Looking back then, my workplace experience in High Tech consisted of about 20 years, several companies large and small, and of course numerous managers. I've been at the receiving end of a company division closing, of a downsizing, and of a sudden product cancellation. In the later years, I've done contracting and consulting (i.e., self-contracting) as well as service as a full-time employee. The positions have included management of a small group of engineers as well as hands-on engineering.
Time and learning from experience has led me to some practical ways of dealing with workplace problems. I hope that they may be of interest to others too.
Looking for a Job: Resumés, Networking and Recruiters
The method most recommended for finding the next job is networking, based on the assumption that an inside connection is the most helpful approach.
I'd like to see the statistics on that sometime, but what worked best for me then (but see below) was the straight-forward response to a newspaper ad with a good cover letter and resumé. I also preferred to contact only the few most likely job possibilities, rather than the equivalent of dropping resumés from 30,000 feet.
It's worth emphasizing that one should choose recruiters (aka headhunters) with care. Poor ones will try you to match you to openings for which you're really not suited, which is doing neither you nor the hiring company any favors. But I've also had the pleasure of dealing with some really good recruiters, ones who understand your skills and where they best match company needs.
Added April 8, 2004: Since my own job-searching experiences, newspaper ads have disappeared almost entirely, so the advice about responding to ads is no longer valid. The jobs are probably on the internet instead. Since the job situation in high-tech is still terrible, the newspapers are full of advice columns about networking.
Looking for a Job: Outplacement (Added April 4, 2004)
Together with the down-sizing pink slip, many companies will offer outplacement services. These are often run off-site from the old workplace (get the downsizees away from the survivors). They offer help with resumé-writing, and guidance in job-hunting and networking.
My own one experience with an outplacement service at a remote location was fairly negative. The facility felt like a hospital sick ward, with everyone desperately networking and job-hunting. When I was linked up with an individual for personal guidance, he seemed more interested in setting up a process than actually helping.
Fortunately, during that time, I had access to a thriving workplace in which to pursue some of my job-hunting mechanics. This healthy environment did much to boost my spirits.
My somewhat cynical view of the outplacement folks is that if they're so good and know so much, how come they're helping you to find a job instead of getting the jobs themselves?
The Interview is a two-way street
Unless your situation as the job applicant is desperate, realize that you should be interviewing the people across the table as much as they're interviewing you. If they are unpleasant, overbearing, incompetent or otherwise treat you badly, they may not be the best people to work with or for. If the work appears uninteresting, or without a chance for learning and advancement, it may be best to pass it up.
Just say No
When, after an application and interview, a new job opportunity just isn't making any progress, it can feel very good for you to make the decision to say that you have no further interest in the position. It sure beats waiting for the hiring manager to give you a "no".
I've had a number of situations like that in my career. The first time, I knew after the interview that I wasn't going to want the job because the interviewers' values were totally different from mine. But I let it go and, some weeks later, got a rejection letter from them. Apparently they agreed.
After that, in a number of other situations, I let people know that I no longer had an interest in the position in question. Quite simply, it felt very good to be the one in control.
Loyalty
Responses to the concept of loyalty will range from naive to cynical and selfish. Certainly no company should expect more loyalty from its workforce than it gives, and not much is given these days. On the other hand, an antagonistic me-first-and-only approach by the employee does damage to both.
My approach throughout has been loyalty to the principles of pride in workmanship, 100% effort, technical competence, good judgment, integrity and openness. These are portable, and will always serve both the employee and employer.
Recognition and Reward now!
If you deserve recognition or reward (promotion, salary increase, special award, etc.) then ask for it now, rather than depending on the good will of the decision-makers. Memories fade, managers change, groups merge or disappear.
At Digital, I made some personal sacrifices, financial and otherwise, for what I perceived to be the greater good. No need to impress management; surely they know the kind of person I am. Then groups merged, there was new management and the need to prove oneself all over again. Not only was that history of sacrifice lost, now I needed to fight for the supervisory position that I had earned and held before. Never again.
Performance Reviews reversed
Traditionally one of a manager's tasks is to evaluate employee performance in annual reviews. Rarely is the employee asked to provide an formal upward review, i.e., to evaluate the manager.
What management doesn't understand, though, is that its performance is constantly being evaluated too, even if not on a formal basis. At least I was doing that because I believe that, just like the interview, the interaction between manager and employee is a two-way street. As much as the manager expects the employee to satisfy his requests, the employee is a customer of the manager's services. And if the informal reverse review summary has too many "needs improvement", then perhaps it's time to take a walk.
At one time, at Digital, I had to have an interview with a higher-level manager for a supervisory position to which I believed I was entitled after a group merger. The interviewing manager denigrated the efforts of a project leader with whom I had worked closely, and who I believed had done some excellent, long-overdue work for the company (this was after that project leader had left Digital because of a plant closing). I expressed my disagreement with the interviewing manager's view. Yes, I did get that position then, but the interviewing manager later took part in the decision which led to my being downsized at Digital. Had I made an error by speaking out? No, it let him understand who I was - if he respected my opinion, fine; if not, and if that contributed to my downsizing, then it was for the better, because I want to work with and for people that respect openness. In any case, downsizing from Digital helped me find a better career continuation.
