Remote Team Dynamics

In recent years companies have increased the speed at which they downsized offices and subsequently hired more staff "working remote." "Working remote" can include a variety of alternative working arrangements, but is most commonly characterized by staff that work primarily from their home, or the customer location. This has created many teams that the staff are distributed across the country and the world. These remote employees typically have the freedom to work the hours they are most productive, as well as at the location they are most comfortable at, this could include coworking spaces, coffee shops or parts.

One significant change as a team becomes more distributed and remote is that communication channels and patterns must evolve to ensure staff feel the same level of connection that they would if they worked in a traditional office setting. Communication models must adapt to ensure that staff not only feel connected to their team and manager, but that they have effective methods to reach out to their team for discussions, advise and coordination.

I have worked in a variety of roles where my manager and I were in different states, as well as managed teams spread out as far as Australia, while I was based in Texas. This presented a unique challenge in ensuring that all team members had the same information and capabilities to do their job, regardless of their specific locations or timezones. Below are a few of the most successful methods I have found for managing a team that is distributed:

Weekly Team Meetings

The primary method for team communication, pass down and discussion should be a weekly call. This provides a known, consistent forum for the team to discuss changes within the team, within the company and pass down information from management to the team. The focus of the call should be kept on items and topics that are relevant to the majority of the team, sideline discussions should be scheduled at a different time to discuss topics in detail that do not interest or affect the entire group. Regular team calls are a great opportunity to foster team trust. These calls provide a place for team members to share their knowledge and experience as well as allow for open communication on issues that need a second opinion or escalation.

The time of the day that these calls are held is critical to ensuring maximum participation and limiting the impact of the call on the regular work of the team. For teams that are spread across timezones it is beneficial to hold calls at alternating times, either presenting the information twice, or to ensure that if one timezone must be up for a very early call, they do no have to make that sacrifice every week, but other regions have calls at off times periodically as well. Another option is to record the calls so that folks can listen to them at a more convenient time.

An agenda for the call should always be sent ahead of time, this will allow people to prepare for the call. An agenda can also be used to set time limits for various topics to ensure that one topic does not unexpectedly consume the entire schedule time for the call.

Finally, meeting notes should be provided after each call. These reinforce any policies stated to the team and allow the staff a reference to refer too later should they forget what was said or decided on the call. These meeting notes can also serve as the official record for any decisions that require review and approval by the team or management.

Roundtable

Every call should contain a roundtable, this provides all team members a brief period to share lessons learned that impact the rest of the team, and allow folks to understand what their peers are working on and may be able to collaborate on.

Each person's time should be limited so that they may mention one highlight and one lowlight of the week. The purpose is to share lessons learns with the team so that best practices can be shared across the organization.

Alternative Team Communication

In addition to a regular team call, there are several other methods that can be used for communicating with the team and building strong bonds between members, regardless of location.

Team Discussion List - An email distribution list should be available for the members of the remote team to communicate on topics that would normally warrant a hallway conversation. This could be technical discussions, product discussions or questions posed to the team about a customer or product. This forum provides the team a known path for team communication and input.

Team Watercooler List - One item that gets missed a lot with remote teams is the loss of hallway discussions on personal issues or announcements. A separate distribution list should be available to the team for topic discussion that is not immediately applicable to the company, but allows employees on the team to get to know each other better and share good news from their personal lives. This allows a name and personality to be shared for each member of the team.

Remote teams are a new challenge that companies are beginning to experience as more and more staff work from home or other alternative working arrangements. By having regular communication with the team, it allows these staff that are separated to keep in close contact, develop a trust for one another and ensure all team members have quick paths for discussion with the team. Ensuing communication flows regularly ensures that these remote employees feel connected to the team and have the information they need to be successful in their roles at the company.

Defining Seniority in IT

Seniority within Information Technology (IT) departments has always been a hard thing to define. The technologies in use shift so rapidly and people move jobs quite often; that determining who is the most Senior person on a team is often not as simple as who has been there the longest or who has worked in the field the longest.

Seniority in the sense of this posting is having the position and experience that the fellow members of your team go to you when they have questions, need advice or otherwise need a second opinion on what they are working on. Seniority is also defining the person that your managers are most likely to go to when they need direction on a project, or need to delegate important work.

