This practice has always seemed a waste to me, as well. I have always taken the opinion that if someone is not performing their work well, regardless of reason, they should be let go. If their work is of good quality, then obviously they are not abusing email or Internet priviledges.

Comments? Click the link below.

One-Third Of Companies Monitoring Email dotpavan writes "While studies have shown that spying on workers tends to make them less productive, that hasn't stopped approximately 1/3 of all U.S. companies from employing email monitoring tools. 43% of those companies employ staff to check outgoing emails.> [More]

(Via Slashdot.)

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As you may have heard during my most recent podcast, Career Opportunities is now a member of the Tech Podcast Network. We are a collection of tech-oriented podcasters with a variety of shows for all level of technical listener.

Check out the other great shows at the Tech Podcast Network.

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If you want to be very clear about your feelings towards your current job, here is a little test. Find a child (son, daughter, nephew, niece, friend’s kid) and try to explain to them what you do for a living. If you are really lucky, you will have a child come to you with the same question. Don’t think about your answers. Just talk. You might be surprised at what comes out of your mouth. If so, capture those thoughts any way you can, because they represent your true feelings about your work.

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Last week I talked about the importance of direct experience in building your high-tech career. This should not lead you to believe, though, that formal training is not necessary. An education in high-tech concepts will allow you to expand your horizons beyond your direct experience. They can also lead to ways to garner even more experience by applying this newly acquired knowledge.

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Even as the world has progressed from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge economy, many things have remained the same. Products, whether hard physical objects or great ideas, are the end goal. What we can mold with our hands or mold with our minds creates something new and valuable. In some ways though, the average technology job is different. Instead of focusing on making something tangible, we are engaged in making something disappear. We solve problems. We remove barriers to access. We make something obsolete that was previously unassailable. This can lead to some interesting workplace issues.

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Since I wrote my column about Apprenticeship a few weeks ago, (See I want an apprentice, September 12, 2003) I have received several questions from readers wanting to know what they should be studying today to build their high-tech career tomorrow. While it is impossible to predict the future, there are several ways of preparing for a high-tech career that will serve you well, regardless of where the industry might find itself down the road. Over the next several weeks I will explore the ways you can, and should, develop your own customized high-tech education.

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I have been doing something very similar to the note below for the last several years. I also add an interesting twist.


If I open my journal in one direction, it is a chronological journal of my meetings, client calls and more. Turn the book over and it is a "notebook" with pages for writing ideas, books to request from the library, recipes and anything else I want to think about. The journal is full when these section meet in the middle. This seems to allow me the best use of my journals while still being able to locate the items I need quickly. I also try to keep a Table of Contents on the first several pages in both directions.

For more on note-taking, visit this site...

How to take good notes

Publishing company president Michael Hyatt's work life is filled with meetings - and he always takes notes with paper and pen.

At his weblog Working Smart, Hyatt publishes a list of reasons why along with tips and tricks for effective note-taking. I particularly like his simple method of marking items for followup and emphasis for quick and easy scanning:

I indent my notes from the left edge of the paper about half an inch. This allows me to put my symbols in the left margin.

Hyatt's shorthand symbols include an asterisk for important items, a question mark for items that require research, and a checkbox for to-dos.

Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking [Working Smart]

(Via Lifehacker.)

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I always like to tell people about the good sites I find in my Internet travels and here is a podcast that I have really come to enjoy. Below is the text of a Career-Op Extra Podcast I released today. Check out the In The Trenches podcast!

This is a Career Opportunities Extra for Sunday, April 17th, 2005. The High-Tech Career Handbook. I’m Douglas Welch.

I listen to a wide variety of podcasts, technology-related and otherwise. In The Trenches, hosted by Kevin Devin, has caught my ear over the last several weeks. Regular readers and listeners already know that I have a large bias towards experience over classroom learning. This is perhaps due to my own computer upbringing, but I also see the great effects of “on the job” training in many of my peers. Classroom training is good, as far as it goes, but it is through application of classroom content that we all become better high-tech careerists. Learn as much as you can, but apply all that you learn.

