because of the "fun" or "paid hobby" aspects of it.
Re: Old People
#28Old guy here. Musing about the reaction if I reblogged this post with "younguns". Don't get me wrong, the points are valid. But I'd bet an equivalent post about what could happen to a startup when a young new hire comes in would get uber-flamed. Just sayin'.
> But I'd bet an equivalent post about what could happen to a startup when a young new hire comes in would get uber-flamed.
Because thats not the equivalent. The equivalent would be an old established company hiring someone young to come in over the top of all the older more experienced managers to try and shake things up and force some innovation.
Which is an article I would actually be very interested in reading. I imagine the culture clash could cause the company to completely implode if it was not done right.
Re: Old People
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, I don't know, wouldn't somebody who built a sales channel (whatever that is) in the past have done so with completely outdated methods? Presumably fax machines and telephones?
A sales channel is a system of business relationships through which you sell your product; for instance, partnerships with consulting firms and VARs that themselves have salespeople. An agreement with Best Buy would be a channel relationship. AT&T is key channel for Apple. The methods you use to build a channel largely revolve around meetings with other companies, so, no, I don't think age matters as much as knowing…
Maybe, but for example, perhaps today completely different things matter? In the past perhaps it was important to get on TV or cooperate with some supermarket chain, whereas today you should have a billion Facebook followers and be pushed by Amazon.
Just playing devil's advocate, anyway... I am all for senior people, getting old myself...
Re: Old People
#30I've heard before startups saying "yeah, but once you're a bit older you can't commit to the 14 hour days, you have family and stuff". 14 hour days are bad and wrong anyway, no one should do them, and no one should expect them. Grumpy grownups have probably done them before, but have enough knowledge of the languages that the 14 hours can be squeezed into 9. Anyway, startups should hire the right person for the right…
14 hour days are bad and wrong anyway, no one should do them, and no one should expect them. Can you explain this claim? For what value of N are N hour days not "bad and wrong"?
For N Short periods of time (measured in days, not weeks) can be spent working for N > 8 hours per day, but it becomes counterproductive (from the employer's business standpoint, not even considering employee health or satisfaction) beyond a few days in a row.