Sukshma

This blog post really started out as a burst in the middle of a transition leaving behind a promising Engineering career. Thanks to good feedback, I think I can work a little harder on it and make it a better post on how engineers can manage their own careers better. Why manage their own careers versus having someone else manage it for them? I believe that it is imperative for engineers to push themselves hard in the contemporary IT company, hence the emphasis - the right manager for your career is yourself. Again, your feedback will serve to complete this article.
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The right manager for the job.

Managers: Managing careers is always hard. I respect managers and leaders in the IT industry - it is an onerous task to keep employees motivated in an industry where things change so rapidly and layoffs so common. Over the past 6 years, I have had the opportunity to work with several managers who have had their own style and distinct way of keeping me going as an Engineer. The managers I have enjoyed the most are the ones that gave me my own space to think, implement, make mistakes and report back with pride. Without an iota of doubt, Software Engineering is a personal process. Breaking existing relationships with a manager is hard, especially if you have worked with the manager for several years.

The Interview: Ethics play a major role when interviewing around. I am not asking Engineers to be ethical and moral, but to be smart and understand the consequences of every step they take.

Someone I know interviewed with a large Internet company in the area. About a month before the interview was offered, he went ahead and accepted an offer from another technology company. The company he was about to interview with were under the impression that he had only recently graduated. They were unaware that he had committed himself to this other technology company.

On the day of the interview, my friend revealed all to the recruiter. What he faced was unexpected - and I believe to be rude on the part of the recruiter. She cited ethics and gave him a talking to. She labeled him unreliable and chided him for not letting them know that he had accepted another offer.

Admittedly, my friend made a mistake by not letting them know of his new status (at the time when they were contemplating if they should interview him or not). However, Internet companies are hardly known for their ethical approach to employees of other companies and even rivals. Needless to say, the recruiter declined to consider him for the job.

Perhaps I feel the punishment did not befit the crime, my friend was paying heavily for his inexperience. The lesson is - play it smart. Don’t give the recruiter the opportunity to deride you. It is unethical to not disclose important information - but if you have your own best interests in mind, you will also be careful about how you accept offers and commit yourself for interviews. Personally, I would have let the Internet company know that I had accepted the offer and I am sure they would have canceled my interview - I would be satisfied with the outcome. If I was thinking of leaving the original job, I would never have accepted the offer in the first place.

The final offer: When you accept an offer, you are committing yourself. There are no two ways about that. Your hiring manager has gone out of his way to make you an offer. By accepting the offer, you have begun to seed a relationship. In the long run, a stunted relationship could prove to be harmful.

Manage your own career: This blog post would not be complete if I did not clearly state that your managers judgement cannot always be the best for you. His judgement is subjective, he is working for the benefit of the company first, yours later. This is where you have to step up and make a call. You can either live quietly with his judgement, or you can call it out and say “you owe me one”. You can also flatly refuse to accept it - but that will only lead to a lot of bad blood if your manager happens to keep score.

The key to preventing frustration is not to have your manager feed your ego. I am sure of that. At the same time - It is true that unhappiness can lead to undermotivated employees. Engineers do need to step up their innovation, productivity to come out with ideas that will align with the interests of the company and satisfy them. Managers, if your listening - you need to give your employees space to do this. Sometimes, I feel that you might even have to seed the idea.

The worst case scenario for an engineer is to be labeled as being “customer service oriented”. Given 10 tasks, I could spend all my working hours, outside hours, to get the tasks done within the time allotted to me by my manager. My Manager might accept that and believes that is what works out best for the company and for the employee. After all, the team needs to ship a product first.

I beg to differ. If I were the manager, I would dread the day the engineer is turned out onto the street. It would be harder to find a job in an industry this competitive with a customer service atitude. More than ever, Engineers are really required to step up and raise their own contribution levels today. Encourage and seed innovation, if it takes an hour out of your own work week, I am sure the investment will pay off several times over in the long run.

Your team is home: For a very long time, IT managers went about in search of people who were “Team Players”. So, in turn all of us wrote “Good Team Player” on our resumes. However, teams hardly work the way we think they do in isolation. For example, being a good team player does not guarantee that your team is going to work well together and excel (or fail miserably). Team dynamics are not a result of a “zero-sum game”.

Some tips around teams:

• Never place a bunch of very big egos in the same team. Your team is surely destined to go down in spectacular flames.
• Never place your star performer alongside your below average in a 2-man team. Your only guaranteeing that your star will regret working smart and hard.
• A real team player is someone who can amplify the skills and abilities of those around him. Remember that team members spend more time with each other than they do with their managers.
• A team must show collective determination to succeed and produce outstanding results.
• I am tempted to write that individual “performance bonuses” hurt morale when a team has worked exceptionally hard to produce results.

If you find your team has any of these maladies - call them out. Fortunately, a happy, successful team often implies a happy and successful employee…

Employee Reviews: Rule number 1 of employee reviews, make sure your manager takes your review very seriously. Rule number 2 of employee reviews, your manager must take reviews seriously… I cannot emphasize enough on how important reviews have become in the corporate world. Mismanaged reviews could demoralize an employee, introduces dissension in the ranks and polarize teams that would otherwise be working well together. See the mini-microsoft blog for the worst-case scenario.

Having said that reviews are a problem, I will also say that there is no simple solution anywhere on the horizon. Even smaller companies that turn 100 are turning to reviews as a solution to profit sharing (instead of a more informal system as they would follow if they were smaller).

Apart from the negative impact a bad review can have on your wallet, there is the issue of employee attrition. In the near future, if you happen to leave your immediate manager (or if he were to leave) for another position in the company, your review then serves as a certificate of health or a school report card. It could in fact make or break your next position and future promotion prospects in the company.

It is very important to ensure that you have a frank chat with your manager about his expectations before the actual review itself. If that is not permissable by policy, then make sure your manager does not ramp his expectations up during the meeting itself to exceed your acheivements. This is unethical and deserves to be flagged.

Ensure that the manager who is reviewing you is familiar with your work for at least 6 months. If that is not going to be the case - pro-actively request your last manager to review your work upto that point before he transfers out.

Leaving work: It is not uncommon in the technology industry for employees to leave their positions for opportunities elsewhere. Relatively higher attrition rates could be a result of several factors including, poor work culture, lack of growth opportunities, early burnouts, and compensation. These are the usual excuses when employees fail to identify with the spirit of the company or are disillusioned by the leadership. The positive side is when employees take it upon themselves to fix what they think is wrong with the company. The author of the mini-microsoft blog is one example. His atitude is - I love this company and will give it my best shot to fix what I think is wrong.

If you still feel that the only way out is out the door - I think a clean break is always important. Don’t drag it on after you have shared your idea of leaving with your manager. Don’t whine that you did not get enough candy for your ego - so you want to leave. Work hard to maintain the usual productivity levels before you exit. Finally, cement your relationship with your manager. Show him that you thought the decision through and that this is your own best interests. Point out that you have done the best you can to ensure your own happiness while your still on the job - but have failed.

Related:

• Evaluating your job - Sukshma.net
• Of cogs, bozo’s and backbones - Mini Microsoft
• How to prevent a bozo explosion - Guy Kawasaki
• Example of Personal Leadership - Shrikant’s Blog (Thanks, mar00ned)
• Scott Maxwell on attracting, retaining, and motivating.