Retention - Keeping Your Job
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"I have seen some opposite situations that are just as bad. Companies that rotate their personnel through jobs so fast that no one ever really becomes an "expert" so their systems always run a little slow or many features go unused due to ignorance of the system. It's all about balance." - Tatsu
If only we could control the balance. As workers we cannot.
“The truth is, if the boss' direction and the companies direction are at odds then the boss needs to go.” – Shad
It is not the worker’s job to figure out if the boss is going in the right direction. If you truly believe your boss is going down the wrong path then you need to find a new one. Just remember that what management does will often seem stupid from the worker’s point of view because the workers cannot see what the manager sees.
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Hey, all this discussion made me realize something. If the management stinks in the company you work for and they are not doing anything to help the company then it's a safe bet that the company is going go down the toilet; maybe not soon, but eventually. This is the type of situation that would definitely not classify as a "Dream Job" which would lead me away from Steve's current article and encourage me to wait patiently for his Finding Your Job article. So, how long do we have to wait Steve?
[font="Tahoma"]Bryant E. Byrd, BSSE MCDBA MCAD[/font]
Business Intelligence Administrator
MSBI Administration Blog -
, not sure about the next part. It's proving harder to get into words than I thought. And no cursing involved, that's the "Interview" party 
I think you can "specialize" in a system and then look to move on. That doesnt' mean that it's the only thing you do, but you can become the expert that's called on, even if you move to something else.
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Nice article Steve.
I don't think Steve was implying that you should pigeonhole yourself, but rather that you should find out which specific areas you are interested in, and that the business is particularly lacking in and fill that hole. Using your particular skills to bring value to the business is the key here.
I'm a lousy coder because I was never interested in it (maybe saying that my interest in it died quickly with exposure is more accurate). I found that I was good at administration aspects of IT but felt like just another cog in the wheel. As I gravitated toward the adminstrative DBA functions I also realized that I had a particular talent for it (it didn't hurt that it generally paid better too). From there I discovered that I have a talent for understanding business needs and requirements and translating them into databases. That was a skillset that was very much in need as evidenced by the horrendous database designs that I had to deal with. So my focus shifted toward simultaneously developing that skillset and making the business aware of how badly it needed to increase their institutional capacity in that area.
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If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for the others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this. -Friedrich August von Hayek
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Some interesting points in a good article. Regarding "Most managers, shareholders, etc. will put up with pretty much anything from someone if that person is generating revenue.", reminded me of an individual I worked with a few years back. He was a loud salesman and definitely NOT a team player. He was always late for meetings and appointments; spent the company money on client entertainment like it was a lottery win; and tended to treat his work colleagues with contempt. I thought he was totally wrong for our company and would soon be out of the door. BUT, he was the company's best salesman, generating enourmous revenue, and had developed good strong relationships with his clients. In conversation the MD commented to me one day that he wished he had more salesmen like him.
Regarding specialising. I followed my beliefs of specialising in a particular area of a chosen field but ensuring that I had enough skills across the whole field to be a valued member of the team. I stayed with that company for eleven years and enjoyed just about every minute of it. On their part, and as a thank you they rewarded me with an overseas holiday every five years. So why did I leave ? I moved countries, but for some time afterwards I continued to work for them over the internet. Pretty close to that dream job.
Best Regards
Terry -
Super Reading! Thanks!
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Tatsu - "Hey, all this discussion made me realize something. If the management stinks in the company you work for and they are not doing anything to help the company then it's a safe bet that the company is going go down the toilet; maybe not soon, but eventually. This is the type of situation that would definitely not classify as a "Dream Job" which would lead me away from Steve's current article and encourage me to wait patiently for his Finding Your Job article. " I totally agreed with you. My company is exactly in this condition so I am looking for a job now.
Steve - I agreed with you team work is important. However if a team contains 80% of poor coders, it affects the whole team performance. The management would not realize which one is the good coder and which one is the bad coder. It is not fair to the good developers, most of the time they carry the whole project. If the project goes well, the whole team gets the award including the bad coders that do not do anything, if the project goes bad, the whole team gets the blame including the good coders.
I had a chance working with a team of 12 people and they were all talented good coders, not only we had so much fun, we learnt from each other and the product we produced had much higher qualilty than the management expected.
Now I am working in a company about 80% of the developers claim they are sql developers and they don't even know how to spell 'SELECT'. Not only that they also managed to hire a couple lousy SQL Server DBAs who do not know how to write sql themselves. Unfortunately the management thought sql is so simple, it does not need training and everyone can write sql. They do not recognize there are good SQL Server developers vs SQL Server 'amateur' coders.
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Excellent article.
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Great article. Thanks for taking the time and good luck getting the next part into words. Also the comment about bad management is a sign of a sinking ship is very true especially if that style starts at the top and streams down.
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