WTF So I just dick'd my butt

Valve1138 said:
Depends on what you quoted.
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I had just watched the Pickle Rick episode as I was ironing clothes for the interview and the therapist scene was fresh in my mind.

Up till a certain point in the interview I was kinda nervous and stiff, Director of Engineering asked me something about "a lot of a junior engineer's job consists of drudge work, stuff you won't really enjoy doing. How do you approach that sort of thing?"

I kinda laughed to myself thinking about that scene and started talking about how if someone makes $100k/year and goes base jumping every weekend, but they can't be bothered to brush their teeth they aren't really a complete person. They laughed at that, and I completed the analogy by talking about how drudge work is part of life and so long as you don't only have drudge work you just have to push through it. From then on I just sorta relaxed and it went a lot easier
 
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Dory said:
So I'm toying with the idea of Project Management as a thing. Anyone have any insight? Joe's asking PM's at work about it and I'll looking at some courses which will give me the quals necessary.
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Project Management in what? Just looking to do PM work won't get you anywhere (or typically wont) if you don't have experience in whatever field you are managing a project in.

For instance, I'm well qualified to manage IT projects in clinical environments. I'm not well qualified to manage derivative projects in a financial environment.
 
Duke said:
Project Management in what? Just looking to do PM work won't get you anywhere (or typically wont) if you don't have experience in whatever field you are managing a project in.

For instance, I'm well qualified to manage IT projects in clinical environments. I'm not well qualified to manage derivative projects in a financial environment.
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Supposedly the courses/quals give you insight into cetrain specialties so you can work in a variety of settings rather than just ones you know inside out. None of the PM's at Joe's work have a video games or tech background apparently. There's plenty of scope for project managing within social care/government fields which I have insight into though.
 
Dory said:
Supposedly the courses/quals give you insight into cetrain specialties so you can work in a variety of settings rather than just ones you know inside out.
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As someone who has had experience with a lot of project managers who felt this way, I can tell you that it's a very rare PM indeed that this actually works for. If you don't understand 90% of what your direct reports are telling you, there is gonna be nothing but bad times ahead.

How does someone without any software development experience set a timeline in a development environment? How would they know how long it takes to code an interface module? That timeline will be all based on theoretical, not practical. It's how bad project managers are made.
 
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Dory said:
So I'm toying with the idea of Project Management as a thing. Anyone have any insight? Joe's asking PM's at work about it and I'll looking at some courses which will give me the quals necessary.
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Would you like to be a nagging mother in an environment where everyone is annoyed/hates you? PMs are basically babysitters that no one likes.
 
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Duke said:
How does someone without any software development experience set a timeline in a development environment? How would they know how long it takes to code an interface module? That timeline will be all based on theoretical, not practical. It's how bad project managers are made.
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I imagine they would ask how long it takes then hold people to that within the plan. Seems pretty common sense.
 
Dory said:
Why can't it? People in vidja games say 'how long does it take to do this?' then the designers or programmers or artists tell them, then they put it on their project plan and check daily whether it's going to plan or not. :iono:
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If it's a good group of people you're managing, and a boss with realistic expectations you'll be fine.

Disturb either of those and all hell can break loose with you in the middle.
 
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Dory said:
Why can't it? People in vidja games say 'how long does it take to do this?' then the designers or programmers or artists tell them, then they put it on their project plan and check daily whether it's going to plan or not. :iono:
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sometimes the answer to that question is "between one month and one year" because of the unknown elements

that being said, being a good project manager means working within those contexts and learning how to guide the team toward narrowing the variables. not all leadership skills are universal but a lot of them are and sometimes having a manager who only knows enough technical details to be the interface between the team and the brass can be a good thing

one of our company commanders was an artillery officer. dude didn't know the first thing about computers, had to ask for help with the simplest tasks but he was still one of the most effective leaders I've ever had.
 
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Dory said:
So I'm toying with the idea of Project Management as a thing. Anyone have any insight?
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You should change this to say 'anyone have an opinion I can argue against' because when you discredit every 'insight' given to you, then it's apparent you really weren't looking for 'insight'.
 
Duke said:
You should change this to say 'anyone have an opinion I can argue against' because when you discredit every 'insight' given to you, then it's apparent you really weren't looking for 'insight'.
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When your input amounts to 'they all suck and know nothing' it's not that helpful or insightful. No offense. I did actually state the areas I have expertise in, as well as stating that other people I've spoken to don't necessarily have expertise in fields and it works fine. Perhaps project managing in your particular work environment is far more complicated than some other services/industries.
 
Mustard Dispenser said:
Nothing ever "goes to plan"
Ever
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Werd. Having a good plan and having accountability helps somewhat. I have informally project managed things in my past role. Opened up a school, opened up a children's home, managed working towards opening a fostering service etc. Admittedly not exactly managing multi-million dollar things but it was good experience and mostly it went to plan. The main variables were when we relied on external contractors for things like ground/building works, that always takes 3 times as long and costs more than anyone ever thinks.
 
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