Career Opportunities

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In a high-tech career, it is sometimes the perception of your work that matters more than the quality of your work. As disturbing as it might be, you can often be perceived as aloof, arrogant or incompetent, even when the facts don’t bear out that conclusion. Human beings are complicated and confusing animals so discovering what is coloring their perception of you and your work can be a daunting task. Still, unless you want to find a new job, you are well-advised to address any issues regarding how you are perceived in your company. Remember though, that perceptions that people voice often have no relation to what is actually bothering them.

An example

A fellow podcaster, Joseph (not his real name) and I were chatting the other day and he related a story that perfectly illustrates the capricious nature of perception in the workplace. His manager called him in one day to inform him that some other departments, or perhaps just one, had complained that he and his staff were not being responsive enough to this department’s needs. Unfortunately, the specifics of the complaint were sketchy, as is often the case. It caught Joseph quite off-guard as there had been recent incidents within this department where his response to problems had been immediate, dropping other tasks to solve their problems. He was a bit confused and concerned about the complaints and wondered what might be the source.

As we talked, he described his office environment. It was the typical arrangement of cubicles, where all workers sat with their back to the doorway, so that their computer screen was exposed to managers and supervisors passing by. Additionally, as is often the case, many workers wore headphones to listen to radios or music without disturbing those around them.

Harkening back to my own days in the cube farm, I remembered a peculiar problem that resulted from arrangements like this. I also had an idea about how it might be creating Joseph’s complaints. With your back to the doorway, anyone who entered your cube to speak with you would usually startle you. Almost everyone would immediately apologize for disturbing you. When you add headphones, you are setting up a very bad situation.

I believe though Joseph and his staff felt they were being polite to keep their noises from bleeding into neighboring cubicles, they may have been, unintentionally, telling people “don’t bother me!” When co-workers and people seeking help approach from behind, they must cross over the public/private “wall” that is created by a turned back and headphones. This makes people feel awkward, intrusive and uncomfortable, sometimes to the point of anger.

That’s not what I meant

As you can see though, the complaints about being unresponsive might have nothing to do with the actual quality of service being provided. Sure, if you or your people are truly unresponsive then you need to recognize this fact and fix it. In most cases, though, it is a matter of how you are being perceived. Perceptions can quickly negate quality work. They can outweigh even the most studious attempts to provide great service. It is your job to find out what other factors might be involved in a complaint. Is there really a concrete problem with your operations or a matter of how you are being perceived? Is the perception a true indication of the problem or a result of some other, unvoiced issue? It can take a bit of discussion to come to the true nature of a perception issue. The people placing a complaint might not be able to tell you exactly what is bothering them. They might blame it on any number of issues, but unless you address the correct problem, the complaints will only recur. Your best solution is to talk to people. Help them find the words for what they are feeling and find a way through their perceptions and onto whatever issues might exist.

No matter the quality of your work, if it is perceived badly your job, and possibly your career, are in danger. Don’t slough off perception problems saying, “oh, they don’t know what they are talking about.” If your client is confusing perception with reality, it is you who will suffer. When perception problems arise it will take a combination of hard facts and thoughtful discussion to protect your high-tech career.

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5 Steps to follow before committing to anything
By Douglas E. Welch

Listen: 5 Steps to follow before committing to anything

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We make commitments, large and small, every day, but one easy way to destroy your reputation and your career is to fail to deliver on these commitments. In passing we might say, “Oh, yeah, I’ll take care of that” only to forget about it until the deadline is dangerously close. Those around you will quickly discover that you don’t live up to your commitments. Then you and your work will be marginalized and you will come to be seen as someone who cannot be trusted. I am sure you can see where this might lead.

So, if commitments are so important we must work very hard to only accept commitments we are willing and able to carry out. We must avoid the knee jerk response of “Yeah, I’ll handle that” and replace it with more considered thought. If we don’t, we risk trapping ourselves in commitments we don’t want or can’t deliver. Even worse, trying to live up to all these unwanted commitments can hamper the more important work we want and need to do.

The first step to qualifying your commitments is to take a 5 step process towards evaluating them. This enforces at least a small amount of consideration and should help you from falling into un-keepable commitments .

