Sep 30 2008
random work thoughts
This flowed from various conversations I’ve had today as well as a slashdot article called “The Stigma of a Tech Support Background.” I’m sympathetic to this person’s job woes, though it’s not a great time to be looking in the US and as several commenters suggested perhaps it’s him, not the job. From that post, anyway, I got a few books to look into concerning interviewing.
In my field, whenever I breathe “computer science” I get back a flurry of responses roughly like “bioinformatics! data manipulation!!” Any further discussions about social sciences, behaviour change, or structural health issues are swept away, much to my dismay.
Don’t get me wrong - I like data. I like learning new programming tricks, or connecting disparate data sets, or arguing that all this data isn’t worth a thing without a way to easily access it. Data helps make good decisions. But, for all the interest I hold in it, data’s only truly neat to me if it distinctly relates to people and change. This change could be a new approach, a new program, or just a better understanding, but it needs to be rooted in something that affects us.
Fundamentally, I like getting things done and seeing a change. I especially like getting things done that help [1] people, irrespective of what shape that help takes. I know that to get more things done, you have to work with (more) people. So I’m going to work with more people. I don’t like to admit it but I actually rather like people - albeit in some cases only in a wtf!? sort of way.
One of the comments on the slashdot post brought up these points:
Try telling your prospective employers these three things :
1) If I don’t know what you need me to know, by the end of the day I will learn it.
2) If my project isn’t done by the end of my workday, then my workday doesn’t end.
3) I want this job, and am willing to work my ass off to get it.
#1 and #3 are exactly how I feel a job should be; #2 is a bit painful but I tend to err on the end of long workdays rather than short anyway. Unfortunately, most people only focus on this flavor of work style in service-oriented jobs such as IT when this philosophy actually applies to all work, in particular people-centric work. With IT, ok, your computer’s down. With people, there is real shit going down. It’s why I would find it frustrating at times to work at a deliberate, pre-planned-3-years-ago pace.
I want to see things not only get done, but in the best/most appropriate way possible, and that means I’ll get passionate even about plans that are seemingly set in stone. Part of what I’ll bring to a job is my own self, and that means needing to be convinced that what we’re doing will work in the best interests of people or if not working hard to make sure it becomes so. If my job truly cares about people, I’ll care about my job. Though it would be nice if the job gave me partner and health benefits…
Other random bits related to work - your career decisions are only as good as the information and preparation you had at the time of the decision. If it doesn’t work out, don’t mull over the event; try to figure out what didn’t work and be ready for the next go-’round. There’s not enough time in the world for people to be rehashing old work decisions, of all things. If I’m going to think about the past, it’s going to be about non-work things: times I was happy, things I miss, tasty secret ice cream, that kind of stuff.
Anyway, hope I have a job that fits all this someday.
[1]Yes, yes, “help” as in facilitating or supporting in a culturally sensitive/empowering manner, not what I filter as appropriate change or next steps, as that’s not really nice. Among other things. [back]
