"he maintained too long that blue collar attitude that "I'm the best engineer thus I should be getting ahead" never realizing that raw competence was only one part of white collar success...something that showed in his fustration that technical jobs only went so far before you had to go into management."
Brian is at this place now. He's technically a manager (because its a small company, his manager was let go - and he being the senior person was promoted). He's totally not "management material" though, and doesn't want to. Its really a tough question, what does the techy do when they've come as far as they can?
He also wishes sometimes he could go back to building things with my Dad - sitting in an office cubicle and staring at a monitor doesn't always bring the same satisfactions of a job well done as much as building something tangible and looking at it when you're done does.
"I think his failure to straddle is one reason when I choose to live the white collar world for the wonderful world of pizza he was so supportive"
That's really great! I know some parents wouldn't be so supportive of it. My parents always wanted me to do well and in concept encouraged us to follow "our dreams", whatever they were. There have been a couple of times that they have looked at me kind of confusedly when I had the opportunity to make more money but didn't take it (in last year's job searches, for instance). They have no clue what I do so a good job versus a bad one (for me) is hard to explain to them. I think I'm getting better at it, though.
I know myself, I'm just not management material so I won't aspire to be that - I'm content to do what I do well and let other people worry about the schmoozing and the politics. Luckilly, my dad is a pretty social guy and seems good at talking (despite his distaste of schmoozing). I think its helped me be a translator of sorts between the workers and management, which has helped me go far.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Interesting...
Date: 2004-01-14 05:15 am (UTC)Brian is at this place now. He's technically a manager (because its a small company, his manager was let go - and he being the senior person was promoted). He's totally not "management material" though, and doesn't want to. Its really a tough question, what does the techy do when they've come as far as they can?
He also wishes sometimes he could go back to building things with my Dad - sitting in an office cubicle and staring at a monitor doesn't always bring the same satisfactions of a job well done as much as building something tangible and looking at it when you're done does.
"I think his failure to straddle is one reason when I choose to live the white collar world for the wonderful world of pizza he was so supportive"
That's really great! I know some parents wouldn't be so supportive of it. My parents always wanted me to do well and in concept encouraged us to follow "our dreams", whatever they were. There have been a couple of times that they have looked at me kind of confusedly when I had the opportunity to make more money but didn't take it (in last year's job searches, for instance). They have no clue what I do so a good job versus a bad one (for me) is hard to explain to them. I think I'm getting better at it, though.
I know myself, I'm just not management material so I won't aspire to be that - I'm content to do what I do well and let other people worry about the schmoozing and the politics. Luckilly, my dad is a pretty social guy and seems good at talking (despite his distaste of schmoozing). I think its helped me be a translator of sorts between the workers and management, which has helped me go far.