Comments on: It’s YOUR career. Lead it!

By: MyTestCareer++; « Testastic

MyTestCareer++; « Testastic — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:50:30 +0000

[...] the case, the result of deep thinking of themes that are problematic to me. As example, I wrote my last post when I was thinking through what I wanted to work on next in my career and where I wanted to [...]

By: Gennadiy

Gennadiy — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:57:29 +0000

Very nice blog Brent! Working with you over the years, I know that you put it in practice!

By: BrentMJensen

BrentMJensen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:31:43 +0000

Thanks, James!

By: BrentMJensen

BrentMJensen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:31:05 +0000

In my experience there are more good managers than bad, thankfully. But there are still a lot of bad managers. While bad managers can definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth, hopefully, I’ve delivered some successful strategies to help folks deal with it and control their own destiny. I’m very glad you found a job that values you highly!

By: BrentMJensen

BrentMJensen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:28:49 +0000

They could be learning something that is not relevant to their current job. Like learning Ruby on a team that uses C#. What I’ve seen lately though, is folks who already have the high skill, but have been reorged into lesser scoped positions. They aren’t utilizing the skills (strengths) that they value.

By: Bart

Bart — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:18:34 +0000

I wish more managers at Microsoft followed this… I was very unhappy in test, and only a little happier in lab operations. I got told by one of my last managers that I wasn’t meeting the expectations he had of me, so I asked him what those expectations were – his answer was a classic example of what’s wrong with Microsoft – “I don’t know yet, I’m still trying to figure that out”. I took it to my skip-level manager and got the same answer, so I went to the GM, who I found out wanted me to move to his pet project, one that I had zero interest in, and thought was doomed to fail. I have to wonder if the GM was stirring things up so that I couldn’t stay in my current role and wouldn’t be able to leave the team because of the lower review scores. I left the company instead, and have received a lot of recognition and rewards from my new employer in the 1.5 years I’ve been gone.

By: James.

James. — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:23:21 +0000

Testacular post, Brent! Passion, strengths, and challenges is a good way to summarize at a high-level the basis for the right team and position. Good way to think about it! I think your statement around your team valuing the strengths you bring to the table is KEY. You may find a product your are passionate about with some great challenges, but if you are held back in leveraging your strengths, particularly via a values mismatch, then you are in for a rough haul.

I also agree with you on visibility, but anyone that thinks that “you need to grow your visibility” is not a common message from managers at a larger company like Microsoft is naive, particularly at the more senior levels. Although I always like to think that results and growing the business in an effective way (the “how”) will promote visibility on its own, the honest truth is that it rarely happens that way.

By: Tom Faber

Tom Faber — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:43:56 +0000

Right on! Hope you don’t mind if I quote you in my exit interview. Two things in this intrigued me – 1) your triad of “product that drives passion”, “team that values application of their strengths”, and “job that challenges” reminded me of Daniel Pink’s Purpose / Autonomy / Growth as the three things that make people happy in their jobs. 2) the Theory of Flow chart doesn’t make sense to me – how can someone be learning if they’re not being challenged?