Life of an Insider in the IT World: what you don't know or you don't expect; IT careers, how to survive in "the jungle"; trends in the market, today & tomorrow; where to find job, but above all how to do it. From Microsoft to Apple, from Vmware to RedHat, from Mcafee to Symantec: my personal experience and impressions. Focus on European reality in international organization.
martedì 13 agosto 2013
Talent Management
The time has finally come: I have just received the task to insert
my goals for the new fiscal year, which means Appraisal, Performance Review,
Learning&Development based on the info I will sign in the system NOW. Cool
& scaring. And for me this is the first time I live it in such structured
way.
Today I want to speak about Talent Management, the reasons behind
the adoption of Performance measurement tools, how to set up Goals and my
personal opinion about the process...
Talent Management:
In some large organizations it was expected only for FTEs - Full-Time Employees (so, let’s say, around the 12% of the people working
there!? Contractors are not included), in some other they have never heard about
that but they seem to be good at using Career Development tools as soon as an
employee wants to leave the company, but I saw also some exceptions where
management is taking the topic seriously and they really care about
employee-growth. It’s their business, not only mine (Win2Win approach)! And
they spend time, money, effort to provide systems & processes that can
really help managers in assessing team-performances. It’s not easy, for sure.
Today, I had an interesting training session about Talent Management:
how it started, how it is evolving during the years, what are the best
practices nowadays. It was funny because, as an employee, I have always
wondered about how C-levels were dealing with that: at the end of the day (or
the fiscal year) your single results, combined with others’ work, make the
company profit.
Tricky.
There are goals I can measure with numbers. But should I use only
those ones? No, you cannot. It would be much easier but it is not fair as too
many factors come to action when we speak about Performance. Or probably it’s
just one factor: the Human Nature. Subjective KPIs make it difficult to compare
different locations, different departments or different teams (it’s not
necessary to go too far!). So should I take up a group-Performance model (like in
the big G)? Is it really efficient? The answer is: it depends on what you want
to achieve.
So what are the right steps to formulate my Company Goals and how
to cascade them to my employees? Well, the right approach, in my opinion, is always
the “step-by-step”:
- first of all you have to clarify what you want to accomplish and
the timeframe for each achievement (we have to define the TOP)
- numbers, figures to your plan
- what does your organization need to get there? Gap filling!
- SWOT analysis: (a must!) what is the situation out there in the
market? Are there opportunities I can leverage? Best and worst scenario for
each direction I can take. Necessary.
- Brainstorming of IDEAs. Always.
- You want to be aware of the consequences of your actions,
especially now that it’s so easy to spread comments into the web-communities.
Clients are global, even if you operate locally. So please take an eye open on
what they are telling about you on the web....
Ok, now you have your objectives, your numbers, your previsions
and What-If analysis, divide it in 2. Then in 4. Keep on doing the exercise
until you get at 8. Now you can delegate. DOWN
As a result you will have a perfect Pyramid Model of Goals, but
careful, there’s another important point you have to clarify with everybody
(not only the management): EVERYBODY has to agree with the plan and feel
responsible for his/her part, as in a family, in an organism, everyone has to
contribute. In one word: Personal engagement. In my experience, a lot of companies
make a great work around Goal-settings but then they lose focus because they
communicate only with the management. EVERYONE should part of a common vision.
∑(INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATION) = MASS MOTIVATION
And the motivation of masses is pure force.
Somebody told me that a good employee is able to self-motivate
him/herself. I don’t agree. Honestly I think that a good employee is the one
who shares the same values of the company he/she works for, and the same
objectives in the long and short term. When you agree on the common vision, you
find out if there is a good match between candidate and the open position
(avoid over-qualified staff for entry level jobs, please!), you make him/her
feel part of a bigger project, then it is normal that the new employee will be
motivated to work for the success of the whole organization. Not just for
commission, benefit, visibility, competitive knowledge or a nice brand to stick
on the CV.
In other words:
1. Hire people that agree and understand the
values of your company
2. Find a good match between candidate, job
position, ski
3. Set up clear objectives for everybody,
interns and contractors included
4. Forecast achievement and unexpected events
(today we have tools that are amazing in these kind of tasks)
5. Create a Development Plan with clear and
measurable objectives (split them in intermediate goals and provide all the support
to make your people reach their targets)
From there, the importance of a well-structured company goal plan.
