all aboard the failboat
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazin…
Unemployed 17 Months And Counting
McCarthy, who calls himself a “broadly trained interdisciplinary scientist,” has a PhD in biophysics, a medical degree, a master’s degree in electrical engineering, and a joint bachelor’s in chemistry and physics. He also spent five years in postdoctoral fellowship studies and is completing a master’s degree in public health…
Downsizing cost McCarthy his last job, which paid him well over $100,000 a year. Seventeen months later, unemployment “is getting old,” he says…
” I don’t think you can distill it to a sentence, which is one of my problems. My background in math and engineering, as well as in molecular biology and medical research, lets me approach problem solving and decision making … from a broader viewpoint… I’m someone who can see the big picture and help move a company forward. During introductions at talks, I’ve been described as a sort of “scientific renaissance man.”…
So he’s got 5 degrees and describes himself as “a big picture man”.
He may be exactly that, and he may be worth a million dollars a year.
…but in my experience, no one who describes themselves as “a big picture person” is worth a damn.
I’ve interviewed engineers who refuse to tell me how a linked list works because “they’re big picture people” / “they’re architects” / “they can look that up in a book” / “there are junior people to worry about that”.
In fact, if I hired someone as senior engineer, I wouldn’t want him spending his time reimplementing linked lists.
…but, IMO:
* every CFO needs to be able to balance a checkbook.
* every physicist needs to know what potential energy is.
* every engineer needs to be able to write code.
* every CEO needs to know what his product is, and how it works.
* every architect needs to know how many sides a brick has, and what mortar is.
… not because they’re going to do it day in and day out, but because it displays a certain level of humility, adaptability, and conversance with the fundamental principles of the domain.
Keep those three points in mind as you read the rest of this:
Once I get into the process, they say something like, “We have a round position, a square position, and a rectangular position. You seem to be a triangle.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of niche positions. I need someone to recognize that my interdisciplinary experience and background might warrant creating a new position.
Oh, boo-hoo. The big bad world doesn’t recognize that you’re a unique snowflake.
Or, phrased another way: you’re a useless drama queen who – instead of compromising your principals and taking a job that doesn’t match the job title you want, and then growing the job position around your abilities – would rather stay home and live off your wife’s salary.
I had a couple offers to do consulting work. Other than keeping me busy, it wouldn’t generate the kind of money we need and would keep me from looking for other employment. It’s a last-ditch option.
So far “looking for work” has consumed 17 months, and has accomplished absolutely nothing.
…but taking some contract work, and developing a track record in the contracting world, and making new contacts, and earning money?
No, that would suck – it would limit his ability to do the same stupid thing that’s resulted in 510 days of uninterrupted failure.
Far better to keep plugging away in the same comfortable old fail-boat.
The best time to look for work is December into the early part of the year. People are planning ahead and have budgets. I don’t really anticipate a whole lot happening for me before the end of this year unless I get lucky.
So, according to his theory, he’s got 4 months of dead-time.
…but still no desire to take a contract gig.
Lately, I’ve started thinking about expanding my search beyond Massachusetts. I’ve told interviewers out of state that for the right package, moving is an option. But the prospect of packing up and finding a new house and putting our house in Canton on the market isn’t something I relish.
Awww…it would be so hard to sell a house and move.
Far, far better to remain unemployed.
By the way, remember what I said above about “humility, adaptability, and conversance with the fundamental principles of the domain” ?
Naturally, my kids look at me as a role model, and that worries me.
Well, I guess I’ve got one thing in common with this guy: the fact that his kids look to him as a role model worries me too.
(subject line hattip)
August 7th, 2007 at 5:04 am
When I interview candidates, I look for intelligence and intellectual aggression. I don’t ask after their degrees; I have enough of those for all of us, and I already know from experience that they’re irrelevant to actual ability.
One of the open secrets of the business world is that every job requires retraining. On-the-job learning is the only sort that matters commercially. A smart, aggressive person who can demonstrate competence at something substantial is a good bet for retraining to what I need done. A smart person who exhibits no aggression is about as useful as a doorstop, no matter how many degrees he holds.
The subject of this story is insufficiently aggressive for me. I doubt he’d strike any other attentive interviewer differently.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Incidentally, this guy has been out of work forever, but according to the article, has “sent out about 100 resumes.” In 17 months. Just a thought, but it might be easier for him to find a job if he… looked for one.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:15 am
[quote comment="72251"]Incidentally, this guy has been out of work forever, but according to the article, has “sent out about 100 resumes.” In 17 months.
Just a thought, but it might be easier for him to find a job if he… looked for one.[/quote]
Damn, yeah, I noticed that myself, and meant to comment on it.
What really amazes me is that he willingly gave all of this information to a newspaper. I guess that that’s proof positive that he doesn’t realize what a shmuck he is.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:17 am
[quote comment="72238"]On-the-job learning is the only sort that matters commercially.[/quote]
Well said.
I love (“love”) listening to candidates of a certain political stripe talking about how government needs to “do more” with job training programs to “push our country forward”.
