As part of my journey back into the world of software engineering I got thinking about what make a good candidate. Its obvious that a lot of hiring is done based on the person you are considering doing the same job as the role rather than the best candidate but also what is the fascination with being the world expert in a particular language?
I know Java, I'm not particularly great at it but do know enough that I have been able to solve any problems that I've needed to... so shouldn't that be enough.
It reminds me of a C test I was asked to look at a while back to help with the recruitment of additional team members for a team I belonged to. It had one of those what would the macro "**(b+s)+++b*(c+a)" type things so for a give value. Well I said I didn't know, wouldn't expect anyone two and if they used it it any code than I would rather they weren't on my team.
You see I want and feel the best approach (as with most engineering solutions) so to have the simplest solution. The compiler knows how to do things as fast and efficiently far more than you do so write simple solutions and let the compiler do its job.
Anyway it looks like the company I'm looking for a job at is going to pay for me to learn Java to a level I will never likely need to I'm happy as the ends can sometimes justify the means ;)
Monday, 5 November 2007
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
So much time... so little worth
So I'm going back into Software and once again I start thinking about the problems of planning and co-ordination between different parts of a project.
Project Co-ordinators and the like spend an incredible amount of time producing schedules (or plans as some call them) but they are often such guesses that they are little more than useless. Its not just software where phrases like "You start coding and I'll find out the requirements" can be heard.
So OK you are not going to come up with the perfect solution straight away but the problem becomes that people become afraid to change the plan once the sizing of the project is better known. Then its the poor Software Engineers that have to fit around these 'wrong' schedules.
I have the idea (which I'm sure that others do as well) the principles of agile development should be applied to agile scheduling. But I really think that this needs to be done by a program rather than a human to get away from the ego!
Project Co-ordinators and the like spend an incredible amount of time producing schedules (or plans as some call them) but they are often such guesses that they are little more than useless. Its not just software where phrases like "You start coding and I'll find out the requirements" can be heard.
So OK you are not going to come up with the perfect solution straight away but the problem becomes that people become afraid to change the plan once the sizing of the project is better known. Then its the poor Software Engineers that have to fit around these 'wrong' schedules.
I have the idea (which I'm sure that others do as well) the principles of agile development should be applied to agile scheduling. But I really think that this needs to be done by a program rather than a human to get away from the ego!
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Looking for new fields to play in
Its time to move along. Think I will go back to software. Had a break so it might be more difficult than I would like but its a challenge I'm sure I won't have too much trouble getting over.
I've also got a few new ideas for web application that I might look into. And as such I'm learning Ruby on Rails while I look for a new job. Now I'm trying to arrange some funding for my ideas but lets see if the timing works as I might have to sell my soul again.
Just seems to be so many small areas of functionality that people are ignoring. Probably because they are too small for bigger companies but selling 1 thing for £100 is the same ans selling 100 smaller things for £1 on the low as you like overheads of the internet.
I've also got a few new ideas for web application that I might look into. And as such I'm learning Ruby on Rails while I look for a new job. Now I'm trying to arrange some funding for my ideas but lets see if the timing works as I might have to sell my soul again.
Just seems to be so many small areas of functionality that people are ignoring. Probably because they are too small for bigger companies but selling 1 thing for £100 is the same ans selling 100 smaller things for £1 on the low as you like overheads of the internet.
Sunday, 20 May 2007
How hard to push
Having a discussion the other night when I should of been talking about stuff other than work I came to the subject of sales.
How pushy should you be? Its not the easy question to answer. I guess if you are selling something cheap or wanting to get someone to change their electricity supplier it must be OK to be a pain in the backside (well if it wasn't) why are they.
But we supply a high quality product. No one is going or can decide over the phone but it you are not enough on the case you can loose a valuable lead because you didn't make one more phone call.
One thing we have learnt in the past is that we needed to be more pushy than we were. We would send a drawing and a quote and wait to be contacted. Quite often (enough to make us not realise ourselves that something was not as good as it could have been) we would get a call back and 'close the deal' but we were missing a few.
A marketing agent said we needed to chase these leads and after initial worries we gave it a go. To our surprise it didn't drive our customers away. In fact customers seemed to like that we where checking they had received the drawings and wondered if we could help them further.
But the biggest gain was that we got a few customers that said that they didn't really want what we had drawn. Of course now that we called them we could address this issue. Usually its easy to solve because they may not like the doors or the colour or the budget but now we could correct this and on the second try we almost always get the commission.