1. Am I capable of doing this task? Do I have the skills necessary or will I have to take extra time acquiring those skills?
   
2. Do I have the time to accomplish this task? What other commitments have I already made? What deadlines are approaching? How does this commitment fit into the workflow of what I already have?
   
3. Is this task potentially troublesome due to politics, difficult people, management by committee, poorly defined scope or other issues?
   
4. What benefits do I gain from taking on this commitment? Is it a high profile assignment where I will receive the credit or tedious work that no one else wants to do?
   
5. Do I want to do it? While this comes last in the process, it is one of most important aspects to consider.

Now let’s take these steps one at a time.

Think clearly about the commitment. If you are going to have to take a class or do extensive reading to complete the task, is it worthwhile for you to do it or would it be better handled by someone else. Sure, you want to grow in your work, but setting yourself up for failure is never a good idea.

Managing your time and organizing your work is so important in this world of multiple commitments and multi-tasking. If you re already overburdened then you need to do all you can to protect yourself. Sure, you don’t want to be seen as someone who is constantly turning down work, but you also have to be realistic about your own capabilities. Don’t over-extend yourself, or you will not be able to deliver on your commitments.

We all have difficult people, troublesome committees and conflicting politics at our workplace. Getting involved in hotspots like these can only end badly. You won’t be able to avoid all entanglements, but it is certainly worth consideration when you take on any commitment.

You deserve to benefit from your good work. Avoid commitments where others can take the credit while leaving you all the work. Again, if you have worked in your company long enough, you will already know the co-workers to avoid. Do yourself a favor and consider who you might be partnering with on this task.

Finally, your own personal choice can and should drive every commitment you undertake. I firmly believe that you can only do your best work when you are engaged in the task. Working on projects that do not interest you nearly guarantees poor work and bad results. If you can honestly say that you want to do this work, then it can override the previous steps, but do so carefully and with consideration. Be honest with yourself and those around you.

If you put each potential commitment through these 5 steps, you may not guarantee success, but you certainly start your work on a better footing. You may not be able to avoid every bad assignment, but thinking through the commitment can show you ways to make it as successful as possible, even if it isn’t perfect. A little thought can go a long way towards building the career your deserve.

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In a high-tech career, there are often many reasons why work doesn’t get done — money, politics, understaffing, ignorance and more. The more shocking reality, though, is the myriad of excuses we give ourselves for our lack of productivity. When morale is low, mergers are in the air or you are going through your fifth manager in as many months, you might find yourself justifying your lack of energy in many ways. Your company isn’t the only one suffering, though. Your excuses will come back to haunt you when the time comes for the ax to fall. The following 3 excuses are recited again and again at most companies and they result in much more lost productivity than any of the other issues combined.

It’s not my job

This is, by far, the most insidious excuse in your career. It is easy to invoke this excuse yet very difficult to refute it. We can all fall back on a strict definition of our job description when it serves our purposes, but it hurts us more than it helps. Following only the letter of your job description, but not the spirit, clearly defines your reputation among your managers and your co-workers. You are not a team player. You won’t help out in an pinch and you will very likely be the first one at the unemployment office when the layoffs come.

While you certainly don’t want to get subsumed doing work outside your usual area, neither do you want to avoid helping out when necessary. It is good to stretch yourself and explore new areas. You never know when an outside project will open up an entirely new avenue for your career. You might find that you enjoy this new work more than your current job or that you have an undiscovered aptitude in this new area. So, “making it your job” can be the best way to expand your career.

It’s Not My Fault

Regardless of how you are treated by anyone, whether a vendor, manager or another entire department, blaming your troubles on someone else is a road to nowhere. I can tell you from experience that no one cares who is to blame when something goes wrong. The only thing your customer or your manager wants to know is, “what are you going to do about it?” Even more, “what are you going to do about….NOW!”

We have all been placed in bad positions by those around us, but it is more important for you to present solutions at a time like this, not blame. If the vendor is late delivering their product, what other products can you use? If the other department is slow delivering the numbers you need for a report, where else can you find them or who else can you get involved at a higher level? If your manager is standing in the way of your productivity or advancement, how can you go over, under or around them? Solutions are always better received than passing the blame.