Traditionally, companies have often set seniority within a team based primary on time within a given job. This is a less adequate measure in IT because the technology changes so rapidly, a person must keep up with both the technology and what are often called soft skills. These soft skills enable an employee to be more flexible in what they work on, and more dynamic in who they interact with within a company, based on the project and needs of the day.

So, ultimately, what makes you as an employee more senior within your team and subsequently more valuable to the organization?

When positioning the more senior staff up with the lower experienced team members, it is a balance of multiple skills and experience types. One does not necessarily replace another, and a truly Senior member of any team must posses all the following skills at a minimum, with an emphasis on some more then others based on the job role:

• Contributions (Time, Company Goals, Knowledge) - Contributions are the most important part to establishing a position as a Senior member of an IT team. Contributions can be technical in nature, time or knowledge, but all show other members of the team both your dedication, capabilities, and commitment to the future success of the company.
• Experience (Current Technologies, Past Technologies) - Experience with a wide range of technologies and hardware will enable you to make informed decisions and suggestions on future direction and architectures. A wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience will ensure that no matter the problem, you will have experience in how to approach it, even if the specific technology is a new one.
• Understanding of the existing IT Infrastructure - A solid understanding of any existing IT infrastructure will enable you to fully understand legacy burdens when making future planning decisions. It also enables you to understand where the company has been and what has been tried so that if something worked or did not, that can properly be taken into account on future solutions.
• Understanding of the business problem to be solved by IT - Information Technology (IT) is not the primary, driving factor for the majority of businesses. The majority of the companies out there only use IT as a way to meet their primary market more effectively. The most senior staff in IT must understand not only the IT aspect, but the technology and business behind the companies primary market. This ensures that IT is properly aligned and working towards the larger company-wide goals.
• Ability to interact with varying levels of staff and management - Interacting with various levels of staff and management within a company is an important skill. It shows that you not only understand the challenges of each level, but you understand what types and details of communication need to be understood at each level. The proper level of detail and big-picture at each level of communication can ensure quick decision making and solid support from executive management when escalations are necessary.
• Understanding of the company direction - Having a full understanding of a companies long term goals and direction allow IT staff to ensure that suggestions, plans and comments will not become obsolete early in the project life cycle. By showing your managers that you understand the direction, allows you to put the companies best interests first and work towards hitting those goals.
• Time Management - Time management is your ability to prioritize projects based on deliverable dates and ensure that appropriate forward progress is made on all projects to meet the appropriate targets for delivery. Time management shows senior leaders at the company that you understand the complexities of juggling many projects and can compensate as unexpected items come your way.
• Project Management - Project Management is your ability to manage not only your tasks and deliverables, but the dependencies between them and the work of other staff. This type of leadership enables you to work with larger, more complex teams, as well as provide status updates to management on project progression.
• Knowledge Transfer (Mentoring) - This is your ability to assist other staff in developing, both company specific knowledge, as well as industry knowledge. The goal in this category should be to develop into a staff member that others are comfortable speaking with for advise and input, knowing that you can provide a unique, relevant insight for them.
  

Now - the big question - "What about my salary, how does that relate?" - Salary is a difficult subject for some folks. Some people prefer to discuss salary as a very private matter, others feel it is a public topic for discussion. Regardless of a person's choice, their salary is a reflection of the value a company sees in them. If a company is willing to provide a higher salary, they expect a higher level of return. The more traits you posses from the above list and the higher level of development of those traits will translate into your ability to provide more value to your employer.

I hope this has provided some insight into how staff are defined as Senior within IT. Ultimately, it should be your goal to develop the proper balance of the skills listed above, based on your job role. The more experience you can gain in each area and the more expertise, the wider a range of jobs you can hold and staff you can interact with. That flexibility will create value for the company you work for and put yourself at the top of your peers.

Interviewing in IT – Finding Solid Candidates

One challenge within all IT organizations is finding and interviewing candidates to ensure that those hired into an organization will not only bring necessary skills, but also allow the organization to grow and evolve. Interviewing methods vary from company to company based on a variety of factors including culture, past experiences and human resource department influences. I hope to explore some factors I believe lead to successfully interviewing of candidates.