In his podcast, Kevin recounts his own trails and tribulations of a high-tech career and also hosts Admin-to-Admin discussion sessions and regular Tech Chats with other IT workers. He has a pleasant friendly style to his podcasts and I learn something new nearly every time I listen. Sometimes it is just nice to know that there are other people in the world who are dealing with the same issues, both technological and business-related, that you face every day.

I highly recommend you check out the In The Trenches web site and podcast to give your thinking and career a boost today. It can be found at http://www.kevindevin.com/ Links are also provided on the Career Opportunities web site at welchwrite.com/career/ and in the comments section of this MP3 file

An In The Trenches promo is coming right up.

This has been a Career Opportunities Extra with Douglas E. Welch

(Recorded promo immediately follows)

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When I am having a particularly bad day on the job I tend to grumble about it. On these days, my wife’s usual response is, “It isn’t like your working in a coal mine!” She is right, of course, I am not sweating away hundreds of feet below the earth making my money with physical labor. Still, there are some types of high tech work that are my version of “coal mining.” These are the endlessly repetitive or frustrating tasks that seem to make up the majority of too many workdays. Too much of this type of work and I begin to wonder if I made the right career choice after all.

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The best you can do with the mistakes in your life is learn from them. It is even better, though much harder, when you can learn from the mistakes of others. Mistakes happen to us all, but when we make mistakes in our career it can effect all aspects of our lives. When mistakes happen it is important to review them, quickly, learn what we can and then move on. Unfortunately, too many people skip the middle step and repeat the same mistakes over and over. Here are a few of the biggest career mistakes and how you can avoid them.

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Marc has given a very nice review/link to Career-Op over on his web site. It is always great to hear from people, good/bad/indifferent. Sometimes it can feel quite lonely as a writer, sending your words out in the ether without being sure if anyone is listening.

Thanks Marc!

Marc’s Musings: Reality from Marc’s point of view!

Career Opportunities Podcast by Douglas E Welch is a 5 minute podcast that offers career advice targeted at folks in the high-tech contracting field. But the topics he covers are easily transportable to anybody in any field. Topics such as procrastination, making mistakes and even firing your client can help you to step back from your own career and maybe regard it with a fresh perspective.

I’ve been listening to Douglas’ podcasts for over 4 months now and always look forward to the bits of advice offered in his verbal column format.

This podcast comes out a couple of times a week, usually one new column and one gleaned from his extensive archive which is available for searching on his website. Or, better yet, if you enjoy his columns, pick up his book "The High-Tech Career Handbook".

(Via Marc's Musings.)

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While your high-tech work often has its ups and downs, some weeks can do a wonderful job reminding you what your work is all about. Some of the lessons you learn are new and others are simply a re-education in something you may have forgotten. Regardless, these are important lessons to remember. This week I want to relate a few of the lessons that have been reinforced for me during this abnormally busy week. Perhaps you can use them as a way of examining the lessons you learn on a daily basis.

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The best you can do with the mistakes in your life is learn from them. It is even better, though much harder, when you can learn from the mistakes of others. Mistakes happen to us all, but when we make mistakes in our career it can effect all aspects of our lives. When mistakes happen it is important to review them, quickly, learn what we can and then move on. Unfortunately, too many people skip the middle step and repeat the same mistakes over and over. Here are a few of the biggest career mistakes and how you can avoid them.

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I am sure you have seen this before. A new technology is announced and it takes only moments before writers across the globe start to predict its demise. There is a rush to discount the new technology in a hundred different ways, explaining, in great detail, exactly when and why it will never work. I wish I had such foresight. Imagine the riches that would follow if you were able to know these things with such certainty. Of course, as you already know, most pundits are wrong most of the time. This is one major reason I steer clear of such “pile-ons”. I would much rather help people find the technologies that work for then instead of worrying about those that may, or may not, fail.

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