IT careers

The IT Worker Telecommuting

Somehow or another in spite of my best efforts to escape computer-speak when I’m not actively at work it seems that even my personal “life” is laced with computer and IT geeks.  Of course, as I’ve blogged about previously, I don’t really try to separate my “life” into a “work-life” and “personal” life — but I find it interesting that so many of the new people that I’ve met in the past year are associated with computing to some extent or another.  (Of course living in New England with its high concentration of “techies” probably contributes greatly to my experience!)

At any rate, I found myself engaged in a couple of interesting conversations this weekend about working from home, the economy, job environment and IT careers in general.  Of particular interest in those conversations was the subject of “the home office” and “working from home”, and in particular the challenges that are presented with the “home” environment.  Not all of us engaged in the conversation were currently working from home, but a number of us have had the experience and could easily relate to the “stories” and experiences of others.

One of the topics which constantly came up (with associated “stories” ) was the experiences of the “worker” with their “family” during “work” time.  The number one issue that came up was related to the need when “working”, to be left undisturbed, as if they had driven off to an office somewhere.  Of course, for this to truly work for all of the relationships concerned, telecommuting from home cannot be a 24/7 operation.  Clear boundaries have to be set.

However, this is more easily said than done it seems.  Many of the participants in the conversation were feeling especially insecure about their current employment status — and the general consensus is that with such insecurity in the background, there is a tendency to try to work 24/7.  This does not work!  It was suggested by one participant that he thought perhaps that was what the company hoped for when they allowed him to telecommute!

Having employees who work from home certainly can save a company money.  The full-time telecommuter doesn’t require office space, the part-time telecommuter can often share office space — less office space required, less expense.  If on top of that savings the employer then gets greater productivity from the employee - it’s a win!

End of Year Squeeze

I’ve never really established what phenomenon is at work come December but it seems that throughout my time as a software developer and IT manager, December has always been a particularly busy month.  This December has been no exception, although not all of the “busy-ness” has been due to programming that I’m invo0lved with.

At least some measure of the activity has often been around getting new equipment configured and the application installed, users created and all the various pieces of “technicality” that goes along with adding or replacing a server.   Come December many are able to “lighten up” their workloads and enjoy the holiday season with long lunch hours, after work “get-togethers” with co-workers, extra time off (catching up on vacation time not taken), or just plain “easy going” for a while.

However, IT never sleeps!  This economy which is demanding that we do more with less surely won’t help those of us in IT have an easy December.  What there is for us to do, however, is to just make the very best of whatever “breaks” we get during this holiday time — and enjoy every minute of the time.  One of my earliest employers used to quip “Work hard, Play hard!” — I’m up for that as soon as I figure out when play time starts!  

Not Fun? Why Do IT?

While doing some cleanup yesterday I ran across my “spare” bumper sticker which I purchased at a Ben & Jerry’s a few summers ago.  At the time I purchased 2 of the stickers because I loved the message so much - 1 for the car I was driving then, and 1 for my next car.  The time has come - next warm day I’ll clean the car (…or at least the bumper!) and install the bumper sticker.  “If it’s NOT fun - Why do it?” has really been very much a part of me all my life.

Even in my early career in manufacturing production control I expressed my thoughts very freely to my co-workers.  Imagine my surprise when it came back to haunt me when an employee I hired a few months previously walked into my office and told me something like this — “It’s not fun — so I’m not doing it any more!  I’ll be gone in 2 weeks!”  That was an eye opener!

Each time I see the phrase I’m reminded that indeed I do have choices to make.  As frustrating and difficult as IT (Information Technology in ths case) is, and as strong as my love / hate relationship with IT is, I remind myself that I am fortunate to have the choice of doing IT or not.  I also have choice as to how I do IT — every client I deal with, just as they interviewed and evaluated me for the work they wanted done, I also have evaluated potential clients to at least “best guess” how well I will be able to work with the potential client.  I can honestly say that such client evaluation has served me well since I can have fun with my clients - and we’re better off for it!  (Especially during those hard times of dealing with system failures or “bugs”!)

IT and the Business Student

I had an experience this week!  It was one of those unplanned “moments” where it seems that the universe aligns and presents an opportunity for the taking.  This is the story of an experience involving a grand-daughter (student) and a “grampy” (IT blogger).  You might guess the personalities involved here

A chance set of circumstances aligned such that the “grampy” in our story had an opportunity to transport subject grand-daughter back to her college with what was expected to be a 3-5 hour drive depending on the traffic involved.  The travel day was beautiful, the traffic light, and the trip started off with little conversation (…it was still quite early in the morning!). 

As the trip progressed subject grand-daughter began to think about what she was going back to at school — including her IT course which she began to fret about — saying that it was a required course for business students at her school and that she just wasn’t understanding any of it.  She expressed concern that the book seemed so technical - and that she couldn’t seem to understand all the various acronyms - what they meant - and what they did.  All just seemed to be one big mystery to her!  She expressed concern about not being able to “see” or “visualize” such things as a LAN or a WAN — never mind the possible array of components that might exist within them!

