Posted on 06/24/2009 6:13:28 PM PDT by Flavius
Don’t forget TPS reports LOL ! (Office Space)
That’s why I enjoy being a techie, don’t have to learn any of that crap. I’m thirty and have no desire for management. Especially, when the pay is almost as good as managerial pay.
I have shunned the management path as well.
We are in TX, which is much cheaper than CA. We have low cost of living, no state income tax and cheap housing.
In TX, $45K is a competitive wage for a newly minted 22 year old kid with zero industry experience.
As an IT guy I’ve worked with some of the greatest people in the world from India. However, there is nothing hugely different between their people and ours. In fact, the very reason they’re over here (and in Canada) is that they wanted to get rich!!!
Quite frankly, this guy reminds me sooo much of some of the IT managers I’ve worked for.... IT management here is usually done by non-IT people. Most of the managers in IT management position have no clue how to do the job of their subordinates, and many barely know how to use their Blackberry. What they DO know is stuff like ITIL, Six Sigma, endless standup meetings, mind-numbing project plan meetings (ending up with project plans that are promptly ignored), etc.
So let me ask Microsoft and HCL — was Microsoft built on processes and SixSigma, or was it built on people who dreamed of the “next big thing”? Weren’t there tons of old mainframe companies who were big on process and procedure and quality programs? Wasn’t HP looking for the “next big thing” when they in their glory days, and weren’t big on process and ISO/QS as they went into the dumpster? Shall we even discuss the demise of EDS, a company that couldn’t use enough corporate buzzwords and quality programs and processes?
What I'm doing now, I don't know if I'll be pulling comms equipment out of some (angry) co-lo site in the middle of the desert, or calculating the thermal mass of a given volume of sand for a hot slab pour, where I get to shovel concrete, or even, recently, taking care of 40 head of longhorns when the ranch manager got sick.
All for beer, cigarettes, company car, and pay expenses out of my own pocket.
I've been making a net loss for 2 years. I'd love a job in DFW that paid 35K and let me get home every night.
And not have to carry a gun for security (against wild critters, not bad guys).
I am grateful that I eat, and have the basics.
/johnny
You should go ahead and diss the Toyota Productions System and Lean Enterprise as well.
Just because most American companies don't know how to deploy an initiative does not negate its validity. ISSO is about standardizing your processes (standardized work), and Six Sigma is about reducing variation caused defects in processes. DMAIC is simply the application of the Scientific method to problem solving. However, these programs are deployed as empty slogans and cheesy signs in the foyer.
I personally have overseen multiple millions of $$ in cost savings at companies from Life Sciences to Welding rod manufacturers, and everything in between using Lean and Six Sigma tools. These programs always fail because of the incompetence of management, in spite of the best guidance money can buy. Many companies don't want to make the hard decisions required to fix their problems.
You should go ahead and diss the Toyota Productions System and Lean Enterprise as well.
Just because most American companies don't know how to deploy an initiative does not negate its validity. ISSO is about standardizing your processes (standardized work), and Six Sigma is about reducing variation caused defects in processes. DMAIC is simply the application of the Scientific method to problem solving. However, these programs are deployed as empty slogans and cheesy signs in the foyer.
I personally have overseen multiple millions of $$ in cost savings at companies from Life Sciences to Welding rod manufacturers, and everything in between using Lean and Six Sigma tools. These programs always fail because of the incompetence of management, in spite of the best guidance money can buy. Many companies don't want to make the hard decisions required to fix their problems.
You are not a fuddy duddy.
You appear to be a hire.
Those in flips flops had better damn well impress.
At our school, they have a class that teaches you how to job hunt, including interviewing skills. Its hard to believe that anyone at our school would pull that. After a few rejections, I’m sure these kids will wise up.
Some of the latest imports from there have not been too hot either.
I think we took the cream of the crop and the outsourcing crop is not looking so good.
Do you have a formal degree?
“Do you have a formal degree?”
There’s another topic.
By the time most 4-year colleges get a grad out of the door, what they know is pretty much either 1) basic theory, or 2) so dated that it’s not worth much.
IT has generally been a place where the latest-greatest hottest technology pays the most. Second place goes to guys like me who are riding a legacy technology to the bottom, and are pretty much willing to travel to far parts of the world in order to make pretty good money decommissioning the stuff.
No matter where they are from, newbies just lack experience that us “older” (age 47) guys have gained from seeing techs, and technologies, come and go. Oh, yeah, and seeing management fads and managers come and go too.
No. I have training certs/licenses from USAF, Sun MicroSystems, IBM, FCC, and many others. And lots of still functioning tech in industry that I have built.
But I am older. And not so popular with the PC crowd.
So I do what I must, which is create and build, while others destroy.
I'll survive, regardless, until I can't hunt anymore, but at this point, $35K for 40 hours a week in DFW doing systems analysis/programming would be like a retirement spot. Beats the hell out of golf.
/johnny
Honestly, I would look into getting the sheepskin. With your experience, it should not be a problem. As for Gates and Jobs—they are the six-sigma exceptions. For the vast (vast) majority of us, we have to fit into the system.
“Honestly, I would look into getting the sheepskin.”
Why?
I have a BA-econ that was minted in 1984. Ir that would’ve been a BS-CS from Purdue in 1984 instead, what would Purdue have taught me that had any relevance to what I do today?
I couldn't sit through wymnens studies or other BS for a 4 year degree that I could complete (or teach) in less than 2 years.
I'm not going back to traditional school again. I will continue learning, with my 2 hours daily of study on subjects ranging from 16th century weapons and tactics, to the molecular structure of capsicum.
It worked well for many years. The last two have been difficult. I'll manage.
/johnny
/johnny
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