I can picture the horrible reality of it all too well: disorganized government classes taught by confused, ill-trained government employees all with seething just-barely concealed anger, poorly teaching knowledge that is some combination of (a) wrong; (b) irrelevant; (c) out of date.
August 7th, 2007 at 10:26 am
[quote]A smart, aggressive person who can demonstrate competence at something substantial is a good bet for retraining to what I need done. A smart person who exhibits no aggression is about as useful as a doorstop, no matter how many degrees he holds.[/quote]
Reminds me of a grid (described here in text, probably poorly) of smart/stupid and aggressive/passive I ran across once.
Stupid-Passive: Basic menial labor.
Smart-Passive: Complex but unimportant jobs.
Smart-Aggressive: Point them at the problems.
Stupid-Aggressive: These you often have to shoot.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Point the Smart-Aggressive people at them. ;-)
August 7th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Speaking as a “Smart-Passive”, that sounds about right. Our problem is,
we lack ambition, and are easily contented. We are usually good workers, with an excellent understanding of our jobs, but don’t want too much responsibility, or long hours. Use us to train new workers, but don’t use us to fill in for the boss when he’s gone.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Reminds me of a grid … I ran across once.
Oh, that grid. It’s called a “magic quadrant” chart, and the guy at Gartner who drew it is standing in a category entirely outside the grid plane, laughing at you.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
[quote comment="72413"]Speaking as a “Smart-Passive”, that sounds about right. Our problem is,
we lack ambition, and are easily contented. We are usually good workers, with an excellent understanding of our jobs, but don’t want too much responsibility, or long hours. Use us to train new workers, but don’t use us to fill in for the boss when he’s gone.[/quote]
A good Randite would be aghast, because – I feel confident – they would conclude that such preferences are “immoral”.
Personally, I think it takes all kinds.
I’m not a huge fan of responsibility; I just find that I usually end up acting to maximize the amount that I have, because doing so mininizes my anxiety.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:16 am
[...] it just now, I see that I had forgotten that in that post Coyote linked to a post of mine, here…and despite being thus marred, Coyote’s post is still a great [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
principles, you moron
shouldn’t an intelligent person know how to spell?
November 6th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
[quote comment="98118"]
shouldn’t an intelligent person know how to spell?[/quote]
…said by a person who doesn’t capitalize sentences.
November 6th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
[quote comment="72444"]Reminds me of a grid … I ran across once.
Oh, that grid. It’s called a “magic quadrant” chart, and the guy at Gartner who drew it is standing in a category entirely outside the grid plane, laughing at you.[/quote]
Really?
Huh.
Gosh. I feel just…laughed-at terrible now.
Him, way all up there off that grid-plane thingy. Laughin’ at this dumb yokel, for talkin’ ’bout his grid.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:43 am
every CFO needs to be able to balance a checkbook.
* every physicist needs to know what potential energy is.
* every engineer needs to be able to write code.
* every CEO needs to know what his product is, and how it works.
* every architect needs to know how many sides a brick has, and what mortar is.
Compared to all others “every engineer needs to code” is a higher barrier.If you know being good at any technology say Java takes 3-5 years of proffessional hard work.If you mean “just being able to code and not being expert at it.I don’t know what good is such a knowledge when somebody can fool you and you can’t find that he is doing so.What if the engineer feels that coding doesn’t figure in the skill set that he requires for a job.Does he still need to learn C++ and Java to show his humility.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:57 am
[quote comment="153319"]Compared to all others “every engineer needs to code” is a higher barrier.
[/quote]
Valid point.
[quote comment="153319"]
If you mean “just being able to code and not being expert at it” I don’t know what good is such a knowledge when somebody can fool you and you can’t find that he is doing so.
[/quote]
I’m a pretty decent programmer. Or, at least, I was. I got hired into placed with pretty high standards like D.E. Shaw, Permabit, and a bunch of early stage startups.
However, my skill set has rotted over the last ~ five years. I’m no longer in the same top-percent as I used to be.
…and yet I know enough about programming generally to talk about data structures, algorithms, etc., that when I ask for an estimate on feature X, and I get an estimate of Y, and I think that Y is inherently flawed because it’s one or two orders of magnitude longer than the simple data / algorithmic way that I see … I can speak up with authority and ask “I could imagine it being done this way, which is more like two hours than two weeks. Does that way work, or am I missing something?”.
Being able to ask that question has saved me something like 1-4 man-months of engineering time over the last year or two.
That’s somewhere between $10k and $40k of shareholder value, just billed at hourly rates.
[quote comment="153319"]
What if the engineer feels that coding doesn’t figure in the skill set that he requires for a job.
[/quote]
Then he works somewhere where I’m not in charge of hiring.
[quote comment="153319"]
Does he still need to learn C++ and Java to show his humility.
[/quote]
I’ve never asserted that the reason an engineer needs to code is to show his humility.
I assert that the reason an engineer needs to code is no one who
describes themselves as “a big picture person” is worth a damn.
A technical leader needs to be able to see if things pass the sniff test, needs to be able to suggest alternate approaches to his people, and needs to be able to interview candidates himself and distinguish good from bad candidates.
I don’t think that a leader who doesn’t know how to code at all can do any of those things.