Category: Advice

So I was a Intern in 1999

1999

Sometime in the spring of 1999 i spent a week emailing every company on www.careerlink.org looking for a internship. Of all the companies I emailed only 1 of those companies responded. Farm Credit Services of America. This lead to a phone interview and a in person interview at the Farm Credit Building on 19th and Douglas

 

. My interview consisted of asking me what I want to do. Which is programming and going down to the cafeteria to buy a pop. After being told I was hired on that day. I was told I would receive a letter in the mail in a few weeks to accept the offer officially.

 

When I received the letter and saw my hourly rate. I thought $13.00 an hour was a big deal. The previous summer I think I made $6.25 an hour.

My internship was from May to August.

Highlights on which I can remember.

The company took all interns to Des Monies to see a Iowa Cubs baseball game, farm visit and to just hangout for a few days.

 

My project was taking employee images off a 3.5 floppy disk. There were about 300 disks which 6 to 9 images on them. It took about 3 weeks to manually do this.  Saving them by networkid to a shared location. Then writing a program that would auto size them in VB6. The image was for the Company Directory so you can see who a person was.

This was for Access America which looked at the time.

 

So before the internship ended. I talked to the leader about being a full time employee when I graduate. He said reach out next year.

April 2000

So a few weeks before my graduation in April I get a call from Farm Credit Services of America having a developer position open. I never did apply for that position and didn’t get a interview. I was called two weeks before I was to graduate and told they hired another person, but because they like what I did during my Internship they created another position for me.

I started May 15, 2000. That day I started my professional career and had my first team outing that Friday.

 

Last thoughts

Come to think of it, I never actually applied for a position here. I just kept showing up everyday and getting paid.  So I am probably just on my 20+ year of being a intern. Come Monday I wonder if I will still be technically employed?

Let me know your thoughts.

Remember the reason of being a intern is to make where you are at, World Class.

 

Exploring Leadership Interviews

For the past year I have been reaching out to individuals in technology leadership positions. For someone like myself to get a leadership position. I need to interview individuals that have a role which I might inspire to have one day.

Interview 1

For a  Technology Leader’s what challenges do you see in the work environment?

  • Change Management
  • Alignment projects
  • Specialization of matrix
    • QA
    • Solution reliability
    • Data integrations
  • Forming, storming, performing, norming
  • Change out of control. Change we can control. Time to do things in particular way.
  • Bring alignment to answer questions
  • Timing.

Evolution of change and new roles.

  • New working agreements
  • Bring clarity to teammates
  • Allocation and establishment.

What does success look like for the roles of Software Leader?

  • Working through challenges
  • Bring along teammates
  • Create the culture we want in solution delivery
    • Give people a pathway and lead them that way.
  • Eliminate Silos because of specialization
    • Always be a project that needs other resources.
    • Customer, team mates or solution need.

How is this different from previous role?

  • Approach project with multiple projects.
  • Diverse projects.
    • Ask on project management
  • Technical leadership role
    • Make a technical call when needed.
    • Know business value of the team.
    • Understanding all the technical capabilities.
    • Know standards

What does alignment look like with Solution Enablement and Solutions Reliability & Quality.

  • Mixed bag
  • Technology consistent approach of projects.
    • How can we get things done for all
    • Trust to work in a project
  • Guidance
  • Consistent
  • Measure reliability
  • Create framework and alignment.

What challenges or opportunities do you see with alignment with Architecture and Solution roles.  

  • Challenges of consistent
  • sustainability across of solutions
  • responsibilities of these roles
  • day of in a life
  • more focus on direction of reliability
  • direction of solution
    • what does someone need to solve for?
  • Project alignments with teams.
  • Collocated with a team.

Interview 2

What do you value in leadership?

  • Authentication
  • Leads by example
  • Leads by how I feel
  • Call it what is but have optimistic feeling.
  • People First
  • Adaptability
  • Relationship Building
  • Calculated risks
  • Following rules vs intent of rules

What qualities do you look for in alignment with other leaders?

  • Align to
  • Who are you open too
  • Getting things done
  • Great good of getting something done
  • Agreeing what is most important.
  • Transparent and open about a reason. The ask.

Based on leadership roles you have had, say 30 days to a year later, what would you have changed in terms of expectation vs reality?

  • People on own island
  • Create opportunity
  • Schedule ideas to connect
  • Lonely spot until other peers.

What is Solution Reliability?

  • Monitoring challenges
  • Strong focus for reliability
  • Go out of our way
  • Who do I talk to, who owns this

 Interview 3

What do you value in leadership?

  • Values (honesty & integrity)
  • Judgment
    • Trust their judgment when you are no there
  • Watch people to coach teammates
  • Strong culture in team
    • Diversity
  • I don’t want coaching to be dramatic
    • Realtime feedback
    • Watch intently
    • Conversations are effective
    • Seeing and doing something

For Technology Leader’s what challenges do you see in our new environment?

  • New job, leader, lead dev,
  • Most of everyone has new team
  • time
  • prioritized of enablement
  • ppm tool
  • work coming at all angles
  • work at organization
  • work with constituently.

What does success look like for the roles of Solutions Enablement and Solutions Reliability & Quality.

  • Learning
  • Create people, great project and great technical
    • Can a person hire
  • Business features
  • Education and advocacy

My follow-up to all these is what challenges or opportunities do you see with alignment with Architecture and Solution roles.  

