RE: Performance Review -- MIDRANGE-L


You are being too general with your comments on a IT company versus a non
IT company.  I used to work for a consultant firm years ago.  The only
training we got was what we could bill customers for, or, if we got some
credit from IBM for selling machines.  Magazines were on your dollar.

However with the company I've been happily working for, (going on 15
years), I've been to COMMON several times, IBM technical conferences, our
excellent local users group.  We've hired on site trainers.  Get many
magazines.  And the list goes on.

It's in the attitude.  Believe it or not, the IT systems consultant company
viewed programmers as an expense, (hence their bankruptcy?).  While the
company I now work for views systems as one of their 4 pillars of strength.

Rob Berendt

==================
Remember the Cole!


                                                                                
                 
                    Phil Groschwitz                                             
                 
                    <sublime78ska@yahoo        To:     MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com  
                 
                    .com>                      cc:                              
                 
                    Sent by:                   Subject:     RE: Performance 
Review               
                    owner-midrange-l@mi                                         
                 
                    drange.com                                                  
                 
                                                                                
                 
                                                                                
                 
                    04/05/2001 10:57 AM                                         
                 
                    Please respond to                                           
                 
                    MIDRANGE-L                                                  
                 
                                                                                
                 
                                                                                
                 




Couple thoughts . . .

Many people have quit and then did the same job as a
consultant, sometimes for the same company.  More pay,
a lot more freedom, and a **huge** increase in
respect.

This happened with a bit of reqularity during the last
recession.  Westinghouse, for example, downsized their
documentation department out of existance.  These guys
formed a company doing the same work, and guess who
their biggest client was?  Westinghouse.  (The
documentation company (can't remember the name) was
recently purchased by another company.)

Also, I've found there to be much more satisfaction
when working for an IT company rather than in the IT
department of a non-IT company.  Whatever your
profession, I think the satisfaction is highest when
the primary business of the company is also your
profession.

In other words, are you viewed as an expense or a
revenue stream.

Phil




> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: MacWheel99@aol.com
> [mailto:MacWheel99@aol.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 5:43 AM
> > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> > Subject: Performance Review
> >
> >
> > I just had my annual review & it was not a pretty
> sight.
> >
> > The good news includes - I still have my job - my
> boss has
> > given me clear
> > indication of what needs to be fixed & some
> overall goals,
> > which have been
> > sorely lacking in recent years.
> >
> > It occurs to me that it would be extremely
> constructive if I
> > could provide my
> > boss with some alternatives to the system he now
> uses, since
> > he is not a
> > computer technical person ... how on earth is a
> non technical
> > computer person
> > expected to be able to judge the quality of
> software I write
> > in some language
> > he does not know ... how challenging is this or
> that?
> >
> > There is stuff that is extremely difficult for me
> to do, but I cannot
> > communicate with a non-programmer about what the
> challenges
> > are.  How can a
> > non-programmer evaluate my performance?
> >
> > It would be simple for some 3rd party, familiar
> with the
> > languages we use, to
> > look at some of my programs in an audit & make
> some remarks
> > about how my
> > relative worth to the company, compared to the
> quality of
> > code at other
> > comparable companies, but I have been suggesting
> for decades
> > that we get a
> > computer audit on a larger scale, so this just
> aint going to happen.
> >
> > Of course this sort of thing can backfire.
> >
> > I remember in the midst of some conversion at a
> former
> > emplouer whining about
> > some challenge they had given me, saying that
> there is no way
> > I can get all
> > this done inside the deadlines, and my boss
> informing me that
> > the company,
> > without telling me, had asked IBM if I had what it
> took to do
> > the conversion,
> > without any professional help, and the SE (which
> tells you
> > how long ago this
> > was) told them that I was the best programmer that
> anyone at
> > the local IBM
> > office had ever had the good fortune to run
> across.  So the
> > result of that
> > was they threw even more work my way.   The shame
> of it was
> > that when I
> > finally left that place, I was unable to use the
> SE as a work
> > reference.  I
> > did ask the SE for confirmation that this was not
> a snow job.
> >
> > I asked my current boss
> >
> > HOW MANY DAYS HAS THE COMPANY BEEN DOWN DUE TO
> COMPUTER
> > INFRASTRUCTURE
> > PROBLEMS?  He said NONE, in a tone of voice as if
> he was
> > surprised that I
> > should ask such a question.  I told him that in my
> opinion
> > there are 3
> > reasons why that is so ,,, our choice of having
> IBM 400
> > hardware, our choice
> > of a good ERP, and my performance in managing it.
> >
> > Now I think that there ought to be some industry
> statistics -
> > how many days
> > of surprise down time & other mishaps do other
> comparable
> > companies have -
> > 400 & non-400, so there is a basis of comparison
> with our performance.
> >
> > How much time do companies typically spend testing
> software
> > improvements?
> > How critical is this?
> >
> > I was going to ask him, but I bit my tongue,
> because my foot
> > was headed there
> > at lightning speed.  HOW MANY COMPUTER BUGS HAVE
> BEEN
> > INTRODUCED AS A RESULT
> > OF SOFTWARE I HAVE WRITTEN FOR THE COMPANY.
> >
> > The reason I bit my tongue is that I can think of
> 3 in the
> > last 2 years & the
> > really embarrassing part of that answer is that 1
> of them I
> > could not find,
> > so I developed a work around.
> >
> > This is another area in which there might be some
> reliable statistics.
> > Rate of bugs created, both in terms of like
> > 1 bug per million lines of source code & how many
> in what time period
> >
> > It would not be fair to compare to Microsoft
> Windows because
> > that software is
> > written with full intention of tossing it in the
> garbage
=== message truncated ===


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