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RSSArchive for February, 2008

Going for a curry or tacos may do more for you than your hunger

I’ve coined the phrase ‘Going for a curry or tacos’ as a euphemism for getting out with your colleagues over dinner to ‘socialise’ ideas and problems. It’s really about getting out of the office environment where formal positions and behaviors are established and enforced, and getting together with colleagues (from various levels) to chew over [...]

Are you at risk from Outsourcing?

My recent survey found that 30% of respondents were concerned that outsourcing will put your job at risk. This is a complex area and also a concern that has real grounds as its undeniable that outsourcing has been a huge source of change in business organization, management and economics. I’ve personally been involved in organizations [...]

Taking your first step as a manager or supervisor in technical teams

One of the most difficult moves on a technical career path is moving from technician and knowledge worker (i.e. a ‘doer’) from a manager of supervisor. I found this tough, as do many technical professionals who have this responsibility thrust upon them. Supervisors and managers of the 21st century will have broader responsibilities, taking charge [...]

Asking for a salary increase

Throughout my career working with people in technical roles, I’ve seen that many folks really struggle with asking for a payrise. Technical roles typically pay higher salaries than average, but it’s common for technical workers to have problems in engaging with their managers and paymasters to ask for an increase. I attribute this to the [...]

Results of survey of Current Concerns of Technical Professionals

A couple of days late getting this out whilst I compiled the stats, but here is the report on the survey I conducted in Dec 2007 of 200 IT professionals, actuaries, data analysts and other technical professionals. The survey aimed to find out the top 10 concerns of our sector of the workforce. Each respondent [...]

Survey: What technical professionals are most worried about

I recently surveyed over 200 technical professionals where I found that over 60% of respondents are worried about the consequences of the ‘credit crunch’ on their jobs. The effect of the current crisis in world markets has created nervousness in technical sectors, particularly that projects could be pulled or whole departments laid off. Full results of the survey will [...]

Developing a Helicopter Mind – how technical managers can improve their success

The Helicopter Mind is a concept of thinking and questioning that allows managers to interweve abstract and specific thoughts, and to have the ability to switch between the two modes of thought appropriately and skilfully. An extensive study has shown that managers who have these abilities are more successful and perform better in their roles [...]