Guest Blog Post - neteffects

I'm proud to suggest the business neteffects puts into the IT industry 

For my blog post this week, I've been asked to be a guest blogger here: http://bit.ly/netfxgbrezrefact

Please support neteffects by checking out this post. I hope you all enjoy it!

---

After this post went public, I shared it with my family via email. My brother - an outstanding software engineer - had some counterpoints to make. I asked if I could share them here, and since he agreed I'm adding them below. I left them more or less un-edited, so keep that in mind as you read through our thread back and forth to one another. His words I've put in blue, since that's his favorite color. I've put mine in green to keep with the theme/branding of the blog.

You know I love what I do. You know I care deeply about it. You may or may not know I love sharing what I do and my knowledge about it with others who come seeking it (that's why I tutored for 3 years at WashU).

The fact that I don't want to share all of that with the whole world arbitrarily shouldn't affect your opinion of me as a potential employer. If I were looking for a job, I would definitely try to build up a network on LinkedIn, but as for the rest, it's not for me. I really don't think that should matter, and if it does, the world is more broken than I thought.

I also don't know if that mindset is quite as ubiquitous as you seem to (though I also don't know it isn't), and I certainly hope it isn't. Admittedly my experience with the hiring process is antiquated. The popularity of social media (and by extension other forms of "online presence") shouldn't be understated, but I do think the world's obsession with it is somewhat temporary, and I don't know if it extends quite as far to hiring directors as you do. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur by some standards, but if so, I'm happy in the Jurassic (when all the best dinosaurs existed), and I plan to stay here as long as possible.

For what it's worth, I know that the "it's not who you are, it's who you know" concept has existed since long before the internet, and despite the fact that I hate that about the world, I also know it's not changing anytime soon. And yes, strong, unpopular opinions like the one in this e-mail are the reason I don't share them with the world.

You might be surprised at just how "popular" your "unpopular" opinion is. Just because what I write about works for me (and works well) doesn't mean it works for everyone. Yes, traditional methods of job searching are still valid, they just may not return results as quickly as you might hope (I don't know - but I do know that what I've done works quickly almost every time). However, even if you decide to completely ignore all of the internet stuff that's out there - don't forget the most important part. Strong personal recommendations. I'd refer you to ANY of my previous employers, because I know your work. That trumps anything online, hands down. (I may not have made that point strongly enough on the blog post). Once you have the trust of your manager, if you hand that manager a resume and say "Hey, hire this guy/gal" - they're going to have a very hard time ignoring it. Doesn't matter what else they have or have not made available to the world.

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Yeah, especially within our field, a lot of us are pretty stuck in our ways. So it's certainly possible my opinion is more popular (at least for us) than I think it is. I do definitely concede that "my way" might not return results as quickly. I have no problem building rapport with the people with whom I work most closely. My manager has explicitly told me he would give me a good recommendation if I used him as a reference. I think that's probably true of anyone in my department.

Now With More Subscriptions!

OK, I really could have come up with a better title, but I'm corny and wanted to just put this out there for everyone. If you're more interested in getting my blog via email instead of on the interwebs, I've got a sign up page for you to use. If not - same time, same place, next week.

What's My Career Goal?

As many of you saw a couple of weeks ago I answered a bunch of questions that John Sonmez posted on his blog. Unless I have interruptions from other ideas I figured I would use his quiz as inspiration for what to write about.

My answer to his first question: I have a clearly defined goal for my career.

I'm the proud owner of a professional mission statement. You too can own one. There's several different books out there that talk about how to do so - however the way they describe it in Team Geek really spoke to me. I'd highly encourage you to come up with one yourself. Otherwise, how do you know where to go next? Your mission statement does not have to be permanent. But I encourage you to come up with one that sticks around for a while. It should also be something that isn't ever really "done". Otherwise you might allow yourself to become complacent.

Here's my mission statement for my career:

Through servant leadership elevate to a higher standard of quality and productivity all professionals I come into contact with.

It's short, and that is the point. I can reread it (and refactor it) very quickly, so that it sticks to the top of my brain. However, just because it is short doesn't mean that it is low impact. Here's what I mean.