Her frustration came through loud and clear!  Enter the “Grampy IT Guy!”  Now it just so happens that at the very moment that she was communicating her concerns they were less than an hour away from the IT department subject “Grampy” recently retired from.  A quick call to said company IT Manager (MIS as they refer to it), and reassuring said IT Manager that there was no intention of pointing said student toward the IT ratrace as a career — a stop at the old company for an IT department “visualization” and Grampy’s IT 101a course was scheduled.

The extent of the value of said stop remains to be seen, and can probably never be quantified – but what subject Grampy realized from the event was in fact valuable — first, that as an IT guy there are a lot of assumptions made regarding understanding, secondly, presenting IT to the business student provides a valuable foundation for the inevitable future contact with IT in business, and third that moving beyond the “book” learning adds significant value to the education.

Girls, Technology and Career Paths

Once again I have found myself drawn to an article dealing with “girls”, technology and careers.  The article in question, “Girl Power! Summer camp grooms tomorrow’s techies” introduces us to a summer high tech camp for girls 11-14 years old.  It seems that these girls are experiencing opportunities to see technology in action in what is referred to as a “girl-friendly” atmosphere.  The hope of the program being that this program will “…make technology relevant — even cool — for this at-risk age and gender group…by exposing them to women in technology-related careers”. 

As I look back at my experiences in this industry I see but a handful of women who have chosen to make software development their career, and even fewer seem to be involved with other IT functions.  To my way of thinking, we are missing out!  I don’t think we need hard headed “know it all’s” of any gender, but I strongly believe that we do need the perspectives that only a women brings to a project, and the lack of women involved in technology restricts us.

While I have heard many a snide remark made regarding some of the female perspectives that those daring enough to voice did in fact voice, I have often wondered about how many of the impractical, almost “toys” that have come and gone in the corporate world would never have gotten off the ground had there been respected female perspectives listened to.

I hope the program referenced meets with successes way beyond their stated goals.  The statistics presented in the article about women and their technology careers tells us something is missing - and indeed it is - the female talent. 

Top 5 Characteristics of an effective IT professional

Staying with my recent top 5 theme  here is my list of most desireable characteristics for an effective IT professional:

1. Patience, patience and more patience - IT can be stressful, fun, challenging and a whole lot of other things!  Having an overflowing supply of patience - with users, with other techs, with software, with hardware, with vendors, with bosses and with self is of major value!
2. Ability to adapt quickly to change is another ingredient that I believe is essential.  IT needs, tools and equipment is constantly changing - and keeping up with it can be a challenge.  Those that can adapt quickly shrug off the discarded work of the past in favor of attacking the new, without seeing the past work as being futile or a “waste” of time. 
3. A positive outlook is a must have for an effective IT professional.  Change and “issues” of all kinds crop up daily in the IT world - so having a positive attitude brings about stability in self and the environment - things are jsut better.
4. The effective IT professional is not a 9 to 5 person - IT functions often require that work be done “off” hours.  The most miserable IT person I ever worked with really just wanted a job to go to between 9 -5.  Needless to say, he didn’t work out!
5. A love for challenge rounds out my top 5 characteristics of an effective IT person.  IT is NOT easy street — it is NOT narrowly defined — it can be multi-disciplined, requiring knowledge way beyond the technical.  IT is NOT for everyone — good thing — if it was, everyone would be doing it whether they posses these characteristics or not!

Have you also read my Top 5 Reasons to Love IT and my Top 5 Reasons to Hate IT? 

Top 5 Reasons I Hate IT

After what seemed like a sleepless night I woke up in early morning thinking about my reasons for being involved in IT and what it means to me.  As with so many professions, I have discovered I have a “love / hate” relationship with IT.  Heres my top 5 list of why I hate IT:

1. It is constantly changing - and because it is constantly changing it requires significant effort to keep up with the needs of the organization and the available solutions, and to evaluate them and mold them into the “best” solution
2. Sometimes it seems that nothing is easy - there are many challenges that an IT professional can face on a day-to-day basis that just seem to defy logic and reasoning.  It “should” work!  You’ve followed the directions, over and over again, nothing is wrong — except it isn’t working!
3. It can be a thankless job - Ask any IT professional when they received their last compliment for a job well done keeping a system going for the last 500 days with no down time!  Ask also what they experienced when last they were dealing with down time!  (Remember “down time” is a double 4 letter word!)
4. The challenge can get burdensome - Like it or not, every person in IT at whatever level will be challenged to learn constantly — “learn or burn” one associate I worked with used to say.  I have learned so much that I’ve never used!  It becomes difficult to not consider that learning as useless, but the challenge goes on day after day.
5. It’s NOT a 9-5 job - which for me has never been an issue, in fact I like the flexibility that not being 9-5 provides.  However, down systems, major weekend upgrades and constantly extending hours into the “off” hours time slot can get old. 

