Everyperson's strategy

The other day I received an email that contained 1000+ words. The purpose of the email was to ask for my feedback on an idea that the sender was working on. The message started by going into deep background and then moved into the different considerations and various viewpoints. It included arguments and counter-arguments that may or may not have actually occurred.  This is a common occurrence when communicating, especially among more junior engineers. They want to make sure that they have covered all the bases and answered any questions that I could possibly have. It happens more often in writing than in direct discussion for a few reasons. Mostly because, I will generally stop the conversation when I realize what’s going on and ask them to just let me know what they want. I have one thing to say about this - long, detailed emails and communications are not helpful or effective. It is very difficult to fully comprehend all the background information by just reading an email. To fu...

 There’s a popular phrase, “presentation is everything”. If something is presented in the wrong way, it has a good chance of losing a good deal of appreciation. While most people understand this from a physical perspective - great food that is just piled on your plate is less appreciated than decent food that is carefully presented - this is also true when presenting something written or oral.   When somebody starts off talking by saying, “this probably isn’t going to work, but...” or, “I’m sure there are better ways of doing this…”, expectations drop. Why should they waste their valuable time on something that even the person presenting it doesn’t think is any good. So why do people do this? Nobody likes being wrong. There is a lot of posturing and expressions whose sole purpose is to allow people to save face.  People feel uncomfortable making a statement that they don’t feel confident that they can back up. It is easier to hide behind an excuse than to be proven w...

 In the hi-tech industry, people tend to switch jobs very often. They find a position with slightly better pay or more interesting work and quickly jump from opportunity to opportunity. This isn’t always in the best interest of the employee or the company they are working for. Oftentimes, a conversation with your manager about what you are looking for is enough to get you what you want. A junior engineer came to talk to me about changing career direction and asked me to keep the meeting discreet. He was interested in a different type of position and asked me if I knew of any openings. I asked him if he spoke to his manager about this and he answered that he doesn’t want his manager to know until he finds something. He was afraid that if his manager knew that he was looking for something new it would affect the types of projects he got and possibly his bonus. He didn’t know if he would find something so he wanted to keep all his options open and not burn any bridges. A lot of people...

Have you ever been invited to a meeting in which you do not have any input into the agenda? Or where one side of the meeting tries to lord over the side? Telling them what to do and trying to determine the entire narrative? In battle terminology that is called taking the high ground, which is supposed to give you a distinct advantage. In this article, we will discuss how to level the playing field and why grabbing the high ground is not advantageous for you. Relationships should always be bidirectional,  with each side giving what is expected of them and taking what the other side has to offer. When done properly, the relationship should provide a win-win, where each side benefits. This is true in all cases even when there is an obvious hierarchical difference - whether it is personal, vendor/customer, employer/employee, partners and even competitors or any other form of collaboration. If there is no way to come up with a win-win, the relationship should be terminated. As examples:...

 Lately, I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in an hiring process for a position that my team had open. I reviewed a number of CVs/resumes and interviewed a number of people. I thought that I would share that experience with you and give you some advice about the CV and interviewing process. I wrote about the CV in my last article, “Looking for a Job”, what should go into a CV and how to frame it so that it fits what the employer is looking for. However, putting a bunch of keywords on your CV that you have barely touched will probably backfire on you. For an entry-level job, hiring companies generally understand that most the skills listed are educational and not necessarily practical. However, for anything after the first job, you will be expected to back up any skills that you put on your CV. In order to best prepare for an interview, it is worthwhile to understand the interview from the employer’s perspective. There is a popular term in the investing world, “Past performance do...

  Looking for a new position can be a very frustrating process. You have the right education and experience for the position you are interested in. You go to a job board or two and send in your resume to a number of positions that you feel qualified for and - nothing. Sometimes you get a rejection notice, sometimes they tell you that if you’re a match they will be in touch, and sometimes you don’t hear anything. How can you use strategy to better your odds? The first thing to understand is that job boards are often filled with posts by placement agencies. Placement agencies often enter fake jobs in order to get your resume into their files. So not every job that you see listed is an actual current opportunity. Placement agencies also are generally unfamiliar with the specific technologies that the hiring company is looking for. Because of this, they are looking for very specific key words and if there isn’t a direct match, they won’t forward it on even if you have experience with t...