Through Servant Leadership elevate: This is the ongoing point in which I remind myself that the most important success factor in my career depends not at all on me winning. It is my job and passion to make sure everyone I work with wins. Anything I can do to help eliminate roadblocks and propel other people to the top of their game, I will do. The main importance behind this is that as I elevate others higher, my own career flourishes along the way.

Higher standard of quality and productivity This part, while stated generically, applies very specifically to my career in software engineering. There's a plethora of knowledge in our industry about coding best practices, clean coding, maintainable code, testability, and so on. However, just because there's brilliant expertise out there doesn't always mean people instinctively follow it by habit. By introducing the tenets of measurability, continuous improvement, and static code analysis (among others) I help junior developers and fellow senior developers take significant pride in their output. Software engineering has many similarities to artistic crafts, and I expect my teams to drive to match the likes of the most respected masters. Think Michelangelo and Picasso, but in the world of software. There's generally debate as to which "masters" to emulate. However, the point is to ensure that we all know our position in the debate, so that our code intelligently reflects our position on mastery.

All professionals I come into contact with: To put it bluntly, I don't think enough software engineers care enough about people who don't write code for a living (or for fun). Yes, my first priority lies in the quality and output of my fellow engineering team. However, if we're amazingly awesome engineers and the people writing the backlog have no idea how to create value, then we're going to be really efficient at writing software that nobody uses. If the client facing expertise in the company cannot rely upon the engineering team to help them set mission and vision, I strongly feel that the team/company as a whole is dysfunctional. Sure, I consider myself a geek and hang out around my geek buddies way more than anyone else. But I understand that helping anyone I can, geek or not, really drives home my mission.

As I've been writing this, I've been thinking about the fact that I think my mission statement is missing a key aspect - humility. I like to surround myself with people that are way smarter than I am, and also way better at their jobs than I ever could be. So - I need to find some way to incorporate the fact that it's my mission to help make everyone else feel stronger in their careers, but to do so in a way that I don't come across as an egomaniacal prick. If anyone has suggestions for how to start incorporating better humility into my day-to-day, I'm all ears. I'm thinking maybe I need to add something like "through encouragement and companionship" to the end, to make it more clear to myself that it's not necessarily always mentoring I'm doing. Most of the time, in fact, I'll end up being mentored. Stay tuned for my answer to the next question about getting along with my peers - because I think it's well related to my point here.

What do you think? Can we all make mission statements that are both powerful and humble at the same time? Leave me a note if you want in the comments, I'd love to hear your thoughts too.

How Do I Get My Manager To Support My Idea?

Money talks. At the end of the day, when you commute home (or walk out to your living room from your home office) money is most certainly one of the main reasons you spent all or part of your day working. Granted, many of us absolutely love the work that we do. We hardly even call it work, because we're so passionate about doing it all the time. But, to keep the lights on at home and the kids fed, we have to get paid doing it.  Scale that up by 5 or 10 people. Now you're talking about a small business or a team at a large business. If you want to get something done at work, talk about money. Specifically, you need to talk to your manager about return on investment. Here's what I mean.

Let's assume for simplicity's sake that your company only does one thing to earn a profit - let's assume that the company has come up with an amazing algorithm to read the stocks/bonds/commodities market to ensure that no matter what, any money put into the algorithm will net 10% year-over-year. This means if the company puts $1000 into the algorithm at the beginning of the year, at the end of the year the company will have $1100 coming out. Again, for the sake of simplicity I'm making the argument that the company you work for can predict the value of all its investments making a 10% return. In reality, calculating year-over-year returns is a bit more tricky, but it's also mostly not necessary to know the exact ROI your company expects for getting your manager to do something you want/need to do.

Now let's assume (again for the sake of simplicity) you want to buy a one year license of OMG This Is The Best IDE Ever Made!!! Assuming that you're talking a fairly standard licensing fee, let's say that one year for this IDE costs $250 a seat. Let's also say you want to do this for yourself and 4 people. Wait, that's $1000 (see what I did there?!) So, now you have to convince your company with the slogan "We make 10% on all of our investments" that spending $1000 on an IDE will be worth MORE than $1100 to the company after one year. How can you do this? The easiest way is to determine how much added productivity you'll gain on your team by using it. Let's also assume that your 4 person team averages $50 per hour. That's $200 an hour spent on developer time. In order to be worth more than $1100 to your company, the IDE has to be able to obviously save 6 hours of development time, per year, to be worth it to your company. 6 hours, $200 per hour, $1200 ROI. If you can prove to your boss that this IDE will in fact, on average, give you 6 hours of development time back per developer - then the ROI of getting the IDE instead of just investing the money is worth $100 more to the company.