Be sure to read my Top 5 Reasons I Love IT also.

Top 5 Reasons I Love IT

I love my work!  I have always loved my work, although it hasn’t always been in IT.  When I came into IT it was with a wealth of experience in business and entrepreneurship, with successes as well as failures.  Here is my list of the top 5 reasons I love IT!

1. It is constantly changing - and this is truly the flip side of a coin — since the constant change can both be loved as well as hated!  I love it because I am an individual who once something becomes routine I lose interest and have to force myself to the grind.  In IT with the constantly changing needs it seems there is always something new to experience. 
2. It can be rewarding - Users love it when their systems work - or help them get more done in an easier fashion - and that is a reward to me.
3. It is challenging - and being a man who likes challenges (most of the time) I’m OK with this.  For some, however, the constant challenge becomes more than they can deal with effectively - and that is NOT a pretty picture!
4. It provides some level of flexibility - and I emhasize “some level” because I realize that not all in IT have the kind of flexibility that I currently have.  However, IT does often provide the ability to work from home, most or at least some of the time.  There are also of course those times when there is NO flexibility — like for instance a down system.  Life for an IT professional takes on a whole new meaning when there are 100 people who can’t work because a system is down!
5. It makes me feel good - to be able to provide a service for another which they are incapable of providing for themselves.  For me it may be something like being a musician and not playing for others.  What good is beautiful music played only for ones own ears?  The talent required to be successful in IT is meant to be shared as well.

Be sure to read my Top 5 Reasons I Hate IT also.

Work-Life Balance - No Measure of Cost

An article which recently caught my eye entitled “5 signs your people don’t have work-life balance” triggered my interest once again in blogging about this topic.  (See my earlier post). 

One doesn’t have to look far to find someone in their life whose work-life balance is, putting it nicely, far out of proportion - usually with the “life” area suffering from lack of attention.  I must admit that I have struggled with this all of my life.  My natural tendency has always been to put work at the top of my “todo” list (…that is IF I even bothered to make a list!).  In my earlier years there was no question about where my priority was - work, work, work - and coming in a distant forth and beyond everything else.

Fortunately now, for those around me, I have a far better balance between my work and “the rest of my life”.  The resulting change in my well-being has been significant - but there were many lessons I needed to learn before reaching some semblence of balance.  (Like the trauma of a failed business and a stressed marriage to start with).   

There is a high cost associated with Work-Life Imbalance - both to employee AND employer.  For an individual such as an independent software developer - it can be huge!  I have never seen any indications that burn-out, health issues or relational problems has ever helped boost productivity!  Regardless of ones occupational position, the maintenance of work-life balance is critical for employers to recognize and encourage.

It’s NOT easy to achieve however!

Developer, Business Consultant or Detective?

I wrote a couple of days ago about how I thought that we independent developers had to be partially detective, and indeed not just developers, but pretty much in any IT position that we may hold.  My last post really was somewhat of an example where the developer was acting more like a business consultant than developer.  He had identified a process issue, and the prospect wasn’t open to the “business consultant” service he was getting from the developer.  (From the owners view, there was nothing wrong with his business (process), it was a computer application problem!).

Another example of a developer becoming business consultant came to my attention yesterday.  It seems that the developer was asked to come out and evaluate the clients application to ensure that it was doing what it was supposed to, and also to ensure that there were no “workarounds” that could be used by dishonest employees to “skim” inventory.  It seems that there had been major issues with generic inventory shortages, and the company management suspected possible theft.

The developer went on-site and performed an exhaustive evaluation of the application and the processes in place and had found nothing out of the ordinary or unexpected.  The developer was wearing his “detective” hat at that point. 

Now, while waiting for management to become available to report his findings, the developer (detective) became aware of something — the phone had rung, and the counter person took an order, pulled a few items from inventory.  He then excused himself to the developer saying he had to bring these items out to the shop.  The developer noticed that he had done nothing with the inventory system, and upon the employees return began to question him about what he had just witnessed.

The company stocked a series of tools which were of standard sizes, but that could then be slightly modified by a secondary process to in effect provide a “custom” item.  Upon further conversation with the employee it was established that it was a common practice to take items out to the shop to be “customized”, and they were then sold as a “special order” item.  “Special Order” items were not inventoried. 

At this point the “detective” became the ”business consultant”.  Records of the “special order” sales indicated that the suspected “losses” of inventory were in fact due to the movement (without any record keeping) of the items to be turned into the non-inventory special order items.  Records showed that the missing inventory was completely accounted for after reviewing the special order sales - there was no theft issue.  Rather it was a business process issue.

That this situation was noticed was truly due to the skill of the developer as detective and business consultant.  It should also be noted that Lady Luck played her part in that since management wasn’t available for the developers “final report” he witnessed what he did that ended up identifying the issue at hand.  It all worked out!

Just another day as an independent application developer!