It's Saturday night in a recession..

FungusFighter

fc123 wrote: »

Ah Fun Gus...not like mould. Sorry Fungus

That's alright darling, actually it's more like Fungi - geddit? Bit weak but better than that tart Mewbie's efforts

mewbie_2

FungusFighter wrote: »

That's alright darling, actually it's more like Fungi - geddit? Bit weak but better than that tart Mewbie's efforts

Mush room for improvement I think...

chrisandanne

Are you sure they don't call you Fungus because you're kept in the dark and fed on Brad Pit.

Ax

Generali

Cuppa and a bowl of Cherrios for me while you guys debate the merits of the pub over getting drunk sitting in your favourite chair at home while staring at the wall in silence.

Looks like I've got an interview next week, running a part of an IT company. They seem very keen. I really don't know as much as I should about IT so it'll be interesting if I get the job!

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

Looks like I've got an interview next week, running a part of an IT company. They seem very keen. I really don't know as much as I should about IT so it'll be interesting if I get the job!

How does that work then? Here you'd need a degree, have had X years' experience in exactly the same sort of IT company, with exactly the same sort of clients and exactly the same sort of infrastructure. They really expect to see an "exact fit" here, which is a bit of a b4st4rd.

Back in 1998 I had my big chance ... I found out at my leaving do ....

Company had just been taken over and we were all being laid off. I was informed at my leaving do, that immediately before that happened they'd planned to split the IT dept in two and I was to head up the Projects half of it. Would have been about £40k (ish) back then. All dashed by a poxy takeover

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

How does that work then? Here you'd need a degree, have had X years' experience in exactly the same sort of IT company, with exactly the same sort of clients and exactly the same sort of infrastructure. They really expect to see an "exact fit" here, which is a bit of a b4st4rd.

Back in 1998 I had my big chance ... I found out at my leaving do ....

Company had just been taken over and we were all being laid off. I was informed at my leaving do, that immediately before that happened they'd planned to split the IT dept in two and I was to head up the Projects half of it. Would have been about £40k (ish) back then. All dashed by a poxy takeover

Well I'd be running the business side rather than the IT side I guess. The mechanics of running most businesses are the same whatever is being produced - getting people paid, trying to cut costs, making sure that your staff are relatively happy (at least the ones you want to keep), keeping customers sweet and so on. I wouldn't pretend to have the knowledge to run the IT side of things though.

ukmike

I've often been asked,

'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?'
Well...I'm fortunate to have a few friends who have chemical engineering backgrounds, and one of the things we enjoy most is turning beer, wine, bourbon, and martinis into urine.

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

Well I'd be running the business side rather than the IT side I guess. The mechanics of running most businesses are the same whatever is being produced - getting people paid, trying to cut costs, making sure that your staff are relatively happy (at least the ones you want to keep), keeping customers sweet and so on. I wouldn't pretend to have the knowledge to run the IT side of things though.

Theoretically, yes, but in my experience here, nobody lets people "have a go" unless the company is brand new/small, or you know somebody.

You'd certainly never see a job advert for: "Anybody wanted, to run my business. If you think you can sort of bumble along OK because you've run others, please apply".



I've run quite a few over the years. Back in the days when you could end up doing that. All were small, none made it. Even two that I turned into profit-making machines within the first month ... there was actually a hidden agenda. In both those cases I wasn't supposed to succeed. They had actually hired me to fail at it, which is why they gave the job to me! Outrageous, boy was I peed off when I found out that jobs have hidden agendas!

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

You'd certainly never see a job advert for: "Anybody wanted, to run my business. If you think you can sort of bumble along OK because you've run others, please apply".

Well that's pretty much what I did at the hedge fund. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and so at first at least just had to deal with each thing as it happened. I soon acquired the skills I needed, in fact by the end I found that I had quite a talent for parts of the job (even if I do say so myself!).

The biggest lesson I learned was Ask An Expert. And when you do, shut up and listen very carefully to what they say. You may have a better idea than them but it's unlikely.

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

The biggest lesson I learned was Ask An Expert. And when you do, shut up and listen very carefully to what they say. You may have a better idea than them but it's unlikely.

That's how I describe my job as a Project Manager. I say "I am paid to sit and listen". And that's what I do. OK, I do all the other stuff, the updating of plans, the checking of constraints and resources and budgets, but that's just run of the mill stuff. The best thing I do is listen ... and when I don't understand something I know it's because there's a problem. So I then ask them to explain it to me... "show me, with diagrams, how that works". Then I can spot the flaw. As they're talking and drawing, I spot where another person or team's gone off at a tangent. In one instance it was a simple mathematical error made... nobody had actually DONE the maths. The simple maths regarding data/bandwidth and number of servers -v- the number of hours between 5pm and 9am the following morning. It simply wouldn't work. So I drew up a new plan/timeline and threw it back at them.

Experts are good, but sometimes they're so wrapped up in the wonderfulness of the technology - and how big and important their team/technology is - they forget to check the bits that actually make it possible.

So, even though Aspies don't have good listening skills and can't socially interact, or "just ask", when it comes to technical subjects I find that I AM good at admitting I don't understand something and then questioning, questioning, questioning it until I find out what was subconsciously niggling me. Another Aspie strength that benefits me as a PM is not actually caring what anybody thinks of me ... which gives me the ability to say "No. Stop". Too many projects just go full steam ahead because nobody has the b4lls to say "No. Stop"; they're too busy licking corporate 4rse. I do flag major issues. I don't care who likes/dislikes me, I'm there to do a job and get it done on time and to spec. And I will go as high as I have to if I think the project is failing and it HAS to be stopped and redrawn. Because of this, people give me the heads up when there are serious issues ... because they trust me and know I will always do the right thing by the people, the project, the company.

"Just say No" - it can only hurt you if you have a personal agenda.