While I intentionally reduced all of the made up examples for simplicity sake, it really isn't all that much more complex in the working setting. All you have to do is figure out how much it's going to cost to do whatever it is you want to do, and then also figure out how much it will save on expenses or earn extra in doing so. If you can prove your idea for a book/IDE/training/feature can genuinely surpass the rest of the company for ROI, in real dollar value, then you're highly unlikely to see much of an argument from your boss.  After all, the point of running a company is bottom line, at the end of the day.

If you want some help coming up with ways to determine ROI for something, let me know. I'd love to brainstorm on the less than obvious ROI values on things that it's not quite so evident, so that you and your company could both benefit from them.

Simple Programmer Soft Skills Quiz - My Answers

Questions extracted from The Simple Programmer Soft Skills Quiz

I've highlighted in red those questions that I didn't answer "yes" to when I read the quiz to myself.

1. I have a clearly defined goal for my career.
• I call this a professional mission statement. Here's mine: 
• Through servant leadership elevate to a higher standard of quality and productivity all professionals I come into contact with.
2. I always seem to get along with my co-workersand clients, even when we don’t agree.
• I've been called "diplomatic" in the past. I think inter-relatedness is one of the most important things we have in our careers on teams.
3. I feel confident in my ability to interviewfor a job, ask for a raise, and negotiate a job offer.
• I've gotten several raises. I've nailed many job interviews. And I've always turned down the first offer when it's not good enough.
4. I act like a professional instead of an amateur.
• I always prepare well stated communications that are succinct and courteous
5. I’m not religious about technology. I pick the best tool for the job, not the one I like the most.
• I already wrote a blog post about this one: Which Programming Language Should I Learn?
6. I’ve made an active choice to be where I am. I didn’t just take the first job or opportunity that presented itself to me.
• I've turned down interviews and job offers that didn't fit me. And I'm proud of doing so.
7. I have a clearly defined specialty that differentiates me.
• I'm a programmer that knows how to talk about ROI, EBITDA, Diminishing Returns, Balance Sheets, and organizational behavior. And I don't work for an accounting software company. I'd say that's pretty niched down, but I'm always looking for ways to tighten it further.
8. I have my own personal brand.
• (Looks at the top of the screen)... I have a branded website which...
9. I have created my own blog and post regularly.
• ... Happens to be a blog I post to at minimum once a week
10. I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.
• I've been down-voted on StackOverflow.com. And I'm sure that's not the only time I've ever been ridiculously, blatantly wrong.
11. I’m constantly learning new things and expanding my skills.
• I triple majored. Learning is in my blood.
12. I don’t need a teacher, I know how to teach myself.
• I like getting my hands dirty and figuring out how to get stuff to do what I need it to do. Sometimes that stuff is mechanical. Other times it's humans interacting with humans. but I'm always working on it.
13. I’m sharing what I learn with others and mentoring them.
• I host brown bag lunches at my office once a week. It's fun
14. I am seeking out the help of mentors who can coach me or give me valuable insights from their experience.
• I really like what John Sonmez teaches (which is why I'm answering his quiz so thoroughly). I also wrote about this, too: Who do You Look Up To?
15. I’m teachable. When I’m wrong I admit it and seek to improve rather than justify my actions.
• I like to surround myself with people smarter than I am. And I like them to show me when I have growing to do.
16. I know how to focus on the task at hand and how to avoid distractions.
• I just re-started using Pomodoro, but I've never had an issue putting in my headphones and telling people to leave me alone. I shut off my email, turn off my IM, etc.
17. I accomplish what needs to be done before it needs to be done. I don’t procrastinate.
• I'm not great at taking out the trash at home. Otherwise, I get things done before people even realize they need doing.
18. I manage my time effectively. I use a daily and weekly planning system.
• Working on it, but I'm not really great at this yet.
19. I’ve developed regular good habits that keep me going, even when I’m not motivated.
• Really this is more about what I don't do. I don't watch hours of TV. I don't play video games. I do have a routine at night that I (generally) stick to.
20. I take action and make decisions instead of always second guessing myself.
• I started this blog. I always follow my instincts. And I'm not always right about things.
21. I understand how markets work and economies function.
• Ask me to talk to you about economies of scale, the free rider problem, and the invisible hand some time.
22. I’ve educated myself on various investment choices and understand how to make my money work for me.
• 401K - Yep
• IRA - Yep
• Free standing investments - Yep
• Diversification - Yep
23. I have a definite retirement plan that does not rely on luck.
• See above
24. I am out of debt or I am on a clear path to get out of debt in a short timeframe.
• Consumer debt is a 4 letter word in my house.
25. I understand the basics of good nutrition and health.
• Understand, yes, absolutely. Less than a decade ago I was in amazingly good health. I don't always follow through now, though... not really.
26. I have some sort of a regular exercise routine that I stick to each week.
• I have a plan to start doing this again, and have moved in the direction of doing so. However, it's not habitual yet
27. I have a healthy and planned diet that I mostly stick to.
• See my answer that pretty much matches above, but with my diet
28. I have clear fitness and health goals and know how to achieve them.
• I'm slightly (but not dangerously) overweight - and I know what foods I have to eat and what exercises to begin to reverse the trend. I've been healthy in the past, and know how to get back there
29. I understand the connection between my mind and my body and how I can use my mind to make a positive impact on my life.
• I've fought significant depression in the past, and won. I know how important physical and emotional empowerment are in every aspect of life.
30. I am empowered. I believe that I control my life through the decisions I make, not the circumstances that fate throws at me.
• Actually, this one threw me off. I'm a devoted Christian that firmly believes I have a higher purpose as a servant leader with my peers and my community. I don't believe in predestination, but I do believe in God's will.
31. I have the right mental attitude and I believe in myself and my ability to achieve anything I set my mind to.
• I regularly succeed. I regularly fail. And I always learn.
32. I’m not afraid of failure. I embrace failure because I know it leads me to success.
• See above
33. I master my emotions; my emotions don’t master me.
• I wrote about this on my blog already, too: How Do I Deal With Major Mistakes?

