A One-Eyed Man is King

This weeks selection hits particularly close to home for me and some of my esteemed colleagues.  It’s called JibberJobber and it’s pretty slick.  They style themselves Career Management 2.0, and I think they bring the goods to back it up.

The software is pretty simple.  After you get signed up, you start tracking things like which recruiters you’re working with, any companies you’ve targeted, interview dates and so on.  After you plug all that info in, you can do things like search for people on Google, LinkedIn etc directly from the app, you can set follow-ups and reminders and such.  It’s like a CRM system for your job search.  You’re supposed to be working at this like it’s a full-time job, right?  This is the system you need to track your efforts. 

It will even show you all of the companies that it knows about in your area:

The base product is free, you can upgrade for 5 or 10 bucks a month and get some nice add-ons.  If you’re in the market, check this one out!

Before I follow through with the outrageous boast I made at the end of my last post, I’m going to make some stipulations.  Stipulations, I said.  Not weaseling.  Not waffling.  Merely stipulating.  The thing is, they’re big.  Huge, even.  Like if you can’t get these things in place, you are ultimately doomed to a horrible flaming demise while your coworkers laugh and point.

Seriously, though, it will be impossible to get as much mileage out of the rest of what I say without these things in place.  The thing is, technology workers and even technology leadership can’t make these things happen.  Or can’t make them happen by themselves.  The leadership of the business (CEO/Owner/President/Whatever you call the person at the top along with all the people he or she listens to) must step up and provide this stuff.  (How to convince them to do so will be another post entirely.)  Here they are:

1. A reasonable budget to get the job done.  Have you ever worked on a project that was underfunded?  Or that didn’t have a set budget so that getting every dollar was like going to war?  How did those projects turn out?  I don’t think that IT should necessarily be the ones to set the budget (on their own anyway), but any project must be well enough thought out to allocate it a budget.
2. Clear priorities and objectives.  Every technology worker has run afoul of this at one time or another.  Work for a couple of months on a project and then all of a sudden someone says we’re not doing that anymore, we’re doing this thing over here now.  Not only will this kind of thing sap your team’s will to live, it will guarantee you’ll never get a happy return on the dollars you’re investing in them.  As with the budget, the business needs to think things through, make a decision about what’s important to it and then stick with it.  
3. An executive sponsor who accepts full responsibility for success or failure.  The old saying goes something like “when everyone is responsible for a thing, then no one is”.  Without a sponsor or champion that takes absolute responsibility for a project, that project will never enjoy a happy life and will rarely come to a good ending.  The sponsor has to be a person who has a seat and a voice at the big table.  You can’t just grab a lower level project manager and say, “You’re on the hook for this.  You better get it right.”  That won’t work because he has no ability to advocate for or smooth the path in any way.  It has to be someone who can effect real positive change to conditions that will affect the project.  Sometimes it can be the CIO/CTO, but sometimes even they don’t have the wherewithal to get the job done. 

I’d love to hear your stories confirming or denying my opinions here.  I’ve seen a lot of projects and a lot of teams over the course of my career and these seems to be recurring themes when things go awry. 

I have been thinking big thoughts for the last few days.  I mean BIG THOUGHTS.  I’ve been pondering what it all means, what my place in it is and how exactly I think I’m making a difference in this crazy world. 

Over the last several years, one of the things that I have felt the most proud of is the development of a first rate team.  I have mentioned them on this blog more than once.  The thing is, as great as the individuals that made up the team were (and they were exceptional), it still took a LOT of work to bring them together and keep them going in the right direction. 

It’s not easy getting a team to do what you need them to, especially when we’re talking about technology teams.  They’re smart (often accustomed to being the smartest in the room),  they have definite ideas about how things should be and they aren’t afraid to speak up (or simply leave to find another job) when they’re unhappy.  Couple these factors with the high personnel costs and you have very little margin for error. 

As I have ruminated on this stuff, I realized that I have uncovered a need that I don’t see anyone filling.  A business that is spending on average $66,000 per year on a technology worker (that’s according to the US Department of Labor) needs to know that it is getting the most out of that investment.  A company whose existence is riding on the quality of its software products needs to take care of those developers that brought them to the dance and make sure they are not lost to competitors.  A startup company that is watching every dollar it spends needs to be sure that they have the right people making the right decisions.  These are not touchy-feely, new age ideas.  This is life and death stuff for a business of any age or size. 

So here it is.  I will break down for you exactly what it takes to create a team that can not only handle the tasks you set out for them, but do it with maximum efficiency and love every minute of it.  Does that sound like a line of bull?  Tune in and see for yourself! 

The irony of the timing of my last post followed by this one is not lost on me.  When I wrote that ebook and posted it I had a great team of technology professionals, a job that I liked a whole lot, and a pretty good idea of what the future was going to look like.  Now, not so much. 

I won’t go into the gory details, they are easy enough to find on the Interwebs (just search for Sommet Group and try not to cry).  I do, however want to say a few words about the folks I have been fortunate enough to associate with for the last four and a half years.  The team that we assembled is hands down the best group of developers I have ever been around.  The infrastructure team was solid and dependable.  I could throw anything at them and they would just take care of it.  I am a better person for having worked with them.

It wasn’t just the teams that I was personally involved with, either.  My colleague and good friend Steve Lacey’s team of analysts and quality control people were constantly surprising and impressing me with their dedication and hard work.  Steve himself helped me to grow in ways I’m sure even he can’t comprehend.  I will miss our daily association.

So I find myself in the job market unexpectedly.  I know that this very thing has happened to thousands over the past two years, and I have certainly been sympathetic in an abstract way for those affected.  But nothing really can prepare you for the feeling of free-fall that comes with suddenly having that part of your identity taken away. 