I believe that its all part of being a bespoke manufacturer. Not a lot of people get the idea that they can have what they want or when they get the drawings don't realise that they can be changed.
How pushy should you be? Its not the easy question to answer. I guess if you are selling something cheap or wanting to get someone to change their electricity supplier it must be OK to be a pain in the backside (well if it wasn't) why are they.
But we supply a high quality product. No one is going or can decide over the phone but it you are not enough on the case you can loose a valuable lead because you didn't make one more phone call.
One thing we have learnt in the past is that we needed to be more pushy than we were. We would send a drawing and a quote and wait to be contacted. Quite often (enough to make us not realise ourselves that something was not as good as it could have been) we would get a call back and 'close the deal' but we were missing a few.
A marketing agent said we needed to chase these leads and after initial worries we gave it a go. To our surprise it didn't drive our customers away. In fact customers seemed to like that we where checking they had received the drawings and wondered if we could help them further.
But the biggest gain was that we got a few customers that said that they didn't really want what we had drawn. Of course now that we called them we could address this issue. Usually its easy to solve because they may not like the doors or the colour or the budget but now we could correct this and on the second try we almost always get the commission.
I believe that its all part of being a bespoke manufacturer. Not a lot of people get the idea that they can have what they want or when they get the drawings don't realise that they can be changed.
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Bank of England's control of the interest rate
Saw a presentation by the South Easts Representative of the Bank of England to so with interest rates.
The thing that I noticed what that the economy seems to be much more stable than when the government controlled it. Now of course Blair and Brown pat themselves of the back for the stability of the economy but is that right?
Now the thing is... what else would be better off left to the professionals.
Maybe:
That way the governments can only think about how to look for the four years cycle but the organisation that actually think about long term game can get do their job without constant messing around.
The thing that I noticed what that the economy seems to be much more stable than when the government controlled it. Now of course Blair and Brown pat themselves of the back for the stability of the economy but is that right?
Now the thing is... what else would be better off left to the professionals.
Maybe:
- Education experts should run education
- Medical experts the Hospitals
- Crime expert the police
That way the governments can only think about how to look for the four years cycle but the organisation that actually think about long term game can get do their job without constant messing around.
Advertise your green service
At the recent Business Link conference I have already mentioned I looked around the exhibition and noticed something.
All the text about saving money was hidden away in the small print of the banners.
The body of the text and pictures, the stuff that would catch your eye, was all about what you could so with your waste, lets save the world and all the woffle. Not that I'm saying its wrong but if your audience are thinking about their business (why they were there) surely you should advertise to that side of the brain.
All the text about saving money was hidden away in the small print of the banners.
The body of the text and pictures, the stuff that would catch your eye, was all about what you could so with your waste, lets save the world and all the woffle. Not that I'm saying its wrong but if your audience are thinking about their business (why they were there) surely you should advertise to that side of the brain.
Money IS green
Some of them to do with green issues. Not just lefty saving the world but also saving money.
It seems to me that a green company can be a profitable company rather than the
People are starting to spend their money (well thinking about it) in a greener way. 1) Canvas bags rather than plastic (do wonder how green this is as most supermarkets seem to be moving towards bio-degradable and they can be re-used as rubbish bags) 2) Choosing green electricity suppliers.
However a green company is an economic country:
At my (previous) company we throw away scrap wood and then would buy gas to heat the workshop!
- Stop buying so much Gas. Saves money and reduces risk because we have reduced our dependence on gas!
- Heat the workshop for free (once we have paid for the burner)
- Less waste in skip. Cost us £200 per skip. If we could burn 25% then we would save 25% (plus a bit because we would need less lifts).
- Apparently we can get a grant to pay upto 50%. Blimey the government wanting to GIVE us money rather than take it away!
Saturday, 24 March 2007
Business Blah Blah
Welcome to my process blog.
My background is in software. I've worked mostly on defence software but for the last few years in the field was involved in digital TV.Though mainly a developer it was always difficult to avoid getting involved with process and quality improvement, which is not at all a bad thing as I discovered are have a talent in those fields.
My background is in software. I've worked mostly on defence software but for the last few years in the field was involved in digital TV.Though mainly a developer it was always difficult to avoid getting involved with process and quality improvement, which is not at all a bad thing as I discovered are have a talent in those fields.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