So, what do you all think? Leave me a comment to let me know if you think I answered this quiz honestly. I know that these kinds of things are critical for a career to thrive - so I want to make sure I'm being accountable for them.

Are You Independent?

We're lucky enough to see this out on our front lawn.
People love legally blowing stuff up around my house.

With the US National Holiday for Independence just around the corner, I couldn't help but thinking about what independence really means.  I like the way that Steven Covey defines it in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and even appreciate the fact that he uses the term interdependence as the next step towards high effectiveness maturity. However, the definition he builds doesn't really bring up the fact that many different aspects of our lives can simultaneously be on the the dependence->independence->interdependence maturity chain. I'll use my life as an example, and then hopefully get some feedback from everyone if they agree my with my introspection, and also see if anyone feels they'd like to share.

In my home life, my wife and I are interdependent with one another. I rely on her to take care of the beautiful family we have, and she relies on me to provide us with financial security (and to do the occasional spider squashing). Granted, I've reduced down our interdependence on one another to a very basic level with this example - but as a husband and wife we've reached the interdependence stage. That brings me to my job.

Right now I am dependent on my employer for having a paycheck. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good paycheck and I have amazing health and fringe benefits. But they're not mine. I didn't create the company I work for, and at the end of the day, even though their mission statement and mine line up pretty nicely - I'm still dependent on them for financial stability. Until such time as my investments and alternative revenue streams can replace my paycheck, I'm not independent of having an employer.

So, this is what I mean when I say that Dr. Covey missed something when he talked about this effectiveness maturity model. Many different aspects of our lives could be evaluated based on our maturity towards interdependence, and along the way we talk about independence. So, on Independence Day remember what that really means. It means we're free to take the opportunity to stand on our own two feet and do something. We can all work on becoming interdependent entrepreneurs in control of our own financial destinies. So let's get to work.