In my mind, there are four primary purposes of interviews:

1. Determine if the candidate has the proper technical skills to be successful. This includes a combination of technical knowledge and past experiences.
2. Determine if the candidates' personality is compatible with both existing team members as well as the company culture.
3. Determine if the candidate has the necessary willingness to learn new skills and learn from their team to evolve and grow in the position.
4. (Sometimes) Determine if the candidate has specific domain knowledge or industry connections that can only be obtained by hiring from outside the organization.

Here are the key items I keep in mind when interviewing, as well as encourage others to think about when interviewing candidates for my team and other teams I work with.

How Long?
Don't focus on how long the individual will be at the company; assigning a time frame will defer focus from the more critical aspects of the candidates' place within the organization. Focus instead on what the individuals career goals are. Can those be met at this company? What types of technology do they want to work on and learn? If these are technologies your company uses and will be using, the chances of a long term candidate increase greatly.

Technology is not the only factor, focus on other aspects of the individuals career goals. Are they expecting promotions into management or technical lead positions? These types of advancement opportunities will determine how long the candidate will be at the company.

2-way Street
I have been to many interviews that the individual conducting the interview forgot that interviews are 2-way streets. While it is important for a company to determine if an individual will perform well within the company structure and culture, it is equally important that the individual get a realistic feel for the company and see the company in a good light. You don't want to risk loosing a strong candidate because the focus was too much on asking the individual questions, and not enough on allowing them to see the possibilities your company has to offer.

Brain teasers are fine, but.....
Many organizations today use brain-teaser type questions to understand how a candidate solves problems and their methods for thinking and responding to stressful situations. These tests have a valid place within interviews, but need to be used properly to ensure you are getting valid results from the tests. It is important to only ask brain teasers that the individual will have the domain knowledge to approach answering. I have been in many Network Architect interviews and asked questions about algorithms around managing large datasets. This was not a good use of time for me or the interviewer. It is important to ensure that even if the candidate can not answer the brain-teasers, they have enough base knowledge to share their through process for solving the puzzle.

Personality Tests
Personality Tests tend to fade in and out of popularity as an interviewing tool. Many companies argue that they provide a glimpse into the candidates tendencies and habits and can allow the human resources department to determine their compatibility with existing personality types at the company. The problem is that many of these tests are quite easy to “study” for and this can heavily skew the results. My feeling is that taking the candidate to lunch or coffee with a small group of team members will show much more then a standard test ever will. The key with an interview is to make sure both parties are comfortable enough that they communicate as they would in any standard work situation.

By conducting the interview in places other then your standard conference room, you have a better chance of understanding what the individuals work habits are and how they converse with others. It is easy to watch how a candidate talks with folks at the office; it is an entirely different view to see how they interact with the wait staff at a restaurant and a very useful data point on their personality.

Work Location
“Remote” working is all the rage these days, especially in IT. You know my thoughts on it from previous postings, I think that it has it's place, but not all positions can function effectively while being isolated at home. Deciding if a position is going to be “remote” should be done before interviewing potential candidates, this decision should be based on the type of work this position will be doing, as well as that of the team and how well that work can be done in a distributed fashion.

Not only does work location include being “remote” or not, it also includes possible relocation of the candidate. It is important to set expectations up front on the companies' policies for relocation. If there is no relocation budget and the candidate is three-states away, it is probably not worth pursuing.

Finally, it is important to understand an individuals' constraints around relocation, both time frames and potential locations. If a candidate does not like cold, yet your company is based in northern Alaska, there is probably little need to continue the interview process.

Technical Questions
I do not suggest jumping immediately into complex technical questions, no matter what job you are interviewing a candidate for. I suggest rather working up to the point they appear to be at from their resume. This means checking for the base knowledge and experience, this is a good method to see how the candidate responds. Do they seem passionate about the work? Do they speak more about knowledge or experiences? Do they speak about where they go to stay current on the industry?

One of my favorite interview tactics is to ask a technical question about a problem we recently encountered. This is a great opportunity to see not only the candidates thought process, but also what level of detail they go into for solving the problem and what tools they would use to approach the problem. Continuing to ask questions about the problem will also show a lot about how they respond under pressure and how they communicate to other team members in the face of a stressful situation.

Technical questions also provide a good basis for seeing what knowledge the candidate has about the industry as a whole. Do they understand the benefits of one vendor or another? Or do they focus on using what they know and are comfortable with?