Keep motivation high for everybody, even if your target is
ambitious, is the key!
Next time I will tell you the 2nd part of my Microsoft
experience and in the next posts I would like to discuss about the Matrix: Potential,
Performance and Position, my personal opinion about the starting negotiation and compensation
balance.
G.
lunedì 12 agosto 2013
Working for Microsoft (part 1)
Microsoft. Well, Microsoft was my school. At that time I was still
studying at the University (just finished my 1st session of exams) and
I wanted to start an internship. I was sure I didn’t want to waste my time in a
company without potential; I really wanted to get something out of my first REAL
working experience. I remember I applied for IBM, HP, 3M, Microsoft, Symantec,
in general some banks (but I was targeting mainly the Marketing as a
department), Bosch, Roche, and some others I have removed from any Hard/Soft/Random
Memory. Anyway, few of them replied, those ones were a step ahead, 3-4 years
ago they already had in place a modern HCM system with pre-screening questions
for candidates applying using the career webpage. They sent me an email saying “Thank
you very much for your interest in our company, considering that you don’t have
a University Degree, at least 2 years of experience working for competition, you
are not bilingual Italian-English (or better English-German, but you are also
fluent in Italian!), we are not proceeding with you application. But thanks for
applying eh!”...Ok, maybe they were less rude and precise but still I noticed
that every time I was ticking the box “First Experience”, I had 2 options: No
Answer or “Thanks but No!”. Microsoft, if I remember correctly, was one of
them. I should have kept that email!!!
But I didn’t give up. All the companies replied no, so I thought “If
I had to try seriously with one, I would choose the most challenging one:
Microsoft!”
I applied by: Linkedin (with a really poor content), MS career
website, blog (msclips, is it
still live?! Yesss), University career webportal, I wrote to MS HR directly, I
went to open-days (I was actually camping in front of MS stand).....nothing was
enough to make me get an interview. They were looking for high level candidates,
double-degree, Erasmus, international experience, very good knowledge of
English. Well, I didn't have even my first level University degree. When I was
about to give up, I had the idea to make a secretary in my University call MS
to know in general how was the recruitment process for internship in MS. She
was told there were group-interviews and at the moment they were overbooked.
She proposed my junior profile to them and the answer was still the same: No.
Then she leverage the motivation, the fact I was trying so hard to get that
interview, the fact I honestly wanted that job so much! At the end they say “Yes”,
yes to the group-interview. They are normally done with groups of 8-9
candidates, that time was 15.
I am not going to describe the feeling when she told me that they
had said “Yes”. Simply I couldn’t believe it. Happy days!!!
And.....now? I got my interview scheduled. I had my only chance.
The night before I still remember I didn’t sleep (it was my first
real interview! I can see your expression......).
The day arrived. In the morning I had the answer written in my
mind: “I don’t care. I am myself, cannot change what I am now. I give it a try
and whatever will be will be.” I took my jeans and went to the office of Microsoft
Italy at that time in Segrate.
I arrived just in time. At the reception everybody was already
there, the recruiter arrived few seconds after me and kick off with an informal
presentation. She showed us the coffee machine and told the group what was the
magic number in order to get free drinks (OMG, I just realized I forgot it!
Goldfish memory......). In less than 10 minutes we were all sitting in a big
conference room, each one with a branded block notes and pen. That was
absolutely C-O-O-L! I still remember I had never seen something similar before.
Everybody, except some, looked a bit nervous. They were all dressed up in a
perfect business non-casual way. I was the only one in jeans. Ehm..... I read
the company culture the night before! I was sure I was not wrong!!
Finally the first presenter arrived: E.B.
(tbc)
Background check (afraid of Watchdog?!)
For those of you working in IT probably the sense in this title
was clear at the very first glance. Anyway, this post is dedicated to my
previous employments.
The ironical connection between the
screening you have to go through before being hired especially by one big
multinational company (actually a lot of them are using more & more these
background check agencies) & my working history stays in the fact that I
will soon connect this blog to my Linkedin and Facebook profile. You will be
able then to find out more (maybe too much?) about me. And that's the risk:
people would know you better than you probably do yourself. Yes, you can
"feel free" to publish only few information, share with selected
people or groups, etc. BUT are we missing something? Yes, we are. Where is the
point in a massive usage of Social Network? Where the value?
