Scottie's Career Blog

Week 5

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:03:22 GMT

The hot topic for this week is the executive search firms. They are much misunderstood, and indeed it would be dangerous (and career limiting!) for me to make generalizations about them. However there are some insights worth sharing with you, as follows:

- They are retained search firms, and work for a fee. They exist to serve the needs of those who pay the fee, and that is not you.

- Only about 20% of senior IT vacancies go through these firms. The remainder are filled internally, or by personal networking, or by media advertising etc.

- The major league firms are generally not in the relationship management business. If they have a search, they may reach out to you. Don’t be surprised if you get a fairly cold reception by reaching out to them, because their interest lies in their current portfolio of opportunities.

- Smaller search firms may be more willing to help with polishing your resume, or keeping an eye out for opportunities on your behalf. In Europe, a few of the major search firms are now moving in to the relationship business, where they will actively approach employers to see if they have suitable opportunities, and they will call the candidate every couple of weeks with progress updates (even if there is no progress).

- If a search firm approaches you about an opportunity, be prepared to be a passenger on a journey, with someone else doing the driving. They will approach (say) 10 candidates, and so you only have (on average) a 10% chance of a worthwhile outcome. Meanwhile be ready for conference calls, visits to the search firm offices, visits to meet the client, and so on. Also be prepared to hear nothing for long periods of time, and to be dropped with little explanation. It tends to be a soul searching experience.

Don’t pester the search firm with reminders, because they just don’t have the time for that sort of thing. Instead, you might want to be smarter in keeping in contact with them -- ask for their help in tracking down the right individual in a firm you have heard about, or check an e-mail address with them. Your aim should be to keep your candidacy on their radar screen at all times, so that when they get a relevant assignment, your name appears on their list of contacts.

The major search firms include (with the national IT practice leader in parenthesis) are given on the Resources page of this website.

Week 4

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:42:36 GMT

I attended a SIM Fairfield/Westchester event on Networking recently. All the panel members agreed that this was not something you start doing when you need a favor from others. Rather like skills training, it represents an investment in your future. Successful networking requires a balance of give and take. One of the panel, Adrie Reinders, has written an excellent book on the subject. In his book, Adrie explains how to be creative and make a first and long-lasting impression with the professionals you want to meet. He emphasizes the importance of e-networking tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, SecondLife, Zubka, Google’s Orkut, Hyves and others.

The monthly meetings of your local SIM chapter offer a great networking opportunity, and there is no substitute for initially getting to know someone face-to-face. That has been the traditional SIM model for the past 40-years, but it limits the number of people in your network to a hundred or so people who may come along to one of your local meetings. Hopefully the SIM Portal will represent a breakthrough in this regard (we are calling it SIM 2.0), and we intend that the Portal will grow into a vibrant community of people with common interests. I have about 200 people in my professional contacts list (outside of the normal business contacts) and I try to stay in contact with each of them at least a couple of times a year. That contact can be reactive (yes, some of them have the same process as me!), or proactive. A CRM package would be useful in this regard, but I simply use Microsoft Outlook “Contacts” and put remarks in the Notes field. You can find free contact management software on Google, or try this site.

Some further advice on building your network can be found on this networking advisory site. But wait, I hear you say – how do I find the time in my busy life to take on this additional task? Well, it all comes down to priorities. If you want to be “the woodchopper who is too busy to sharpen his axe”, then of course you won’t make time for proactive networking. But I would put it to you that this time should be substitutional rather than additive – a good network can make you more efficient at your core tasks, and that can free up the time to allow you to develop your network, and so on.

In next week’s blog, I will share some of my thoughts on Executive Search firms – nothing controversial there….!

Week 3

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:44:30 GMT

Still no feedback, which means that you have not found this blog (how can you be reading this?) or we are not making it controversial enough. Pending your comments, we continue our one-sided point of view as follows:

So you want to get ahead by moving on to another company, eh? They do more interesting work, have better promotion prospects, pay more, and are all round nice people. You know some people in jobs you lust after, and you are ready to go for it. Well, hold on for a moment! Ever heard of the phrase “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence”? That is especially true in the IT profession. Take the case of the CIO at a big company you know. (S)he has all the power and the perks you always wanted, right? Well, you are probably wrong. Many people shelter behind inflated job titles, and the reality is that they have nowhere near the clout you think they have. The CIO may just have influence over one Division; the corporate CIO may just have responsibility for corporate staff functions; many “Global CIOs” or “Enterprise CIOs” have few staff and fewer opportunities to influence the operating Divisions, who control the agenda and the budget. You would be surprised how many Global CIOs have no authority and simply advise on standards, make recommendations, and monitor from a distance. Despite all that, you still want to get to the top, and so here are some hints to help establish your plan of action:

1) Your contribution, recognition & reward are directly proportional to the perceived importance of technology to that business. Some businesses have a very low “technology intensity” factor (think Brewing) and so the IT staff are treated like mushrooms. Some businesses depend so heavily on technology (think Financial Services) that the IT people walk on water. Your career has a glass ceiling depending on the technology intensity of the company.