Domain/Vertical Knowledge
Most information technology professionals are specialized, that is, they work in a specific industry; these can include Financial Services, Oil & Gas, High Performance Computing, etc. Each of these domains has specific tools and applications, as well as industry accepted methods of accomplishing tasks.

When interviewing it is important to decide up front if you are looking for a candidate that is experienced in your specific domain, or if you are looking for a strong IT candidate that could bring an outside perspective to your organization. This will drive what questions you ask, as well as where you go to look for potential candidates to fill the position.


Interviewing is an art, it takes time to develop a process that works for you and your organization. Starting with hard technical questions will not help you determine if a candidate is qualified, there is much more to how a candidate will succeed or fail in your organization. You must treat all interviews as 2-way streets; this allows both parties to get an accurate picture all all aspects of the position including location, expectations, team dynamics and technical knowledge as well as desire to learn and evolve.

In my mind, technical skills are secondary for today's information technology positions. More important then all the technical knowledge in the world is how well the candidate communicates with team members, responds under pressure, understands trade offs and benefits analysis and ultimately the candidates desire to learn and grow and IT evolves. No matter how technical someone is, if they can not get along with them team they will be a detriment to the organization.

Talent Management in Information Technology

The Information Technology (IT) sector is evolving very rapidly, over time it has developed a reputation as a high stress career field, with low personal rewards, little chance of advancement and ultimately an area of low morale. While this is not the case within all IT departments, it has become a common perception of the industry as a whole. This perception has been driven by a variety of factors including fewer staff available to complete tasks and the use of outsourcing for lower cost resources. We as an industry need to take more ownership of our staff and skills and work to develop them internally in a way that provides companies maximum value from their IT organization, while ensuring staff are successful, stable and ultimately happy with their work environments.

First, we should define the “standard” IT employee, and I am not talking about the system administrator that works all hours of the night while drinking Red Bull. I am talking about those traits that make IT staff want to work in the technology field. While this description will not cover all IT employees, there are certain traits that stand out more in the IT space then other professions:

• Curious by nature

• Detail focused

• Quest for understanding

• Prefer the technology to the business

• Like to build things

• Opinionated

• Seeking Recognition

We now have a better understanding of what IT staff do and expect by nature. Lets explore the primary drivers that go into their ability to focus on their job and deliver successfully to the companies bottom line. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but in my experience these are the top items within an IT department that contribute to employees truly enjoying their job; employees just staying for the paycheck versus employees that are looking to move on to other opportunities.

Pay – There is a common misconception in IT that folks will work at a given company because it is interesting and exciting work, but this is only true to a point. We all have bills to pay for rent, utilities, food, entertainment, and student loans. An employee paid market average for a given area will often stay at a company if the work is exciting. But no level of excitement and interest is enough to make up for below average pay when an individual is struggling to pay their bills. Companies should strive to ensure their salaries are consistent with the local market for the level of skills an employee is utilizing at work each day.

There are also other costs that go directly with pay. It is very expensive to loose an employee, they take lots of company experience and knowledge with them. Transferring that knowledge to a new employee is costly in the time they are learning the business, they are contributing less to the bottom line. Companies should always evaluate the cost of raises for staff to ensure they stay at the area average to the cost of loosing one employee and having to hire another.

Opportunities – Staff within IT organizations are curious by nature, with that trait they constantly want to expand their knowledge and experience. Some of the most successful staff I have worked with in IT move on a regular basis, not always up in the corporate ladder, but most often laterally to other jobs that are of interest to them. This provides them a benefit of increasing their skill sets, and provides a benefit to the company because corporate knowledge is not lost when an individual moves within the company. IT staff should be provided opportunities to move both within the IT department and within the company. This movement and change of jobs is often what IT staff need to ensure they do not get burned out while allowing them to stay engaged with their jobs.

Interesting Work – Very few people are content doing the same activity every day. Because of the general trait for IT staff being on a constant quest for understanding, most IT staff are always looking for new and exciting projects. It allows them to be creative and develop new solutions to the problem. Sadly, there is always going to be some tasks that are more interesting then others within IT departments. Effort should be used to ensure that any less then desirable tasks be evenly spread across available team members, and that team members understand that while they may have been assigned a less then desirable project, so were their teammates.

Staff should be encouraged to not only take on projects assigned to them, but to come forward with ideas they have for improvement within the organization. This encourages all team members to have a stake in the organization and feel ownership of not only their projects, but other tasks that they may see a need for completing.

