Thursday, January 24, 2008

Juggling Chainsaws

When I first started in business I faced the typical catch-22: Can't get a job without experience. Can't get experience without a job. Though some sick and twisted fuck up in the space-time continuum I seem to find myself in a very similar situation once again.

I consider what I do to be somewhat specialized. I work as a web development manager in a small corner of a fairly strong advertising and communications firm. I got here more or less when this line of work began for the company and my role has evolved over the last several years from "the only tech guy we have" to "the guy who manages the only tech guys we have". I am fine with that for the most part. However there are certain operational truths to how we manage our day - all of which have contributed to this dust speck on the wisp of the long tail.

We make web software here. A lot of it. It's mostly Shadow IT stuff put in place by rogue corporate groups intent on toppling the Ivory Towers of strategic planners through the use of heretical notions of efficiency and achievement. We solve problems in days that our corporate counterparts project will take weeks or months. We diligently abide by the 80/20 Rule to ensure we deliver - on time, on budget, solutions that perform as advertised. Our methods are adaptive (Agile, Scrum) rather than predictive (monolithic SDLC/CMM/BDUF) allowing twice the productivity in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the staff.

Lately I have started to receive inquiries about other employment. Here is where this little post finally gets to the point. The vast majority of the position in discussion centered on what I would consider "normal" IT operations. to put it simply, none of these companies feel I have enough "enterprise experience" to fill their needs.

Excuse me... Enterprise experience?

The use of this as justification for ending our employment discussions suggests 2 possible lines of thinking:

1. They feel that process outweighs productivity - a notion that I am convinced has led to ballooning healthcare costs (sit for a day in an insurance company to find out more).

2) They feel that somehow what they do is more difficult than what I do.

Either way, it's their grave. I am not the be-all-to-end-all, but people like me get things done. It's troubling that 17 years into my career that I face these same sort of catch-22's.

** Note:
I actually wrote this a couple weeks ago and never published. Turns out I was able to find a new position with a company in need of exactly the type of skills I provide. My faith in corporate America is restored.

...for now.

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