This Business and Moment...

randomshenans said:
I think it's a great conversation if you think about it. At least the communication was there and now you know. Some people just don't say **** and then just give you crap for not doing anything.
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It was a good conversation to have, I agree, but its really thrown me for six.

NickK said:
Lead, if you have a team you can delegate.

This smells like that the sales director under pressure, has indicated that he's not got the right thing/new killer product to sell to customers. Unfortunately that comes back to your plate as product management. Marketing isn't going to make anything other than segment new ways.
It sounds like you need a roadshow - get out and spend 1-2 days a week visiting customers, driving new ideas out of think tanks etc.

There are a lot of roles where there is an expectation for multiple roles to be done by one person.

It sounds like you need to drive your team - you won't have the knowledge but through appropriate driving you can (as a team) deliver new ideas. I get the feeling that they are giving you a push - that includes needing to bring the team together productively.

Look at large/multi-team leadership courses. I had the pleasure of leading four 6-10 people product teams before moving to a 70+ crossfunctional team - when they made 50,000 people redundant (including me), they still let me go on the booked leadership course. Turns out I was one of the more senior/larger product managers and all came across during the tests etc that what I'd learnt doing the role and figured out myself - was the taught way. It was nice because it really validated what I'd done and how I'd grown.

I'm not a programme manager - like you I would do high level and then be there for the 6 project managers when needed to come in as SLT support. However this also included strategic drivers - planned activities, product work and generating new ways forward plus mentoring.

It will feel odd, and difficult, but open your mind a little - look at how to build the team with forward innovation in mind etc (even if there's no money.. ideas appear - better the board says no than sit there silently).

Also in my last role - the org structure has changed (I know that based on a convo today) and my getting the boot was purely restructuring. Turns out that running 42 services and being high level wasn't good enough - they actually wanted to drop the seniority and move to flat technical doers lead by technical staff. Not that will work for the long term but it's what the board signed off on.. so unless I could write code, know all of AWS etc at a coding level.. then you're days were numbered.. just like both myself and my boss.

The issue is coding doesn't really do it for me ... 27 years of coding in industry. So it was a good thing I moved on. I have done some more technical AWS/Azure courses but I'm never going to be coding up.. It teaches me some interesting things technically and I learnt a little but I'm more interested in also looking at new ideas for new products rather than owning the cloud for a 29bn revenue group company.
I know I get bored. I know I like new ideas. I like to solve problems - both creating new things and operating problems. I'm not an operational person, I'm not 100% a sales person either and I accept both of those.

My advise is to try something new - if that fails and you end up being given the push.. at least you have new skills.
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Thank you both for the feedback. There's a lot to digest there, but some extremely valuable feedback, thank you very much. I'm going to revisit this when I've got a little more time later!
 
I feel like the plumber sucking air through his teeth and going "the last guy did WHAT?"

Just pull in a 60Mb SQL query throw away everything except a single column, and then use that to populate a new SQL query to get another column that was in the first query already.

Sure, why not?
 
Mr Jack said:
I feel like the plumber sucking air through his teeth and going "the last guy did WHAT?"

Just pull in a 60Mb SQL query throw away everything except a single column, and then use that to populate a new SQL query to get another column that was in the first query already.

Sure, why not?
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I sounds like that's outsourced wonder..

It's kind of like my old place. However a little more basic - they didn't know if the system was up or down.. so they had a person sit and watch the front desk queues at Heathrow. Every 5 minutes they added to an excel that was uploaded.. when the queue got too long it triggered a "the system must be down". I kid you not - I had that mental blank of incomprehension.

I have a feeling that AI analysis and optimisation may actually be beneficial in rationalising some of mess.
 
Soo many CV Pushers who call themselves recruiters... lol Guy called me yesterday about a job ad, I was looking at already and he had a nerve to be pushy to commit myself to him. I'm like, mate what for? I literally have the job in-front of me. lol
 
IC3 said:
Soo many CV Pushers who call themselves recruiters... lol Guy called me yesterday about a job ad, I was looking at already and he had a nerve to be pushy to commit myself to him. I'm like, mate what for? I literally have the job in-front of me. lol
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Trying a cheeky Principal Engineer in the CIO Office.. I read that as "I got 99 problems and I need someone to throw at it, call me when it's done".. that sort the mess out would be fun and interesting. They do want Java.. so I suspect that some old school mess that needs migrating to cloud..
 
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NickK said:
I sounds like that's outsourced wonder..

It's kind of like my old place. However a little more basic - they didn't know if the system was up or down.. so they had a person sit and watch the front desk queues at Heathrow. Every 5 minutes they added to an excel that was uploaded.. when the queue got too long it triggered a "the system must be down". I kid you not - I had that mental blank of incomprehension.