There’s no money in the budget

In today’s world of open source software, there are few reasons to invoke this excuse. If you can’t afford a piece of software, maybe you can find a free or inexpensive replacement. You might even be able to build it yourself, if necessary. Getting around budgetary problems is a great way of improving your high-tech career. If you consistently get work done, even when others are complaining about the lack of budget, your career position is sure to improve.

Just like with the other excuses, challenges such as this can lead you to new, innovative solutions and experiences. As workers, we discover the most when we are trying to circumvent a particular problem. It forces us to search out new products, new methods and new concepts. It only makes sense to look beyond the concepts that have failed us in the past.

There are many more excuses in the business world, but I find these 3 to be the most pernicious. Many companies and their departments have been brought to an utter standstill by their invocation. If you want to keep both your company and career moving forward, you would do well to avoid them all costs.

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(This podcast is pulled “from the archives” and presented here as a service to more recent listeners — Douglas)

Although Labor Day seems to be more about the unofficial end of summer, it should also be a time for everyone to reflect on their careers and see just where they are headed. You can think of it
as the New Year’s Day of career planning. It is time to take stock,
make some resolutions and move forward in the knowledge that your
career is under your control.

A Union of One

Labor Day, first celebrated in 1882, was conceived by early labor unions as a day to celebrate the union worker. It was a day to demonstrate the solidarity and the power of the unions to protect their members. In today’s high-tech world most computer workers don’t have unions but you need to think about your career as if
you are a union of one. You need to look out for your best interests
and how they match the best interests of your company. Labor Day
provides us this time. Take an hour and think about where you
want to be when the next Labor Day rolls around and then, on Tuesday, start to put your plans into action.

If you had a union who collectively bargained for you and your
co-workers, what would you want them to do for you and your peers? Thinking in this way puts some distance between you and your job. A little dispassionate space can sometimes help you discover what you really want out of your career and not just what you are supposed to want. It also gives you the freedom to engage thoughts you might not consider otherwise. Would the union be asking for flextime, shorter work weeks, better working conditions, better retirement plans? These are items that you, as an individual, can also negotiate.

Of course, to be a good negotiator you have to develop a better understanding of your company’s needs. You have to know how your requests are going to effect company operations and revenue. Trying to negotiate something that is clearly detrimental to the company is a sure way to be rejected. Putting yourself in the company’s shoes can help you to better understand why your company operates the way it does. You might even realize that your job is better than you thought it was.

What’s the next step?

The next thing to consider this Labor Day is what is the next step in your career? If you have a clear career path in your current company you are very lucky. Too often companies put little or no thought into how their employees can grow over time. If you feel your job has become too restraining and there doesn’t appear to be a way up, you might be better off moving out.

It is always a good idea to be in touch with the current state of the job market. Take a look at the classified ads every so often. Visit Monster.com (www.monster.com) and set up a personal agent to send you job listings in your current field. Search CareerPath (www.careerpath.com) for jobs that are being offered around the country, not just in your city. It only takes a few minutes a month but it can giveyou a clear picture of what positions are most in demand.

You might want to take some time to investigate starting your own company or being self-employed. While this might not be the choice for everyone you need to readdress the issue regularly We all change. Your desire to work for yourself might also change. Your opportunities for starting your own business can also change dramatically. Regularly revisiting this issue can be helpful in gauging your current career satisfaction and re-directing your career.

Attention, please

Labor Day weekend holds one additional benefit, especially for those of you currently looking for employment. It signals the end of the vacation season for most people. As kids go back to school, their parents go back to work. This means employment applications, resumes and interviews will get a little more attention in the coming months. It is time to focus on your job search before the end-of year holidays distract everyone once again.

So, in between the hot dogs for lunch and the hamburgers for dinner, between working on your tan and swimming in the surf, give a little thought towards your own labor. Take a few minutes to consider whether you could be better off than you are today. It doesn’t take any more energy than turning the pages on your beach-reading novel but can have great results. Celebrate your labor this Labor Day and make sure that it counts for something in the future.

For a history of the Labor Day holiday, visit The U. S. Department of Labor Web Site at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/opa/public/aboutdol/laborday.htm

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