Careers: Opinions

Now that the election is finally over, all that's left are about a zillion new government appointments. But I know the denizens of Cringeville are particularly interested in one post above all: who the new administration will call to serve as the nation's first CTO.

Rebecca Paddock needed a way to prepare for her move from a test engineer job to a systems engineer position. So, inspired by the 100-day plans US presidents historically use when they first take office, she developed a list of tasks to tackle.

People come and go in your organization all the time. A select few stay for years while others pass through in just months or even weeks. But whether they are lifers or transients, they all leave a digital ghost behind when they exit -- a trail of their interactions with your network and systems.

If Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the State Board of Education have their way, soon every California student will have to pass an algebra test to graduate from the eighth grade.

Today's topic is the question I most often received as an IT manager: "Why can't I get promoted?"

"How do I make my people more accountable?" As a management consultant, I get this question all the time. In fact, I'd have to say that in general, making people more accountable is one of the top aspirations of technical managers. So it's worth answering the question here are simply as I can.

When it came to work, the great Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko liked to quote his friend Slats Grobnik: "If it's so good, how come they have to pay you to do it?"

Ask the Programmers Guild that question, and their answer would be an emphatic "yes!" The US-based organization has accused Hewlett Packard of advertising for jobs it has no intention of filling -- at least with US citizens -- on the Idaho Department of Labor Web site.

Timing is everything -- in sports, budget requests, and yes, politics, too. So it is with our collective high-tech fingers crossed that we watch as House Bill H.R. 6049 "Renewable Energy and Job Creation" [PDF] and a Senate amendment -- both of which propose tax credits for R&D in the so-called "innovation" industries -- make their way through US Congress.

Every enterprise needs a robust IT infrastructure in order to function effectively. Infrastructure is the foundation of corporate productivity and success. Many IT groups, however, don't have enough skilled infrastructure staffers to provide the solid foundation required.

A friend recently spent five hours in the emergency room. Now, I've never found the emergency room a pleasant experience. What do you expect when people in crisis bump up against a rigid bureaucracy? But my friend decided that while she was there, she was going to be nice to everyone she dealt with.