IT Job Survival Tip #1

Here's a silly question: How do you get run over by a steam roller?

Maybe you've caught that outtake from "Austin Powers" where the evil henchman guard stood in place and let a steam roller run over him. Here it is again if you didn't:


You might crack up at the sillyness of it - where else but a spoof comedy would anyone be dumb enough to stand there and let something moving 3 mph run you over? The weird thing is, sometimes we can catch ourselves pulling this exact same mistake. Not a real steam roller, sure - but have you ever found yourself on the wrong side of a layoff, wrong side of a year-end review and wondered 'how did we get here?' Sometimes this is a genuine slap-upside-the-head type of deal, but other times, we could see this coming.

That whole scene is a great metaphor for working corporate IT. Large corporations don't corner on a dime - they often remind me of a large ship that needs several square miles to execute a right turn or a full stop. It takes a while to get them going and it takes a while to stop them - that's the nature of business momentum. Knowing how this operates is important because you need to know when it's time to help the big ship start, help it stop or help it corner. All of this takes talent and experience.

The signs for what is needed and when are pretty clear if you know what you're looking for. For one, your boss should be providing feedback as to how well you're fitting into the organization. S/he should be doing this on a regular basis, even if all you get is what they're saying in an email from 12,000 miles away. How to get valuable feedback from a superior is also a skill worth having and we'll discuss that in more detail later. You can also listen to how your co-workers are treating you - if you're all doing the same dance, it'll be obvious, just as it would be obvious if they were all doing the Robot while you were doing the Safety Dance.

What you want to learn to do is listen to what people are saying AND figure out what you should be doing if the feedback suggests a course change is necessary. To go back to our steam roller, all the guard had to do is walk out of the way. He didn't want to try and stop the steam roller and he also didn't want to wait until his feet were going under the steel to start executing his escape. In the same way, you don't want to wait until your boss is suggesting a 5-minute meeting on Friday afternoon to ask 'how can I do my job better?'

So here's the survival tip I promised: Get in the habit of soliciting feedback from your boss, his boss and your co-workers. Listen to what they tell you and if they give you advice, follow it.

Having a regular dialog with these folks will prove invaluable because it'll keep the bad surprises to a minimum. Believe it or not, no boss wants to write a bad review. He'd much rather 'have a word with you' than put something to paper. If you make that easy for him AND follow his/her suggestions - that'll go a long way with them. Even if you're not actively seeking their feedback - LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'RE SAYING. Sometimes you'll hear the distant hoot of a steam roller heading in your general direction.

Losing your job is rarely a surprise in this day and age. Often, there were a lot of signals you were ignoring or didn't care about. These were your clues that you needed to change something. In IT, as with steam rollers, if you're dumb enough to stand there when danger is approaching, you deserve whatever happens to you.