I have a feeling that AI analysis and optimisation may actually be beneficial in rationalising some of mess.
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We've a senior manager and associates at the moment that seems unable or refuses to learn our ticketing system. They copy out tickets to an excel sheet and work from that. They email it to the whole team on a weekly basis. I've mirrored what they do in the excel sheet to our ticketing system to demonstrate they don't have to do that. But they insist can't be done and just use excel. Others mirror the ticketing system into power bi, or azure. I've given up explaining they are duplicating what's in the ticketing system. I've stopped caring, its like explaining norway to a dog.
 
Welp, one of my team has just had her last day in the business. Hired her last October and she has been excellent, first person I ever interviewed and hired as a manager. And my first time going through the full exit process with an employee.

I've really come to trust and rely on her so it's a big loss to my team. She's off to the BBC who've offered her a 5 year visa sponsorship, great career move for her at least :)

Currently shortlisting CVs for her replacement...
 
LuckyBenski said:
Welp, one of my team has just had her last day in the business. Hired her last October and she has been excellent, first person I ever interviewed and hired as a manager. And my first time going through the full exit process with an employee.

I've really come to trust and rely on her so it's a big loss to my team. She's off to the BBC who've offered her a 5 year visa sponsorship, great career move for her at least :)

Currently shortlisting CVs for her replacement...
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Yep had a number of people move forward, it’s sad but it’s nice to see the grow.
Also had to terminate a couple after trying to get them to what’s expected. Saddening in a different way.
 
Interesting times ahead, looks like redundancies are on the horizon. Nothing new there, I've been here longer than I've been a member of this forum and have been through this more than a few times but it feels different this time. Wording suggests my team is likely to be directly impacted and it feels like it might be my time.

Considering taking VR if offered (which is likely based on past experience), I've been unhappy at work for a long time and mostly stuck around because it was the easy option. Main problem is that I've never been career focussed and having been here so long I feel unprepared for the modern day job market. In theory I've still got another 20 years of my working life ahead of me and I find that utterly terrifying as I have no idea what I want to do next, searching job sites is difficult when you don't even know what words to put into the search bar. Payoff should be enough to keep me ticking over for a year or more if I'm frugal and the house is more or less paid for so I don't feel any immediate pressure to find something but I'm going to need to work it out at some point and obviously the sooner I find something else the more of the redundancy money can be spent on fun things.
 
kaiowas said:
Interesting times ahead, looks like redundancies are on the horizon. Nothing new there, I've been here longer than I've been a member of this forum and have been through this more than a few times but it feels different this time. Wording suggests my team is likely to be directly impacted and it feels like it might be my time.

Considering taking VR if offered (which is likely based on past experience), I've been unhappy at work for a long time and mostly stuck around because it was the easy option. Main problem is that I've never been career focussed and having been here so long I feel unprepared for the modern day job market. In theory I've still got another 20 years of my working life ahead of me and I find that utterly terrifying as I have no idea what I want to do next, searching job sites is difficult when you don't even know what words to put into the search bar. Payoff should be enough to keep me ticking over for a year or more if I'm frugal and the house is more or less paid for so I don't feel any immediate pressure to find something but I'm going to need to work it out at some point and obviously the sooner I find something else the more of the redundancy money can be spent on fun things.
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Current state of the job market is, well in intensive care - both from an economic drive, a broken hiring pipeline due to digital media use, and a phobia of age (Trump being in his 70s go figure).
 
kaiowas said:
In theory I've still got another 20 years of my working life ahead of me and I find that utterly terrifying as I have no idea what I want to do next, searching job sites is difficult when you don't even know what words to put into the search bar. Payoff should be enough to keep me ticking over for a year or more if I'm frugal and the house is more or less paid for so I don't feel any immediate pressure to find something but I'm going to need to work it out at some point and obviously the sooner I find something else the more of the redundancy money can be spent on fun things.
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Just on this:

1. Don't negate the social interactions of being at work, even if it's going through the redundancy processes.

2. I suspect there's a 1000:1 or even 5000:1 ratio in terms of role being offered to our age group in the current job market. To make it worse, companies really are simply just peeved at the noise they get.

3. From experience (sorry to say I've been in your position before) - you will find that you will need some money to keep you going, but cut everything from the start.. even if that means walking to the shop etc. However ensure you have a sport or team sport once a week to keep you going. Staring at four walls during all the applications etc, constant automatic rejection and little engagement is a harsh mistress. Keep engaged.

Do you have access to something like Penna Sunrise? I had that leaving one place and it provided some great focus - issue is that the market such that even the 'hints and tips' are difficult to apply with much response.

