I had the best manager ever at SAIC. Her name was Janie Harris. She had little technical background and didn’t want any more. But she was the department head over three divisions worth of more than 400 scientists, engineers, and lawyers (odd collection) at the apex of her department. Janie didn’t want to impress you […]
Category: AAHYWEH
What!? No resume?
I bought a Kaypro II in 1983 and used it in college. It ran on CP/M. That’s an operating system that isn’t DOS or Windows. In fact, there were no graphical interfaces in computers in 1983. The Kaypro II personal computer was a marvel and a miracle. It is how I started programming. My available […]
The Interview
Technical interviews fail because technical interviewers insist on turning them into challenges. The appointment is for 10:30. Tom, the VP of Something Very Important, Dick, the CIO, and Harry, Software Engineer III sit at the other side of the table when you arrive. They arranged a single chair opposite their side of the conference table. […]
Leadership
Everyone prattles on about software leadership. Everyone wants to find the leaders. Seminars promise to build leaders. This drivel mainly appeals to the MBA and the white-shirt crowd because it speaks to their outdated, counterproductive, absolutely attractive nonsense to “the management way” of doing things they learned by running production floors when managers prowled the […]
… Until Morale Improves
I served with a fellow, Lawrence Mack, who was on board the USS Pueblo when it was captured by the North Koreans in 1968. One of Larry’s stories he told resonates even today, and it’s about the importance of human contact. He said that after capture they were held in a POW camp in North […]