2) First, choose the right sector. A choice of sector towards the bottom of the league table will set a lower bound on your potential contribution (and potential reward) than a choice of sector at the higher end of the table. This choice will also be constrained by your skills, prior experience, and interests (for example, some people might not want to work in the “sin” businesses of tobacco, alcohol etc.). The point here is that you should not necessarily default to the sector you are currently working in, and you should not necessarily wait for random approaches by the retained search firms. Know what you want, and go after it.

3) Second, choose the right company in that sector. Some companies outsource most of their IT, and so the opportunities there may be limited to vendor management (think General Motors). Some companies put major emphasis on in-house development (Wal-Mart) and others put major emphasis on packaged solutions (Kraft). Know what you are getting in to.

4) Think through your key criteria – location, compensation, job security, seniority, stress levels etc. and use these to screen out opportunities that are on the fringes of acceptability. If you unexpectedly find yourself in transition, the temptation is to go for the “bird in the hand” rather than waiting for the right opportunity to come along. It takes guts to be patient, but it is usually the best approach in the long run.

5) Choose a strategy. Passive -- register with search firms and wait for the phone to ring; Semi-active -- low key networking and outreach; Proactive -- analysis of companies using the approach described above, doing solid research on databases from sites like Zoom; Aggressive -- sell yourself by writing to the Chairman or CEO and explain what you can do for his company. Call that CEO (a phone call is much more likely to succeed than a letter or e-mail. You can get a list of companies in your search area, and if you call after the assistant has gone home for the evening, you are more likely to get through.) Be ready with a pitch book if you get the chance for a meeting. Better still, sell your idea to a Venture Capital firm or a Private Equity firm. There is a lot of capital out there looking for a profitable home, and the VC firm might be swayed by your idea on how to help their early-stage investment pay off big time, whereas the PE firm might be interested in your help in restructuring or turnaround of an established business. Are you ready for a low salary / high upside opportunity?

6) Get some help. There are professional career coaches out there who can help you avoid a lot of the pitfalls. Consider working with an outplacement firm and get a phone number, receptionist service, floating office space (not dedicated), access to research and a counselor who would be available to answer questions as they come up. Or perhaps make an arrangement with an executive office space firm. You can get a phone number, receptionist service, calls to voice mail or forwarded to you, either a floating office or a dedicated office. With a floating office that you get when needed, the basic monthly cost is about $300 and with a dedicated office, the monthly cost is between $2,000 and $3,000 depending on the office having a window. Get business cards printed with your contact details.

7) Be patient. It will take at least three months from start to finish. The higher you are aiming, the longer it could take. As an extreme example, if you are seeking a Fortune 100 CIO role, then only about 30 of these will come vacant each year (given a CIO’s average tenure). However about half of them will be filled internally, and that means that only about one a month will come onto the market, nationwide. The leader of an executive search firm told me that it typically takes a year for a senior CIO to find a suitable new post.

8) Be ready to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find the princess (prince). And be prepared to make your job search a full time job. Two phone calls and a meeting for a dead end; up to 7 meetings for a hot prospect. Do the math – twenty leads, multiplied by an average of 5 sessions, equals 100 appointments. Expect 1-2 calls or meetings each weekday.

9) Follow through with contacts, not by reminding them about your prior request, but by asking their specific advice (do you know who the best contact in xyz company might be; could you help me find the e-mail address of the CEO of abc company, etc.) While they might react negatively if they feel you are chasing them, this approach allows them to feel good about helping you out without too much effort on their part, and of course it serves to remind them that you are still in the market.

Please give us your feedback on whether you find this relevant, and what topics you would like to see us explore.

Week 2

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:28:26 GMT

So, despite my gloomy warnings, you have decided that you want more – more seniority, more responsibility, more recognition, more reward, more pressure. OK, then let me give you some pointers of how to go about that. Firstly, remember that it won’t come to you; you have to go out and find it. Whether that is advancement within your current employer, or changing jobs for promotion, it means running a campaign just as if you were a Presidential contender. If you really want something, then I know of no better way of reaching your goals than to treat it as a classic IT project. Create a clear specification of the functionality you seek. Plan the milestones. Determine the required resources (quality and quantity). Acquire the resources you don’t already have. Manage and measure progress. Conduct gate reviews. Take corrective action. And so on… My point is, your career progression is very important, and yet most people leave it to chance. We IT folk have a big advantage in this respect – we know how to manage projects. If you don’t have a plan for your career, and you aren’t spending at least 5 hours per week on executing that plan, then you fall into the vast majority of our profession who simply take life as it comes. The good news is that relatively few people take their career progression seriously enough to manage it professionally, and therefore the field is clear for those of us that do. How many of you have a career coach? (I do). How many books have you read about making a success of your career? I recommend Straight to the Top: Becoming a World-Class CIO by Gregory S. Smith, or CIO Survival Guide: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer by Karl D. Schubert). How many hours per week do you spend in networking? (should be more than two hours).