I'll ping you my details on DM, happy to help critique CVs etc.
 
Wondering if I chose the wrong offer now; the company I went for are being a bit difficult over the contract. Now on version 2 with a different start date (3 weeks earlier than the first version with no explanation as to why) and they aren't really responding to my query over the lack of a hybrid working clause and when the benefits become available (day 1 or after probation).

At it stands, what they've sent reads as though they expect me to be in the office every day but in every conversation it's always been 2 days minimum, sometimes more depending on workload which is what I'm happy with. I just want that formalised in the contract, particularly when the CFO went on about how the company is remote first and looking to sell the office. Should I be worried about this as a red flag? I emailed my queries on Wednesday, didn't get any answer so messaged the HR person who'd been contacting me throughout the process directly yesterday about them. I wonder if they're viewing me as being difficult over this but I don't think it's too much to ask for clarity on?

If they refuse I'll likely need to withdraw from the role and see if the other company will still have me instead.
 
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Well I interviewed for the job I’ve already been doing for weeks yesterday. Thought it went well, have only had compliments about the job I’ve been doing, but still haven’t heard back which can’t be good! I know they don’t like that I have other responsibilities, not that those have been mentioned at any point, so I’ll take great issue if that’s the reason they go against me. Of course it could just be because it was Friday, but equally this decision shouldn’t need to take them so long.
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
Wondering if I chose the wrong offer now; the company I went for are being a bit difficult over the contract. Now on version 2 with a different start date (3 weeks earlier than the first version with no explanation as to why) and they aren't really responding to my query over the lack of a hybrid working clause and when the benefits become available (day 1 or after probation).
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This would be a massive red flag for me if it's this early on and they're being like this. How easy do you think it'll be down the line?
 
randomshenans said:
I've been having fun playing with ideas!

Got back from Arctic Trek, which was absolutely epic. Tiring, but so amazing. But while being away, it just fueled me to come back and do a ton of stuff :D so that's what I'm doing...

Here's a quick breakdown of how I fill my time :cry:

It's Cheaper In -


It's Available In -


The Ultimate Directory -


Pharmalogiks -


PeakFolio -


Bespoke Sky -


LearnShift Solutions -

Cheezus -

Other -


Of course I'm still planning road trips and running my socials, which have rocketed up on insta to 17.5k and tiktok to 45k in the last month or so.

This is an update for me rather than anyone else.
My to do list of stuff and building really cool ****! :D I don't want a corporate job... so doing this sort of stuff would be my ideal.

Everyone still lovely?

In a bit x
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What a ride.

  • My instagram and facebook have been deleted recently, which I'm fighting to get back or I'll start again. A nice loss there but **** it, I can do it all over...
  • My RX7 was crashed and written off by the dock workers. That's that battle underway currently. Need to work with lawyers to get back everything I've lost there. Which is a lot. Trying to get the press involved. I'm making this a real ******* painful experience for them, because they ****** up the wrong persons car.
  • Launched itsavailable.in that is fun. Need to add some analytics in there. Aware I've done a launch and run on it, but it was a good learn for the bigger things.
  • Been interviewing some people for the redo of Cheezus. Created an upwork job and now shortlist. Man it's a long process to find someone not **** for not a lot of money lol
  • The Ultimate Directory bare bones are now in place. It's another react app, all the pages are there I want, UI is a bit mid, but that's OK as I want to now just get it functional and then test it out.
  • Sitting down to plan out PeakFolio soon, we've got an opportunity here we could capitalise on if we can bosh out something awesome soon.
  • Still not heard anything on Pharmalogiks, frustrating, but big companies are slow and ***Come on man, no!***, so you know. Normal.
Might still be on track for end of year goals, but hell, life likes to throw some curveballs in the way!
 
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randomshenans said:
Might still be on track for end of year goals, but hell, life likes to throw some curveballs in the way!
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Yep, only thing we can do is keep on pushing through. Not let those curveballs actually hit you in the balls because you be down and out for a very long time!

I had a few curveballs hit me in 2022 when I lost my job back then. Took me about 5 months for the aching pain to go away before I was up and walking again.....if you get what I mean :D
 
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malachi said:
I had a few curveballs hit in me 2022 when I lost my job back then. Took me about 5 months for the aching pain to go away before I was up and walking again.....if you get what I mean :D
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Yea, I get you. I'm just trying to see how to turn it all into a positive outcome in the end. It will be what it will be. Doesn't mean I won't fight it, just means I won't let it consume me and define me and my life.
Maybe the road trip I'll be going on is a different one. I have a really cool idea for a US trip, so this might be where it takes me instead first.

Up to us how we decide to let something affect us and for how long.

All adds to the spice of life :D keeps us learning
 
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