I have been very fortunate over the years.  More often than not, interesting job opportunities have found me.  I can barely remember the last time I was out actively job hunting.  I am optimistic, though.  I have a wonderful, caring network of friends and colleagues who have poured out their support and well-wishes for both me and the teams that I led.  I thank you all.

Now, onward and upward.

I am excited to announce the launch of my first ebook!  I have been working on this for some time now and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  My thanks to all of the people who helped me out with proofreading, research, and general encouragement.  I couldn’t have done it without you! 

To all the folks out there looking for jobs in the technology industry, I would love to hear your feedback and stories.  Please, let me know how (if) this helps you out.  If you know someone who is looking, please pass it along!

Download it here!

Recently I came across Intuit’s Billing Manager.  It is a VERY simple way to invoice your clients and keep track of payments.  Did I mention it was free?  It lets you send unlimited invoices to unlimited clients.  Seriously, you can sign up and have an invoice sent out in less time than it will take to you to read this post. 

Billing Manager lets you (for a fee) make use of Inuit’s Merchant service to accept credit cards, and you can even seamlessly upgrade to Quickbooks online.  Pretty slick of them.

Seriously, if you need basic invoicing and payment tracking ability, you should check this out.

I am UTTERLY immersed in technology.  I love it.  I use technology for my job, my finances, and now even reading.  It’s amazingly useful to me.  I am, however, painfully aware that technology is FAR from perfect.  I experience the pains and frustrations of getting some device or program to behave just like anyone else does.

I spent several maddening hours the other day trying to get a firewall to do what I wanted.  Unsuccessfully, even!  I have been working on firewalls for longer than I want to admit, and I couldn’t make this stupid thing act right. 

This exercise got me to thinking about all the folks out there that are dependent on technology for their businesses and even their lives who have to struggle with this sort of thing on a daily basis.  What is your biggest pain point around technology?  If I could give you magic computer pixie dust and solve your greatest problem, what would it be?

I am very interested in hearing what you have to say.  Post in the comments or email me at dave.purdon [at] gmail dot com. 

Serendipity is an amazing thing.  I just happened to read these two blog posts back to back. I read both of these blogs regularly and I find myself nodding as I read them many times.  Today though, by some chance I read them sequentially and it really set off a firestorm of ideas.

The first was by Seth Godin, speaking on getting referrals.  He postulates, “The only thing that will make you remarkable is being worth remarking about”.  So that’s on the front side.  Getting people to refer business to you is all about being worthy of their efforts on your behalf.

The second post was by Steve Curtin, speaking about customer retention.  He says (quoting from Exceptional Service Exceptional Profit) “Individual customers are irreplaceable”.  Once you lose a customer, he’s gone for good.  You have to know how much a customer is worth to you over a lifetime and then treat them accordingly.

This all came together in a very concrete way because DirecTV has been trying to get me to come back to them for months.  I switched to cable because I got lousy service.  Plain and simple.  Even before I ditched them, they continually tried to get me to sacrifice my friends and family to their vengeful god by offering me money and discounts.  Honestly, if they had just treated me fairly, I would still be with them.  (I’m lazy.  I don’t change unless I have to.)  If, heaven forbid, they had treated me well, I would have told other about them.  FOR FREE EVEN!

Don’t be DirecTV.  Be fair and you won’t lose irreplaceable customers.  Be excellent and your work will spread beyond your reach.

This installment comes to us courtesy of a colleague and a gentleman, Steve Lacey.  He sent me over the link and I really thought this was cool.  Allow me to set it up a bit.

I have been called an idea hamster. I admit it.  I get jazzed up on some concept, think about it and plot a bit, and then move on to the next one.  Execution has been a struggle for me in some ways.  I just can’t ever seem to foc…hey, look!  Ooooh, something shiny!

Anyway, this software is called PersonalBrain.  I’m not sure that it will help out with my execution problems, but it WILL let me think of ideas much FASTER.  WOOT!  Take a look:

It may not look like much to you, but this is one powerful tool for visualizing what’s important to you.  A few things I think are just killer:

1. You can copy OR link to files on your computer (and network!).
2. You can link to web sites and even configure how many links deep you want it to go.
3. The search/indexing is amazing. 
4. “Show Forgotten Thoughts” is like a recycle bin for your thoughts, which I think is pretty nifty.

The pay versions of this package are a little pricey, $150 for Core and $250 for Professional, but it seems to have a lot of functionality in the free product.  If you feel like you don’t have enough ideas in your life, I guarantee that this will spark some new ones!

A while back, I broke down and bought a Kindle.  It’s shiny.  It’s well-made.  I take it with me everywhere.  It does not, however, accelerate or even keep a pace with my reading speed of paper.  A while back I said that I would be testing this thing out with my first three books.  Here are my results:

Just for a reference point, I read paperback fiction at around 2.3 – 2.5 pages/minute.  It goes down from there for technical and business type books.

So, I read slower on the Kindle.  Quite a bit slower, actually.  I couldn’t figure it out for the longest time, but then it dawned on me.  I have to turn the page MUCH more often.  There is the slightest delay as the screen redraws itself and it happens every time you hit the Next Page button.  I’m pretty sure that’s the culprit. 

Anyway, apart from the speed issue, I love the device.  I can get books in the airport, sitting in the car waiting for during my kids’ piano practice, or in my bed at one in the morning.  Some titles I’ve looked for and they don’t have for Kindle yet, but the vast majority of what I have wanted was right there.  It’s too easy, actually.  When you search on the device for books, the Buy button is highlighted by default and if you click on it, it’ll charge your card and start sending the book in less than 20 seconds.  Impressive, but dangerous for someone like me…