Within your own company, my advice is as follows:

- Never forget that your job is to make your boss look good. Go out of your way to make sure (s)he gets the credit for any wins. Keep her/him fully briefed on issues, but follow the advice “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.”

- Surround yourself with people who are good, and who understand that it is their job to make you look good!

- If you get an opportunity, grasp it. It doesn’t matter if it is a sideways move, an overseas posting, cleaning up someone else’s mess, or helping a struggling Division. Such opportunities in your career are infrequent, and you never want to look back and say “I wish I had taken that project when it was offered to me”.

- If an opportunity doesn’t come to you, go and find it. Follow the money – get assigned to work that makes a real contribution to the short-term and medium-term imperatives of the company. Get business results, by leveraging the efforts of others (“We only get things done around here because people agree to cooperate.”) Sure, you should push from behind and let the team take the credit; after all, there is no limit to what can be achieved if it does not matter who gets the credit. But there comes a time where you need to lead from the front, and get noticed. That means managing perception and being persistent. Most bosses do not know how to cope with a persistent employee, and if you demonstrate your grit and determination, then you will certainly stand out from the crowd. We all get knocked back, but a good phrase to remember is “No means no today.” If you keep plugging away, and come at the problem from multiple perspectives, then you will at least convince people of your passionate belief, and you will probably be given the chance to prove that you are right.

- A trick I have found useful is to offer to become the personal technology coach of your CEO’s secretary, and ultimately for your CEO. These people don’t want to admit that they struggle with Word or PowerPoint or Excel; they have problems connecting from home; they have problems when traveling; and they certainly don’t want to call the help desk. If you can become a trusted adviser, you can go beyond fixing problems and alert them to interesting websites, new devices, and generally make them look cool to their staff (and to their kids). The CEO’s personal assistant is a great target, because she can get you into meetings when you otherwise would have no chance, and she can avoid you going in to see the boss when he has a cold or is in a foul temper. In one job, this approach got me to become the advisor and provider of technology to the Board meetings, and eventually to the individual members of the Board, and that opened a lot of doors.

The end of the road comes when you have a boss that simply will not recognize and reward your efforts. In that case, it is futile to try to end-run your boss and appeal to higher powers – organizations defend hierarchy, and you will simply make your position untenable. No, your only course of action is to move to another department, or to another employer. Don’t wait for your boss to move or to take early retirement, because you are squandering time that you can never get back.

Advancing your career by moving to another company is both an art and a science. I propose to tackle that in the next blog….

Please post your responses, whether you agree or vehemently disagree with my views – let’s get a heated debate going!

Week 1

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:29:15 GMT

Welcome to our Career Management blog! The plan is to post a fresh and provocative point-of-view at roughly weekly intervals. The blog is written by a mythical character, Scottie, but is closely based on the career efforts of a SIM member who got pretty close to the top of our profession – that is, if you measure success in terms of financial compensation, number of staff managed, annual budget etc.

That poses our first question – what does success look like in our chosen profession? Could it be these classical measures, where some SIM members earn several million dollars per annum, or control budgets of several billion dollars, or manage staffs of many thousands? Is that what you are going to dedicate your waking hours working towards, or are you more of a purist, seeking to make a real difference in a company, or waking up in the morning and really looking forward to another fulfilling day?

Well, as the saying goes, “Be careful what you ask for, because you might just get it!” Along with seniority and authority comes accountability. I don’t know of many IT jobs which offer handsome rewards for just having fun. As you climb the ladder, you are expected to make increasing sacrifices in the balance of your life, such as coping with stress, leisure time with the family, your Saturday game of golf, vacation time to recharge your batteries, etc. I guess this is what they call Work / Life Balance, but it manifests itself as a line in the sand that is rather easy to cross, and hard to come back from.

My last boss gave me more and more responsibility, and my natural lust for power took me across that line. Did I get what I wished for, by getting home after the kids were in bed and leaving in the morning before they woke up? Was it worth sacrificing half of my weekends? What comes next – health problems? Each of us is capable of getting promoted beyond our ability to cope, whether that be our leadership skills, or our technical prowess, or our life outside of work.

And then there is the other side of the coin – what are you prepared to do to advance your career – wait for the phone to ring?; blow your own horn?; climb over colleagues?; lick boots? Of course there are lots of corners you can cut, but that raises questions of ethics, and it will be interesting to tackle some of these questions in this forum.

In the next blog I will share some of the tricks of the trade, and open the door for you to advance your career. But be careful what you ask for, because you might just get it.