Things I Wish I Knew Before Working in Industry

A representative from IBM came to visit me in college several years ago when I was a student and talked about several things he wished he knew before working in the software industry.¹ I’ve found his advice to be very useful at various points during my career. And would like to share it again with you now, in outline form:

Note: Bolded points I’ve found to be especially useful.

Technology

• Future: integration²
• Needed: ease-of-use & less complexity
• Do not reinvent wheels!
  • you’ll never finish the project

Technical Knowledge

• Learn to learn
• Don’t need to take a class to learn something
• Learn a little about a lot of things³
• Read news highlights from worthwhile sources⁴

Problem Solving

• Build a network of people. Asking for advice is quicker than learning the hard way.
• There is always more than one way to do something.
  Weigh the pros/cons of each – then pick and choose.
• Innovate before you execute. Think critically before you act.

Business & Technology

• Technology adoption is driven by business. (practicality)
• Business is nothing without technology.
  Technology is nothing without business.
• If you build a better mousetrap, they will not come.
• A project, no matter how advanced, is doomed for failure without a paying customer.
• Think about TCO (total cost of ownership) and ROI (return on investment).
  You must always justify your returns.
• Communication with managers and customers is vital!
  If you can’t get someone to adopt your solution, what’s the point?
• There is a difference between removing barriers and creating incentive (for a customer to switch to my project/product). You need both.

Promotions

• It’s not what you know.
  It’s not who you know.
  It’s who knows what you know.⁵
• Doing more of the same is not enough.
  • Need to try new things – take on more responsibility.
• Doing what is asked is not enough.
• Ask you manager what the expectations are.

Working with Others

• Credit + gratitude are not limited resources.
  • Say thank you!
  • Give credit where due.
• Be ambitious but be humble.
• Don’t make assumptions about others.
  • Give people the benefit of the doubt.
• “Your lack of planning does not mean I need to treat your request as urgent.”
• Do what you say you will. Keep your word.
  • reliable
  • dependable
• The best humor is self-deprecating.
• There is always someone faster, smarter, and better looking.

Managers

• They don’t have a magic wand. They don’t automatically fix problems.
• Managers do not have a superset of the employees' (team members') knowledge.
• Managers can’t read minds. Don’t assume. Communicate explicitly.
• You are responsible for your own career. But ask for help.

You and Your Job

• Your job is what you make of it. Don’t be confined by a job description.
• Work/Life balance doesn’t have good default settings. You must do explicit actions.
  • plan
  • schedule for success
• You are not your job. Do not define yourself like this.

Workers

• We’re employed to add value, not spend money.
• It’s easy to stay busy, but are you accomplishing anything worthwhile?
  • don’t needlessly clutter your schedule
• If you aren’t looking at it from a customer perspective, you aren’t looking at it.
• You can’t do everything. Pick what you won’t do. (The world won’t end.)

Employment

• Don’t expect your first job to be your dream job. Look for a path, not an endpoint.
• Be willing to stretch your comfort zone.
  • geographically, work type, etc.
  • Otherwise you’ll stagnate.
• Know your employer’s business model.
  • Examples:
    • HP = selling ink;
    • Microsoft = selling Office, Windows, and cloud services;
    • Apple = iPods iPhones and (to some extent) Macs
    • Facebook, Google = selling ads
  • Take a look at the annual reports for your company.
• Get internships, even if with competitors, maybe even delaying graduation.⁶
  • It gives experience.
  • Increases employment opportunities.
• Start looking and prepare much earlier.⁷

Successful Employment

• If you want to make a difference, look for chaos.
  Stable environments offer little opportunity.⁸
• Good employees deal with challenges instead of pouting. Adapt.
• Stay above the commodity line (with regard to skill set and type of work done).

Life

• Understand other people’s motivations.
  • Makes it easier to find new ways of solving the underlying goal.
• Define your values and goals.
  • ex: What type of job do you want?
• Your behaviors should support your goals.
• Expect your goals to change. Success is dynamic.
• Don’t let others define success for you.
• You can get rich by getting more or wanting less.
• Life is one great balancing act.
  • There’s no single right way of doing things.
  • Balancing your priorities and goals is important.

Related Articles

• Skills I Learned at Microsoft
• Skills I Learned at Splunk
• Skills I’m Learning at TechSmart - A future article. 🙂
• Programming is Fun. But What Matters is Solving a Real Problem.