Let's take Linkedin, for instance. If you
work in IT, especially in sales, you are ambitious and want to grow, then you
WANT TO be on Linkedin. I will speak about passive talents, Social Network
recruitment later on. And you will understand why Linkedin has become such a
great resource to find a job nowadays.
Step back to my working history:
Let’s spend few posts about my
background....
Part 1:
Everything started when I was attending the high school, where I
studied English, German and Spanish, not only in class but also travelling
around Europe to have a real view of the "alive languages". Then
during B.A. at University I did my first internship as Export Marketing Assistant,
just to have an idea of marketing in action. Not a big deal, but all these
experiences made me have a richer CV when I applied to a real job for the first
time.
In my opinion I did well, at least at that point. I was aware of
the Italian situation, competition was (and is still) at the highest level ever
seen, why should they hire me?! And for “they” I mean a good company, able to
teach me and make me grow, ready to invest in my profile. I was not different
from the hundreds of young people that were looking for a job just after their
degree-holiday (would you believe I didn’t have mine?!).
I had few points I really highlighted in my first Europass-CV (ah,
please avoid it!!! Pleeeeeease!!!):
- good knowledge of English (well, much better than the Italian average)
- I demonstrate I lived abroad and I studied in Spain and Austria
& my love for foreign cultures/languages
- I was only 20, University in progress, but already an
internship. That was a good advantage!
- motivation BUT ONLY HERE we have the key!!!
In the next post I will tell you how it was my Microsoft
interview, my experience in Microsoft Italy in general as an intern...
Stay tuned!
G.
domenica 11 agosto 2013
Welcome to my web-page!
Before starting with formal presentations
I would like to tell you a story.
The story of somebody living somewhere,
lost in an always dynamic world, grown up in a provincial country, Italy, not
able to speak a good level of English but with motivation and thirst of
knowledge. That's me:
- Italian
- girl
- kinda geek
- fascinated by IT evolution
- Humanistic study
(what happened next?)
I took the decision to leave Italy and
explore a "secure field" in Ireland, working for Italy but in a
different location, let's say. For a lot of young Italians I am a sort of hero;
in my honest opinion they are the heroes that are keeping on fighting for their
country. I left the battle to them. In the blog I want to tell you my story,
how I made it real, my feelings, the sensation of being lost, alone inside all
the people. The music I was listening to. This is just for you to know why I
became like this (a sort of justification for my "freaky way" let's
say!).
Now that you have the profile of the
character you can decide if you want to discover more or if it's enough.
WHY this blog?
First of all, because I want to give a
real overview about the topic of IT-wonderers. I met a lot of people, coming
from all kinds of background, it was an enrichment a helped me to open my mind.
I want you to feel it like I lived that. I know it is a bit difficult to give
the same with words (especially when it's not your mother tongue) but I will
give me a try.
Then, I want to share thoughts with you. I
sincerely hope a lot of you will give me your honest feedback and opinions, I
think it's the only way to be better, but let's avoid
common-sense-sentences.
In addition I would like to get a help in
developing my own project of life. It is a strange period in my life: I find
myself more and more involved in planning the future, trying do discover what I
really want. The never-ending & most-difficult task in lifetime. As said
before: no way to keep this out of my mind, so let's try, at least. Unexpected
facts happen. We could consider them a 'a-element' factor. A vector. Probably
we should study instead of avoiding or rejecting them and I saw so many
perfectionists rejecting good opportunities because they were not sure about
the outcome. It makes sense, and I see myself in them. But now I learned that
cause-effect is not a 1-2-1 relation; it's more likely a n-2-n relation. So how
to handle that?
Maybe the problem of finding out where you
are, what you are doing but above all what you want to get, is struggling you
as well. I have probably written more than expected for my first post, but at
least I gave a view of the chaos of brainstorming thoughts is dominating my
life now.
I am going to speak about myself. And
other. And relationships. And IT topics. And work. And relationships, again.
And strategies to optimize your resources to get a better result. From every
standpoint you are considering.
I am going to speak about evolution. What
will be next? My idea about Cloud Computing, Virtualization, IT market in
general.
Well, kick off with all this crap now :) Stay
tuned!
G.
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