  • Real clear what the role
  • Enablement alignment

Misc

Hunger to learn, gain experience relationships, pulled into facilitation, cross function team relationship, taking off job interview, never know, deeply caring about people, thank,

Get a high from this, what makes you have it. Make people feel better and see potential.

Find joy

Interview 4

What do you value in leadership?

  • #1 trust & empathy
  • Create those synergy
  • Can you overachieve
  • Capability to connect
  • Understand
  • I should feel comfortable to ask him about work
  • Empathy: understand and work (emotional intelligence)
  • Create more leadership
  • Honesty and trusty
  • Connecting leadership
  • Having a conversation now to find a cadence?
  • Want to coach and mentor?
  • Transform things
    • Cadence

What qualities do you look for in alignment with other leaders?

  • Have to spend some time.
  • Tour of meeting people
  • My background, what I like to do,
  • Communication with purpose

Based on leadership roles you have had, say 30 days to a year later, what would you have changed in terms of expectation vs reality?

  • Look at Business at current state
  • Pain points
  • Realized risk is how things go through
  • People and culture
  • Change

Interview 5

Preparing for a interview

  • Biggest overall plan
  • Experience and Project Team
  • Plan written out
    • 30
    • 60
    • 90

What do you value in Leadership?

  • Let team make decisions
    • Opinion on how to get buy in
    • Trust people with skills
    • Command control of
      • Leader should not get in there way
      • Reason to get there
      • Check with this
  • let people, make a decision

Interview 6

What do you value in leadership?

  • Authentic
  • Servant Leadership
  • Healthy (productivity vs toxic)
  • Trust vs Performance
    • Loss when something is down
  • Craftsmanship
  • Good Cause
  • Safe at work
  • Let’s other shine

What do qualities do you look for in alignment with other leaders?

  • Treating others
  • Assume good intent
  • Give credit where credit is due.
  • Recognize the good
  • Servant
  • Seeking excellence
  • Building connections in how they working.

What are your challenges as a leader?

  •  Going first in a sign of leadership
    • Inhibits others
    • Speak loudest
  • Is how to differentiate between employees?
  • Competition
    • Can destroy

High performing teams

  • Your awards have to match your actions?
  • Does merit match award?
  • Wanting the same for each

How to Stay motivate

  • Does everyone have what they need
  • Celebrate
  • Selfless
  • Growing and engage
  • Doe the people you lead happy

Interview 7

What do you value in leadership?

  • Relationship and Trust
  • Amazing how talented people
  • Open honest
  • Learn from each other
  • Ability to be in more conversations
  • Working for more people
  • Find more opportunity
  • How can they
  • What do they want or open and transparent
  • Team Success and associations
  • What can help guide them too
  • Perception is important
  • Leadership to emulate
  • Authenticate
    • Perception
    • First to talk
    • Accountability is team in general

What qualities do you look for in alignment with other leaders?

  • Trust and honest
  • Open to disagreement and direction
  • Diversity in thought
  • Relationship to understand where someone
  • When someone doesn’t say anything and silently disagree
    • Looking for body language
    • Personalize to someone

What are your challenges as a leader?

  • Alignment
    • Brand new to season leader
    • Education
    • Strategic aspect
    • Position ourself to future
    • Everything is a guess
  • Evolvement
  • Does a person have to prove themselves?
  • Everyone has own scale of how agile and predict how a person can adapt to it.
  • Custom solution to out of the box
  • Virtually seeing people

Interview 8

What do you value in leadership?

  • Leader is another role and responsibility.
  • Humility
  • Courage
  • Collaboration
  • People are being taken care of opportunities  pursue people to inspire professional

What qualities do you look for in alignment with other leaders?

  • Prefer work with people when you manage.
  • Limits a person possibility
  • What can Ilearn
  • Diverse skill sets
  • Take initiative
  • Integrity
  • Work hard and get things done
  • Afraid to try 

Based on how you started at FCSAmerica, say 30 days, what would you have changed?

  • Support to figure out App Dev
  • Schedules meetings networking/relationships
  • Need to find way

A follow up to the question about What are your challenges as a leader in our new environment?

  • Challenges what to stop to keep priorities of organization
  • Not burning teammates
  • Culture hit on what
  • Business owner manage expectations
  • Stay innovated

Conviction

For some reason I have been processing the term Conviction today. I am relating it to myself. Depending on the definition of conviction. The word can be reference as a fixed or strong belief. I have a strong belief that all people I associate truly care about me. I am fixed on the idea that I don’t make all the right decision. My conviction for today is to make sure I am a better man moving forward. That the caring of others and decisions I make lead me to a better tomorrow. I don’t say much, but when I do it means something. If you don’t know that then you may not really know me. So in becoming a better man at this moment. My conviction is I love my family and friends. Urban Legend

The right direction

As I was driving upon the street from my house. I was thinking about good & direction. When you hit that “T” in the road. Which direction do you go? You go left, you go right, or maybe just stay in place.  In all actuality either direction might not be good. I realize as a person my direction does not have to be good. Good is something we all agree upon. I don’t want to go and do something everyone has agreed upon. I have learned the more you vary your own direction from others. Then there never needs to be sufficient rationalization to have a good decision. The truth is the direction was the best decision at the time. So as long as you stick to good you’ll never have real direction.