Being Geek

Suggested by careercutler, everything you wish you could ask… It looked like a scattered collection of blog posts, so I did not have high expectations. Instead it was an eye opener, a no-frills encyclopedia on how to survive being who I am in a world of similar and different people. Excellent recap: https://walterteng.com/being-geek. I loved the solid advice on many fronts, understanding how I think and how we think, and the idea that surprises will arrive and we will not be ready. And that is fine.

🔑 Prepare for the unpredictable. It will happen, and a manager’s biggest fear is being surprised. Do not hide valuable info from them, especially if it will cause issues when the unpredictable happens.

Managers do not want surprises. Those who cannot tolerate a lack of control become micromanagers.

Career Playbook

• We are different. Geeks seek definition in a world we assume is governed by rules.
• We are systems thinkers and we constantly lie to ourselves because the world is not like that. There are biases, flaws, and emotions.
• Only you are responsible for your career. HR is not your friend. Your boss can guide you, but you will always be second in line compared to them. They also will not tell you when it is time to quit.
• Dev philosophy is
  1. Technical direction (care daily about work)
  2. Growth (actively watch your career and make sure it is not a repetition)
  3. Delivery (daily investment in reputation)
• Delivery is particularly important because it is the output of your work. You will need a reputation, without a doubt. Be the person to come to when there are problems, the one who can solve them. Also be a team player, not fully solo. Be intentional about your reputation.
• Job interviews: the key part is “the button” and the different personas you need to convince during interviews. Very useful for understanding what to say and how.

Deconstructing Management

With time and experience, you’ll learn there is a finite set of personalities walking the halls. Yes, they have their individual nuances, but these personalities and their motivations can be understood.

• The culture chart: the unspoken schema of the company culture, which does not map to managers but to the people who actually keep it running.
• In other words, tell me what it is going to take to get you a promotion. What are the specific things you need to do in order to be promoted?
• You will not be promoted by giving your manager what they want. Give them what they desperately need and do not expect it to be owed to you.
• The individuals who have the biggest impact on the culture and company are not doing it for any other reason than they believe it is the right thing to do, and if you want to grow in this company it is a good idea to at least know who they are and where they sit.
• Just because you have reverse engineered the development culture in your organization does not mean you have a complete map of the overall culture. … There is the been-here-forever network, the I-survived-the-layoff people, and the untouchable did-something-great-once crew.
• Expect surprises. Do frequent 1:1s to stay in sync and maintain clear communication.
• Bosses can be organic or mechanical and you need to know exactly how to feed them info.
• Your boss lives in a constant state of low-grade fear induced by being partially informed. This began the moment they left engineering for management.
• On leapers. When you screw up and make an excuse, do not throw others under the bus. Identify the different reactions and act accordingly. Usually that means providing a solution.
• Be aware when the boss asks for the impossible, an advanced trick. If the boss has a vague idea of the item, then it is a push to move it forward, and it is a matter of gut and trust.
• Geeks are motivated and find pleasure in completing tasks that are well-defined.
• About hiring: consistently remind the candidate that they are wanted. Candidates often disappear without notice.

Your Daily Toolkit

Check https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-trickle-list/, mini challenges you can do every day to be active in multiple areas, like books, writing, talking.

• On presentations: My rule of thumb is that when I get to the live portion of the demo, I set my head at half speed.
• On communications: good program managers speak all the regional dialects of the company, so when engineering says, “It is done,” they jump right in and translate, “Done pending function testing, production testing, and final documentation review,” so that product management does not tell sales, “It is done,” and they start selling something that actually is not done.
• Time. Quality. Features. These are common struggles of an engineering team. We can have two, but not all three.

Your Next Gig

The performance review is one of the only official documents of your career at this company.

• My move is to keep a yearlong log of significant work as a task in whatever task tracking system I am currently ignoring. Even if you have not been paying consistent attention, you will be surprised by what you can dig up in a weekend of considering your year.
• A review not only forces the alignment discussion, it serves as a warning for the coming year: what do I need to do differently to avoid being blindsided when the next review arrives?
• When key people start to leave, be aware. You can endure the turmoil or survive and thrive with those who remain.
• Three departure waves: The first wave of departures consists of folks privy to the strategic conversational thread. Depending on which department and the person’s importance, you can see what is going on. The scary potential of the second wave is that the legitimate strategic reasons behind the first wave transform into conspiracy theories based on people’s core discomfort with a random world. Then the third wave when laid-off people talk with others. The folks who have survived the multiple-wave exoduses are tired, demoralized, and adrift, so the moment a familiar face shows up with good news about a bright future, they are susceptible.
• Are you also haunted by the mindset of mediocrity? Just complete your work by following the rules of mediocrity. Do just enough. Do not rock the boat. Make yourself indispensable without being noticeable.
• When inspiration strikes, Rands reminds us to trust our gut and charge forward. Start small. Just start.
• Finishing this book felt like a red pill moment for me. No amount of career preparation or reading up on career development books can prevent unpredictable moments from occurring in my career. Learning these from Rands’ anecdotes can help in identifying some storms before they happen, but misery, change, and conflict will inevitably show up randomly throughout our careers.