The worst question
Suppose that you really want to leave the job that you have, but are asked "what will it take to have you stay?". If you answer and they meet your conditions, it will make it that much more difficult to leave. Fortunately, most management is not in the habit of asking questions; they tend to think that they know exactly what you want. Anyway, the best answer I can think of is that it's just time for a change.
Once, when I wanted to leave and mentioned the salary increase at the new place as a reason, the old company actually promised 2/3 of the increase along with a fancier title. But an increase of that size was the wrong answer from a struggling startup; it would have felt very uncomfortable to take it.
Accept it, change it or move on
When the work situation is difficult, consider those three alternatives. Try living with it; if that's no good, then try to do something about it, otherwise get out of the situation. The worst possible thing to to is to do nothing but complain.
We all do some griping, but then it's time to get back to work. On the other hand, I've seen some toxic co-workers who did little but complain. They're ones to stay away from. In one particular case, I was pleased to see that management had also noticed - when there was an employee downsizing, the toxic one was the first to go.
Know thyself
It's about knowing what you're suited for, not as a limitation but as a reality check. If you don't have wildly creative ideas, then an advanced development group is not the place. If you're good at day-to-day details, then a job demanding broad strategic thinking is not for you. If company politics is anathema to you, then a run up the managerial ladder may be a bad idea.
Turning down the possibility of a higher managerial position at Digital turned out to be good strategy for me. By combining hands-on engineering with first-level management, I was much more employable after being downsized from Digital, because I could look for a hands-on engineering job rather than a managerial one (I should also mention that I lowered my salary expectations voluntarily). My former manager, downsized at the same time, took much longer to find a new job.
Know your own worth
Call it self-confidence, or whatever you will. It's knowing that you have certain skills, knowledge and experience, and that you can make a difference to an organization because you've done so before.
I learned this from a difficult experience, but then never forgot it. Working in a startup company, I got to enjoy participating in the company's various functions other than development, and built what I thought was a good reputation. Then, because of a restructuring I was moved to another group; it promised to be a positive change because I thought the new manager to be pretty level-headed. Soon I found out that he had one favorite engineer that he trusted with everything, and that now I could seem to do nothing right. Like a dog that figures that it's his fault when he's kicked, I lost confidence in my own abilities. It took me some time to realize what was happening and to get back my self-esteem but, once recovered, I vowed never to let anyone do that to me again. No one has.
This sense of self-worth also helped me through a difficult time - finding another job after being downsized at Digital at age 56. The newspapers at the time were full of stories of people in their 50s being let go and unable to find new jobs. I decided that if a company didn't want what I had to offer, it was going to be their problem, not mine. Bottom line: the next job came along before the severance pay ran out.
Life goes on
Lots of situations in the workplace can be traumatic: the expected promotion that doesn't happen, the sudden job loss, etc.; i.e., one of those major disruptions that can be a life crisis. The best thing to do is to be ready for the unexpected, to have alternatives, and to make oneself less vulnerable. Maybe it means keeping a financial cushion by spending within one's means, or maybe it means cultivating other work possibilities, or maybe it means keeping oneself more current technically.
What also helps is a sense of perspective, maybe from having gone through other crises before. In my case, I experienced some of those early in my life during the WWII years and just after. In comparison, not being granted academic tenure, or losing a job were just not as big a problem as going hungry or being in a life-threatening situation.
Age: After 50
The old days of signing up with a company for a lifetime job are over. The last vestige was the collapse of Polaroid and the sheltered and somewhat naive 30-year employees who suffered from the company failure. What it means is that more people in their 50s will have to realize that they will need to be capable, technically and emotionally, of changing jobs late in their career.
I believe that the older worker needs to look ahead and prepare rather than whining and complaining, and not just by keeping current technically, as so much current writing on the subject advises. Frankly, it may be hard to compete with the younger code warriors on their playing field. But what is equally important is a youthful attitude, the enthusiasm and the willingness to do whatever is necessary to get a job done.
That includes suppressing the urge to dominate with one's experience: "that's all wrong - this is how you do it". It may be difficult, but it's better to be asked for advice than to insist on it. Like your kids, the younger folks in the workplace have their own good ideas, and also want to make their own mistakes.
In my last two jobs, because most everyone was a software type pecking at keyboards and pushing mice, I found myself doing more work with hardware than software. That included crawling under and over equipment, putting parts on or taking them off, connecting cables etc., as well as doing development work in the lab. That's where the youthful attitude helped. In short, I found it enjoyable to be one of the few who knew which end of the screwdriver to use.
In my last few jobs, I also consciously moved toward work that drew on my knowledge of math and statistics (for example, calibration and lens distortion). Math does not change nearly as rapidly as programming languages and applications do, and I've found that not many people in the engineering workplace do math all that well.
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