Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
So as noted there’s an IT Gap in my opinion at least on senior level positions, and frankly people make it worse. So now the question comes up; what do I, the handsome devil-may care Program Manager recommend for hiring. I’m glad you asked because I like to talk – plus, hey, after all that ranting I ought to do something to help you out if you’re a recruiter.
Or if you want to help out some recruiters. Remember their job is kind of a nightmare.
Here’s my advice.
Recently, someone commented on an email I had sent that was a poor bit of communication. Not wrong, not inaccurate, but simply inappropriate – overly wordy, not addressing the point, too much detail, etc. They were frustrated.
As this person put it, to paraphrase, “You write, how did you get this wrong?”
Of course I write. I’ve written fiction and science papers, technical documents and chatty career columns, books and guides. I mean I can write all sorts of things . . .
And then, in that conversation, I realized that was the problem. My mouth literally hung open as it came to me – I had chosen the wrong mode of writing as I had so many modes at my disposal.
That experience stuck with me, and it’s something I wanted to explore for the sake of our careers – and as sometimes we geeks can be very talented and people wonder how we screw stuff up.
It’s not about being bad. Many of us can be so good at something we screw it up.
There’s a peculiar thing to we humans when it comes to inconvenience. We will seek to avoid inconvenience, crave convenience like a drug, and will gladly take it too easy. Yet, strangely, people often crave challenge, the unknown – and dare I say inconvenience? We will give up easy on challenges if presented with an easy option, then go out of our way to seek adversity.
Now I could examine this from many perspectives, some of them actually insightful and rational, but I’d like to focus on geeks and careers. That’s what I do- that’s my challenge (or perhaps my comfort zone, we can discuss that elsewhere).