Flexibility – Employees appreciate when their management allows them the flexibility to work when they are most productive. I am not necessarily talking about allowing staff to work in their pajamas from home, but more referring to ensuring employees do not feel tied down with a specific schedule that causes them less productivity.

Working from home has become very common in many organizations, especially IT. I believe that a lot of organizations have taken it a step too far and staff are beginning to feel the isolation of working by themselves each and every day. I believe that staff should be provided the tools and flexibility that if they choose to work remote for an afternoon, that should be allowed. I believe that the majority of a 40-hour work week should be spent in the office, it encourages staff to communicate with their coworkers, take a vested ownership in the daily operations of the business and ensures the company develops a culture of it's own.

No two people are alike when it comes to sleeping schedules. This has a very negative effect when employees are asked to begin their day at a time that is not natural for them. I believe that staff should be given the flexibility to arrive and begin their day when they will be most productive. This does not mean everyone should sleep in until noon and begin work at 1PM. It does mean that should a staff member prefer to work later in the evening because that is when they are most productive, the company should encourage this behavior.

Ultimately an organization is only as strong as the communication between it's team members. Above I mentioned that working from home all the time is a suboptimal choice; the primary reason for that belief is that communication can be challenging when everyone is so spread out. The ability to quickly gather team members in the office and discuss a topic can ensure minimal time is wasted when a decision must be made. I believe that office hours, also called core hours, is an optimal method to ensure staff have the flexibility to work remotely, while encouraging team communication. By having all staff in the office for certain set periods, often 10-12AM and 2-4PM, it ensures that if a staff member is needed for a discussion, they can be found. This use of core hours, I believe, provides a good balance of allowing flexibility for staff and ensuring a solid team dynamic takes hold for the team.

Work Space – One common perception within IT over the years has been that putting staff in shared space will allow better collaboration. The challenge is that very little IT work is collaborative in nature, the bulk of the work that must be accomplished is individuals working on their pieces of a project, and this type of activity requires that staff be able to focus. Shared spaces have a lot of benefits in terms of quick access to others, but at the cost of decreased focus due to noise and other distractions. I believe that companies need two primary types of space available for their IT staff, private offices to allow for focus and concentration, and shared collaboration areas to allow for quick meetings and discussions.

Private office space allows staff to have an area that is their own to focus on their work and not be distracted by outside noise, phone calls, hall way discussions or projects. Each staff member should have an office that allows them to close the door and focus free of distractions.

Common areas should be available to encourage team discussions and impromptu meetings. Very rarely can a decision be made faster then by pulling the team together for a quick discussion in the hallway. These common areas within an office space should have enough white board space that notes can be kept on any design ideas or other notes from the discussion. These common areas will also encourage inclusion of all project members, and not just a subset that may discuss the matter in a private office or on a conference call.

Loyalty – Companies often expect a certain level of loyalty from all staff, but do not necessarily show that level of loyalty back to their staff. Having the CEO walk around at the company holiday party and shake hands only goes so far to telling employees that they are valued. I encourage all managers within IT to regularly call out their accomplishments of their staff to the rest of the organization. IT staff strive for recognition, it is what encourages them to do their best every day. When managers publicly acknowledge a job well done it tells the employee and all their coworkers that the effort and work are appreciated.

Now that we have those out of the way, lets explore the deep dark truth of IT. Even if a company does each of those perfectly, some staff are going to leave. This is just the nature of the business. No matter how hard a company and it's managers try, there will always be staff that are looking for something that the company can not provide. When this case occurs, and it will, it is important that the employee and company both act as professional as possible. There is an old saying in HR, “don't burn your bridges.” That applies to both the company and the individual. IT is such a rapidly evolving industry that even if the match between a company and employee is not correct now, it is very possible that a match will be made down the road after either the company or the individual evolve. “Don't burn your bridges” applies to both the employee and the employer, even if a staff member leaves, they still have institutional knowledge that could be of value down the road.

Someone I have worked with many times over the years has a very clear way to sum up the relationship between employee and employer, “Pay me well, Treat me well, Wish me well.” Meaning that if you pay your employees fairly and treat them wonderfully they will do quality work, if you pay them exceptionally well and have higher stress levels they will do quality work, but should an employee not be treated fairly and is not being paid well enough to compensate, the company should “Wish them well” in new opportunities.

