“How are things at your new job?”, was the simple question directed at me at a dinner get together. My answer to this question prompted reaction by all those at the table all too familiar to me by now.
Yes, I’m hard to please and I don’t think I would have it any other way. Specially when it comes to my professional life.
So, I’ve moved companies 4 times in the past 5 years (that’s one company per year average). There are definite ups and downs but I must say that I have learned invaluable lesson due to all these moves. Allow me to try to list out some here:
- No matter what the size, all companies have the same problem: Too tight of a deadline
- There are always room for workaholics
- Spend first two weeks reading up on documents and asking questions. You will know more than average person in the company by the end and you really get to know who to ask for help when in need
- What you did or how you did in school really don’t matter. In fact, which school you went to matters even less
- There is always someone higher up in the corporate ladder who is less fit to be holding that position than you do
There is always the feel of being under paid regardless of how much of a raise I got by moving companies..
So? Anything to add to the list?? Observations, comments on your previous employments?
Thursday, February 3rd, 2005, 11:08 am | 
He Says | 
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2/5/2005 at 1:39 am
By being gently friendly with everyone in the company (including the janitors and admin) will get you innumerable benefits in the end. Some people are downright rude to them, and you can see the damage it does to themselves later on.
2/17/2005 at 9:29 pm
Mike, you got it bang on. I do have one thing on you. I just joined a company and resigned after one month. If you interpolate I’ll beat your 4 in 5 years easily.
2/22/2005 at 6:41 am
You’re right to have high expectations and I don’t think anyone could fault you for that. However, as you’ve noted, some things exist in all companies so it’s up to you to figure out which elements are most important to you. For me, it’s working with smart and awesome people. It’s unrealistic to expect that everyone will be competent though so you just go for higher concentrations or at least a high concentration on the team you’ll be on if it’s a big firm like MS.
In the States, you’ll find grades don’t matter much but schools can indeed matter. Alumnus is a much bigger and more important network in the states than in Canada.
Your last point is simply incorrect because well – you can start your own consultancy and then it’s automatically false. QED
Other things to note is that the grass is indeed always greener. You’ll always find other opps that seem better until further inspection. I like to think I have high expectations as well, I just try to be picky up front. That doesn’t always work mind you.
Oh and regarding too tight a deadline, I have amazingly been on a project where we were on schedule most of the time. I think recognizing good PM practise and more importantly recognizing obscenely poor ones early on is really important. I’ll bet you have a really good sense of that now to give you warning bells really early in the project =)