Norman RichardsI want my two dollarsHow a bad manager can ruin a startup- (Found July 8, 2008 ) Bad management always hurts a company, but it is truly devastating to a small startup. I left a small startup a couple months ago after getting fed up with the management. After a blissful several months with no head of engineering (all the senior level management got thrown out by the VCs in the last round of funding) the company hired a absolutely horrible ex-Vignette manager. (to go along with our ex-Vignette CEO I guess) It took all of a couple of days to realize they had hired...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/bad_boss.html A new JBoss employee- (Found July 8, 2008 ) I've been somewhat vague about what I'm doing now that I quit my old job. Mostly it's because things were moving very fast and I wanted to let everything settle down. Well, things are settling in just fine, and I'm happy to report that I'm now working for JBoss. I've been a JBoss user for several years and a fan for almost as long. I've made no reservations about my JBoss classloading pains, but overall I've been a very satisfied user. Naturally, I'm very happy to be working on a...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/the_new_job.html Take this job and "rm -rf" it- (Found July 8, 2008 ) Having a great job is a real joy. But, failing that, the next greatest joy in life is being able to say those magic words: I quit! I've been fairly unhappy with my job for a while. We've had management changes at the company. Some changes were good, others were bad. (very bad) But mostly, they've been... incompatible. I've been on the verge of leaving for a while, but I decided to make it official this week. I packed my office over the weekend and resigned on Monday. I have a few days...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/i_quit.html Forced vacations are corporate thievery- (Found July 8, 2008 ) I have to burn a couple vacation days before the end of the year, and so today I'm at home taking a vacation even though I really have no reason or desire to take a vacation right now. If I don't take the days, I lose them. I'm not sure why I should be penalized because last year I was too busy (thanks mostly writing the XDoclet book) to use all my vacation time. In my mind it's nothing more than corporate thievery. It's made all the more worse by the fact that next year I expect not to...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/vacation_theft.html Jobs, blogs and being special- (Found July 8, 2008 ) I hate Re: blog entries, but I had to comment on on Is Blogging Bad For Your Career. I'm sure nobody out there actually believes you'd get fired for having a blog. I could possibly believe that someone could get fired for obsessively blogging from work. In every tech job I've had, it would have been a non-issue as long as the person was getting his work done. But, nonetheless I could believe it could happen. But more likely, the blog was an excuse. If your employer is looking for a...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/being_special.html The gravy train is running out of steam- (Found July 8, 2008 ) It seems to make some people mad, but I think most tech workers in the US are significantly overpaid. I think that we all have to get used to the fact that tech salaries in the US are due for some serious downward correction. I've been working as a programmer for about 8 years now. My starting salary 8 years ago is significantly more than most non-techies i know make even today. Yet over the last 8 years, I've seen an average 10% increase in salary. (that's more than a 150% eincrease)...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/GravyTrain.html The 3 stages of a tech job- (Found July 8, 2008 ) Stage 1: Learning the System. In stage one you are coming into the company and learning the system. The architecture is new. The code is new. The process and procedures are new. Every task takes a bit longer than it should because there is always something you don't fully understand. You are somewhat hesitant to make big changes because you don't know the system well enough to be confident you aren't messing things up. You think "There's probably a reason the code is this way", but you...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/ThreeYearCycle.html The solution to the tech job slump: fire people- (Found July 8, 2008 ) Dave Thomas seems to delight in making controversial statements. Between lamenting the death of Linux and declaring XML all but worthless at a recent NFJS conference, he also suggested that if the software industry got better at firing people the job market for programmers would improve significantly. How do we help jobless programmers Put more programmers on the street! On one hand it seems like an obvious contradiction, but on the other hand it mirrors thoughts that I think a lot...http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/jobs/FireThem.html |