Managing in IT

A very good posting on managing technical/IT folks and the quirks that go along with the common personalities you will find in IT.

• http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-Geeks

Networking in IT

There is no doubt, we are seeing a challenging time in the economy, and it is trickling down to the Information Technology (IT) sector. One of the most important parts of weathering a storm like this in the IT industry is focusing on ensuring your network of coworkers, alumni and friends is strong. By developing a strong network, you have a team to folks you can turn to for advise, recommendations, job postings and the inside track on potential job leads.

The other benefit to networking, beyond looking for a new position, is to develop professionally in your current position. By interacting with others in your field and similar fields you can build your personal toolbox by learning from other peoples' experiences and skills. By regularly working with others you can see what methodologies they use to be successful and what tools they have developed and found to ensure they are efficient in their roles.

Here are some common methods myself and others have used to build a community within the IT space:

Users Groups – Most cities today have multiple users groups including Linux, Oracle, MySQL, Dell and DB2 just to name a few. These organizations are always looking for speakers and folks to hold lab sessions. Volunteer to present, volunteer to organize meetings and volunteer to recruit other speakers. It is a wonderful way to meet folks in similar roles as well as share your knowledge and experience with others.

Brown Bag Events – Host a brown bag at your office, invite your coworkers and do a short talk about a topic that interests you or you think would be of relevance in your environment. This gives you publicity within the company, and allows members of other teams to see the skill and experience they have available when new projects come up.

Operate your companies test bed – Often times companies will have a test and quality assurance environment to use for testing new software deployments, to complete software builds and to test new vendor hardware. Often times this environment does not fall on corporate IT, or the quality departments to manage, but is somewhere in the middle. Volunteer to manage this environment and take real ownership of it. This will give you a great forum to meet people in other departments, as well as share your ideas in a way that will allow them to be utilized in production for the company.

Blogging – Blogging is a simple, effective method to put your ideas out in the public for comments, development and to show your level of expertise in a field. Blogging allows you to share ideas and findings as you write them. Blogging provides communication in a forum that while not peer-reviewed, others can comment on your postings and post additional follow up information.

Conferences – Presenting at conferences is a wonderful way to show both your level of experience, as well as new ideas and methodologies you can bring to your field. Conferences provide a peer-reviewed environment that you can submit papers and do talks. These type of environments show not only your level of expertise, but that others in your field value your contributions and capabilities.

Getting Ahead in IT

I speak with folks in Information Technology (IT) regularly that tell me how hard it is to get ahead in IT and that there are too few opportunities for promotion in IT. I hear this from folks at all levels including architect, developer, administrator and team management. While getting ahead in IT can be difficult, it is not impossible. IT is often the last organization within a company that Human Resources (HR) considers when developing career paths, career training and mentoring plans. There are a variety of things that people in IT can do to ensure they get noticed by management and advance as a result.

Have a career path
First and foremost in IT it is important to have a career path, know what you want to get out of your career in the immediate future, in 5 years, and beyond. This will allow you to strategically pick projects that increase your ability to meet these goals. This plan will also allow you to speak with your manager, HR and other company leaders about training, mentoring, and other activities to increase your skill set.

A career path is not necessarily a goal to be promoted or to obtain a title that you would like. While it can be those things, it is more often targets for growth in technical capability, a goal to become management, or a goal to develop skills in one role that will enable you to deliver more efficiently in another role. Each of these goals requires a different focus on skills development, but all require the same open communication with your current management about your goals.

Focus on Business Needs
Second, being in IT does not preclude you from participating in the business. IT is an integral part of any business, and the IT folks that excel are the ones that understand how IT can help the business grow and be more efficient. Working to establish an understanding of the companies core principals will allow you to suggest improvements in IT, as well as establish a value within the company.

Very seldom do IT folks participate in business focused meetings. This is a shame. This is a very good opportunity for IT folks to not only learn about a companies' operations, but it is also a good chance to suggest new and better methods that IT can provide for the core business of a company. The IT staff that take the initiative and participate in the business discussions will be the ones most noticed as new opportunities within the company open up.

Bring Forward Ideas
Being noticed is important in all careers, especially in IT where management often forgets how critical IT is to the success of a company. The easiest way to be noticed is to speak up, if you have an idea for improvements, be it a new tool, an improved process or a new piece of hardware, suggest it to management. If your immediate manger does not see the value, mention it next time you are talking to other managers. Management at all companies appreciate individuals that are proactive enough to suggest ways for improvement before being asked.

