A Project and a Professional Renaissance II

Over the lifetime of any project, there are many different issues that must be resolved in order to successfully complete the project. A few include Staffing, Technology and of course may favorite scope creep. I think now would be a good time to talk a little about some of the staffing issues that I faced during the project.


One of these issues started when we unfortunately, we soon found that we were a little understaffed for a project of this size, so we began by hiring four new developers nearly doubling the size of the programming team. Eventually we parted ways with all of them as 3 of the four had grossly overstated their skills and we had not done much in the way of testing them since these were to be junior positions anyway.


The Three Amigos
The first three, (all held degrees from the college of business MIS specifically) spent weeks developing “hello world” and getting daily instruction from me. We started with the definitions of words like object, class, method and such and then moved on to challenging things like creating our own add and subtract methods within a test class. We worked mostly with console apps, unfortunately, the only things they learned were the things I pounded into them, no one asked any questions, and by no means did anyone do any learning on their own time. This is despite my repeated attempts to mentor them, countless discussions about how exciting programming is, and offering the rest of the team to them so that they could commiserate and hopefully pick up a thing or two.


Eventually the last of the three amigos left standing told me he was fearful that he would lose his job. I saw this as another opportunity to mentor him, so I approached it like a big brother. I asked him why he felt this way. His response was something like “because I am not very good at what I do.” Now it should be noted that he was correct on that point, but I had always thought that I could will the skills on to them, that if I tried hard enough it would click. It came to me easily, I figured at some point it would come to him as well. So my advice to him was that if he felt he and his family were unsecure he needed to take action ASAP. I told him that if he really wanted to be a professional programmer, then he needed worked hard and improved his skills. That he should pick one of the countless technologies that interested him and work to become an expert at it. I noted that he was very lucky because there is an unending supply of information and free training available for the taking (magazines,books, white papers, free lectures, code camps, and online videos to name just a few). I suggested that if he put in the work, then he would probably be able to sleep at night, doing so would undoubtedly improve his standing within the department and if he did lose his job with us, he would have the skills to get and keep the next position. This is advice that I live by; I make it my passion to learn as much as I possibly can thus ensuring my financial security. That next position may not be a dream job but I know there is something out there if need be, and thus I sleep at night. These are views I share with everyone that will listen, success doesn’t just come, you have to earn it.


Sadly, three weeks later when I followed up on the conversation, I asked what choices he had made, what type of studying he had done. The third amigo’s response was none, that books were too expensive and he didn’t want to borrow from anyone else. The next day, I wished him luck and fired him. He had been with us six months and I am not sure he retained any knowledge from the entire time technical or professional.


The Student
The fourth and final new hire was a computer science student. I was very skeptical of what technical skills a student could possibly have at first. As it turns out, I should have been more concerned about his professionalism. This was the last of the four to be hired and really the only one that contributed in any significant way to the project.


When I met him in my office on his first day of work, it quickly became apparent that he had the goods from a coding prospective. I would characterize him as a technology puritan; he was very letter of the law when it came to techniques and concepts. Though I did feel that we as a group needed a little more of that, it did make it difficult at times to get him to do what was needed. Much of our work centers on compromise. I wish I had the luxury of being as unbending as he, but I just would not be able to exist here or probably anywhere else. I think he was only able to operate this way because he is a student and had no real experience working in a production shop. The other item that did cause some friction between us was his lack of professionalism. He often came in hours late without a call or even notifying me when he arrived, left early, sometimes he never did show. True he was a student but I was wooed by his sheer skill and needed the extra set of hands so I often overlooked that fact to my own determent.
Eventually, “the student” found another job. Unfortunatly, he resigned via email.


What did I learn from all of this? I think it helped me grow as a leader, even though these guys floundered, I can only think it is because they really didn’t try; if they had they should have realized some measure of success regardless of my leadership skills. By interviewing, coaching, and eventually firing three out of four of them, I gained critical experiences that may have taken years to acquire otherwise.