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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

#221

Post by lifeisstillgood »

Zetice wrote: post #131
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

Hang on. I am not sure which side of the argument we are on now.

Yes I love interesting detours - and frankly they almost always result in something useful - however converting that something useful into something that is used by the organisation is a different kettle of fish - that requires an organisation that is willing to see its failures and change on a significant level - which if were true probably would mean I could not spot the low hanging fruit.

Not sure where I am going except to say the Schumpter is probably right and that it's incredibly hard to move jobs thus any signalling via job market is muted.

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

#222

Post by 2b3a51 »

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…

Just an observation: decades ago in industrial companies of some size it was the practice to move newly hired managers around systematically for (say) the first 5 years so they could see how the whole company worked.

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

#223

Post by tomaskafka »

Yep - the most useful conference I have ever been as a product designer for a job portal was when I convinced my boss to send me to RecSys (recommender systems) instead of another designer conference.

I learned a lot, but I was also able to filter and connect many of the recommender technologies to the actual user needs, which sometimes even their authors were unaware of.

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

#224

Post by circlefavshape »

eastbayjake wrote: post #154
serjester wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this far more likely is influenced by your demeanor going into it. If you come off as arrogant or condescending people will rightfully be skeptical of your intentions. They'll assume you're trying to micro manage them and obviously you'll get pushback. On the other hand if you come off as genuinely interested in what other people are doing with no ulterior motives, 95% of the time you'll get warm feedback. I…

Asking "how can I be helpful?" is a huge unlock: almost everyone has too much to do and not enough time, and thus almost everyone will welcome help from someone else. (And if the way you're "poking your nose in other departments" is perceived as value-destructive instead of helpful, that is probably the root cause.)

Gotta say I've heard "how can I be helpful" once too often from people trying to poke their clueless noses in my business. Just asking about what I'm working on is totally fine though

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

#225

Post by circlefavshape »

circlefavshape wrote: post #224
eastbayjake wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking "how can I be helpful?" is a huge unlock: almost everyone has too much to do and not enough time, and thus almost everyone will welcome help from someone else. (And if the way you're "poking your nose in other departments" is perceived as value-destructive instead of helpful, that is probably the root cause.)

Gotta say I've heard "how can I be helpful" once too often from people trying to poke their clueless noses in my business. Just asking about what I'm working on is totally fine though

Or more accurately ... I've heard "how can I be helpful" too often from one particular person who is invariably the opposite of helpful, and now if anyone else says it I'm instantly suspicious

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

#226

Post by sebzim4500 »

2b3a51 wrote: post #222
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…

Just an observation: decades ago in industrial companies of some size it was the practice to move newly hired managers around systematically for (say) the first 5 years so they could see how the whole company worked.

That only makes sense when people expect employees to stick around though, in today's market you would expect the vast majority of people to not finish the 5 year program yet alone show any benefits from it.

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

#227

Post by runnerup »

circlefavshape wrote: post #225
circlefavshape wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta say I've heard "how can I be helpful" once too often from people trying to poke their clueless noses in my business. Just asking about what I'm working on is totally fine though

Or more accurately ... I've heard "how can I be helpful" too often from one particular person who is invariably the opposite of helpful, and now if anyone else says it I'm instantly suspicious

Or heard it as a criticism -- the underlying implication that one is struggling.

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

#228

Post by senttoschool »

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 understand it either. I little reorganization yielded a $385,000/yr cost optimization. It took me just a couple days. Chances are you swim in a sea of complacency too.

If you work in a corporation, this is a surefire way to create enemies inside the organization. No one likes a random employee from another team to poke into what they're doing and tell them what they're doing wrong.

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

#229

Post by teddyh »

akst wrote: post #196

I largely agree with the advice, it gives you more context on the root of the problem when other specialities & you get a better idea of their priorities and what they value in their specialty. It’s also more interesting than you realise sometimes. —————————— But for a bit I got hung up on the “unfair” part of the title… I was telling myself “this doesn’t mean what unfair means! there’s nothing unfair about this, it’…

“Unfair” is clickbait. If you merely wanted to be concise, you could write “distinct” or perhaps “significant” instead. (“Large” or “big” would both work OK, but wouldn’t sound as cool.)
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