Set Boundaries
At high stress times when projects are due and deadlines are tight it may not seem like it, but managers will notice and respect you for holding to your principals. Setting boundaries is important in all jobs, especially in IT where often long hours are the norm and expected. Work with your management to let them know about outside obligations, either organizations or family. This will ensure your management is aware of other things you are involved in. Most importantly hold to those boundaries. It is normal to have a long evening when a project is due, or the systems are down. The important thing is to stick to your boundaries and do not allow one late evening to morph into constantly working excessively long days.

Setting boundaries will also help keep stress within a reasonable level. If you can keep your stress lower, you will not only be a more efficient employee, but you will be able to more effectively assist others and complete your own projects.

Foster an environment of personal development
Often times folks say that a work environment is created by management, this is only partially true. A dedicated staff member can also create an environment where others share, feel comfortable asking questions and learn. By letting others know you are available for questions or conversation, you are letting others know that you are willing to help others develop their skills and experience. This attitude can be used to influence management at all levels to formalize personal development plans.

Staying positive is an important component of developing an environment people want to work in. No one wants to be known as the angry employee. It can be tough to keep your cool at all times, but being the level headed employee goes a long way to making yourself approachable and creating a comfortable working environment.

Be a Team Player
Everyone is told from childhood to be a team player, but what does that mean in todays business environment? Being a team player is a combination of sharing the work load, accepting projects that benefit the team as a whole and ensuring information is shared for the benefit of the team.

Most importantly, especially for folks that manage teams and projects, do not pass along a task because you do not want to do it. The quickest way to get noticed is step up and complete the work that needs to be done, but would otherwise fall by the way side because folks do not find it interesting. You certainly do not want to make a career out of working on uninteresting projects, but picking up one now and again will not be a career killer and will get you some recognition.

The most efficient way to show you are a team player is to not work in a vacuum. As you and your team work on projects, solicit the input from other teams. Use there input to carefully evaluate your teams' assumptions and project goals, and make adjustments as necessary. This shows that you value their input and experience, and will ultimately enable you to create a better product for the company.

Document, document, document. In todays world where people regularly move roles and companies, it is critical to ensure that all tasks, no matter how trivial, are documented so that others can complete them. If your company has a wiki, use it. If your company does not have a wiki, put one online for others to use. The fastest way to develop mindshare within a company is to be the person who has contributed the most to internal repositories. By ensuring your tasks are carefully documented, you are telling company management you are not trying to force them into keeping you, you are telling them you care about the companies long term success and letting them know you can be moved to other roles and new staff can take over your tasks.

Moving On
Ultimately, some combinations of employees and companies will not mesh well. In times like that it is appropriate to look at opportunities elsewhere. There are a lot of companies in IT today, and often times a different one will provide you the opportunities you are looking for. But make sure that any time you are looking to move companies you closely assess why your current company is not providing what you need to meet your goals, and work to find a place that will assist in meeting those goals.

When looking for a new role or starting a new role, remember that these things take time. It can often take months or years to feel at home at a new company and really feel like you are a highly contributing member of the team. When looking for a new role, discuss with your potential manager how long staff have been at the company, what types of development opportunities they offer and how the team dynamics work. This will ensure that any job change is meaningful and a path to newer and better things.


IT is not the dead end that it is often made out to be. It is also not a simple process to make yourself known in a large pool of people and advance in IT. To succeed in IT you must have a clear set of goals for your career, and use those to develop a clear list of activities to meet those goals. Moving up is not an immediate process, but by committing the time to development and communication, you can let management know you are willing and capable to take on new challenges and meet your career goals in the process.

Staffing Complications

One on-going problem within IT that I see is the inability for management and HR to work effectively as a team and develop a competent strategy for hiring, maintaining appropriate staffing levels, training and retaining employees. This comes from a belief that folks in IT do not need training, that a company can hire staff that are ready at the starting gate. This is insane considering how this is not expected in any other field. Take an accounting firm; they factor in training costs for all CPAs they hire, regardless of skill and experience level, this is because they understand the costs of having and retaining educated, competent employees.

This posting by James McGovern hits the nail on the head.