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My first job assignment (real job, not the bike courier one) in Canada...

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛I was a campus hire. Right after I completed a 5-week long new hire orientation, I was assigned a job that none of my co-workers would like to go.

The position was a PTL – proposal team lead – in SDC (solution design centre). There was absolutely no technical content in my everyday work. It was a junior PM job – whenever there was a proposal or RFP response work item came to SDC, one PTL was to be assigned to organize the response effort.

PTL will set up time line, schedule check point meetings, assign section owners, collect write-ups, ensure proper document format and QA process was followed.

Dealing with sales and architects was my daily job. Sales should provide client background, win theme, executive summary and pricing. Architects should provide solution overview, diagrams, write up on all technical sections, and fill in the QA form.

Neither was easy to deal with. Sales usually were not responsive when they were busy and became very aggressive towards the end. Architects usually were arrogant and would simply ignore all my meeting notice. In my first 50 conference calls, I could hardly understand what the callers were talking about, let alone lead the team to get things done. More often than not, by the due date of any major mile stone, my team would miss the mark. I could never organize a complete and successful RFP response. But soon after, I found myself quite popular among both sales and engineers. I was in high demand whenever a deal came through to SDC. Well, the reason was rather simple – I had such a lay back attitude, always calm and quiet (not that I wanted to be calm and quiet, I simply did not understand what they were talking about on the phone), people felt no pressure working with me. I guess a dumb PTL was better than what they would usually get from SDC. My assignment got extended again and again – well, one reason was that no one else would want to join SDC from the technical team. After this SDC assignment, I was assigned to a project to lead a team of contractors to perform Token Ring to Ethernet migration. Either projects had any technical content.

I regretted that I declined the offer from Toronto lab, at least for the first few years. I did not feel that I learnt anything. In my first 3-4 years, I did nothing technical. But now that I looked back, I was wondering if being technical was that important. I was never good at it anyway.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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  • 工作学习 / 事业与工作 / My first job assignment (real job, not the bike courier one) in Canada...
    • Co-ordinating unbillable efforts without due authority/seniority -- that must have been tough. Good leadingship experience though. It's good to be with IBM -
      or else how could you possibly defer potential customer's RFP response deadlines! RFP deadlines typically don't get extended -- unless you are the only bidder -- or you have been pre-determined to win the bid behind the scene. IBM has the previlege because:

      "No one gets fired for buyig IBM."
      • 从此知道了Handle internal比external困难的多,对个人发展也重要的多.但只有给用户工作才让我快乐.后我一直平衡内外工作
        • “Handle internal比external困难的多“?我想70%不是这样的吧。作为甲方,handle external也许比handle internal容易一些。作为乙方,就困难得多,搞到对方的真正需求就得费牛劲,有时还根本搞不到(因为对方视为机密)。
          国内HP有个销售曾经负责推销测试工具给中国军方,两年努力没有任何成果,后来实在压力太大,辞了。接任的人,上任后1个月,还没有机会认识客户的重要任务,好几个M美元的订单来了,超3倍完成年度指标,呵呵。

          不过横向比较。有的人相对handle external能力比其他人强一些而已。
          • I have been in a technical role all through my career. Dealing with customers was relatively easy - as long as I provide quality work with a good attitude, I got appraised a lot. Internal politics is different. The blame game is usually tough.
            • True. When dealing with customers, you are largely exempted from corporate politics. Whereas when you work internally, there are a lot of "conflicts of interest" to deal with -- but
              mikesmith seems to be able to ride this "internal politics" with comfort now.:-)
              • 请教一下,当一件事,老板不想做,但老板的老板想要做,交到你头上了,该如何处理?
                • 做。如果老板因此对你有看法,或者敌视,那就把主要精力放在换工作上。如果你是你老板的老板的亲信,那你自然知道怎么做,是吧?
                  • 有几次把老板当丫环使唤,现在想想觉得有些过份。
    • 好文章,好观点.
    • 随遇而安(flexibility)),踏实勤奋(hard-working),奋发向上(self development)是适用中外的普世准则。只要心态积极地对待工作,任何工作都可以有利于完善自己。
      • 我应该把这条收为座右铭。
        • 受宠若惊-:)
          • 不客气,不客气
    • 搞技术的就该整天想着怎么搞出下一个IPHONE,FACEBOOK,EBAY啥的。搞管理的就该整天想着怎么搞出下一个丰田沃尔玛麦当劳啥的。搞管理整天瞎想技术,搞技术的整天瞎想管理。最后就是一堆FACELESS的企业砖瓦。工作是解决了,但实在没劲。
      • Relax and enjoy the summer.
        • u2.
      • 去不去钓鱼?
    • if being technical was that important. I was never good at it anyway......... :-) 这句话的后半句,严重不同意。呵呵。。。
      • 见笑了, 那得看跟谁比了.