Thoughts on Product and Programming

[fivecats]

Benches
December 2005 Chapel Thrill, NC
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Product

My first day of management training back in the late 80s in a record store found me in the back room with the store manager. She was describing the cramped store's storage system, telling me where things were and how they were arranged. She pointed to a shelf of CDs in their long box packaging and blandly told me, "This is where we keep all of our product."

At that instant I knew I was in the wrong job.

I went to work at the record store because (a) I needed a job and (b) I loved music. That the CDs weren't even being referring to as "CDs" was troubling enough. To have them referred to by the generic product was a bit too much.

Today I sat through my first Staff and Manager's Meeting. It's really three meetings rolled into one, with various layers of people leaving at coordinated times as certain things are discussed and then moved on from. Being a member of the "Senior Staff" I get to sit through all of them. It's all new to me, which helps make it fascinating.

As the various division managers were doing their rapid-fire discussion on the practical points on publishing a new title, I was reminded of that first day at the record store. Today was a sharp contrast. The people around me were doing serious work, all interested in putting out a good book not just a sellable "product".


"I'm Not a Programmer"

At the end of the presentation part of my interview for a teaching job at RIT we were discussing areas of interest and entry-level classes I'd be willing to teach. One woman asked about the beginning programming classes. My response was, "I'm not a programmer."

The correct response, of course, was, "I don't do programming now, but would love to learn it and would be happy to teach it."

The Old Job introduced me to programming on a daily basis. Nothing elegant, nothing in-depth, but just enough to access data in ways that the front-end interface didn't allow.

I knew the phrase from RIT was coming back to haunt me.

The description for The New Job I mentioned FileMaker Pro. I indicated that I had supported it, because I had.

Supported, as it turns out, has various meanings. To me it meant if the application stops working, I did troubleshooting to figure out why it wasn't working. To The New Job it means understand the database programming, fix errors within the database and create new features and reports that we need.

These two are not exactly the same as each other.

Guess which one wins, though?

...

Comments

The picture

[vavaverity.livejournal.com]

I am currently listening to a song called "Land of Immortals" by a group named "Rhapsody".

It started as I opened my friends list and I sat here listening to the opening minute while staring at your benches and thinking how appropriate the music was for the photo.

It was uplifting and I thought I'd share.

Re: The picture

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I don't know the group nor the song. I'll have to try and check them out.

I took this image yesterday on my first walk around the campus at lunchtime. I've been neglecting both my camera and that "exercise" idea lately, so combining the two seemed a good idea.

Thanks. I'm glad it could fit so nicely into your life at the moment.

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Re: The picture

[vavaverity.livejournal.com]

The rest of the song picks up too much - it was just the first minute. Rhapsody is like Nightwish which is like Evanescence... sort of. The first two are more rock opera for lack of a better description. They never made it here in the states to my knowledge, but if you're a downloader...

Re: The picture

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Ah, the era of the rock opera and (actual vinyl) albums that sought to tell a story, not just string together a number of unrelated tracks.

I'll have to, um, look around for them. :-)

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[ladyamybug.livejournal.com]

sounds like you are fitting in well over there. im glad things are working out for ya!
xoxoxox

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying myself here.

I think if I was thinking more clearly I'd be overcome with panic most days. Instead, I'm just smiling, taking each day as it comes and trying to keep my head above water, remembering there's a reason I'm here and things will work themselves out eventually.

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[kristenlou.livejournal.com]

Lovely photo, and interesting perspective. Did you put the camera on the ground?

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Yes, the camera was just inches off of the ground for this shot. I wanted the perspective to be just a bit "off" from the norm and to have the foreground given more emphasis than it might otherwise have. That way the bench, while still being a focal point of the image, would also be a bit more a part of the background.

I ended up taking several more pictures of other benches around the campus during my walk today. I'll have to see if any of them are good enough to post.

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[kristenlou.livejournal.com]

I think it worked well. The sidewalk looks vast and the repeated elements of the bars created by the bench shadows reinforce the line of vision.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Many thanks.

The ones today were all shot in a small park-like area where plants are identified by small markers and imprinted plastic dog tags. Not so much sidewalk as dirt and scrubby grass in those.

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[basefinder.livejournal.com]

Management at my current job boils our work down into the term "reports." As in, "get those reports out the door to the client" or "I want people in here at Christmas time getting reports out the door."

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

So far the Press has proven to be a really good combination of Professional and Relaxed. The Management meeting I sat in yesterday was like sitting in on a group of old friends discussing some common problems and listening to the Director speak about a trip she and her second-in-command (my boss) had taken the week before and how the partership they were building with the visited company was going to be impacting things in the future. All very positive and supportive.

And no reports. :-)

I actually have a weekly meeting with my boss starting this morning and I have an agenda to discuss concerning what Ive done so far and what my plans for the coming week(s) are. Thats about as close to a "report" as I think Ill have to get.

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[velvetslide.livejournal.com]

CDs as "product" - oh dear. :(

I'm glad to hear your taking each day as it comes.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad to hear your taking each day as it comes."

Yeah. I got those wise words of wisdom from someone and they clicked right into place. Funny, that. :-)

...

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I've not been very good at selling myself in the past, either. After sitting in The Old Job for over a year I was starting to get antsy and a bit edgy. Something different had to change and I knew I had made mistakes in previous interviews, so changing my approach there was the first step.

Of course, it helped that the description for this job seemed to have ME written all over it.

Bringing the dark chocolate M&Ms to the first round weed-them-out interview certainly didn't hurt. But, even there, it was pretty clear that those people felt the job description had ME written all over it, too.

I'm glad you like these stories, although, to be honest, I didn't think too much of either one and almost didn't post them. I'm wanting to post more often and I'm taking photographs on a daily basis now so I just made due with the two lj-ish thoughts I'd had.

And I like your image of the two senior women, especially with their 1960s glasses. Its wonderfully vivid. I'll take a look back where this bench is from time to time and see if they're there.

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[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I'll even take their picture for you!

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[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

hehehe.... well, it certainly sounds like it won't be boring. :-) are you going to have time to sit at one of those lovely benches for a leisurely lunch?

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Lunch is usually eaten, quickly, at my desk. I'm now trying to take my 30 minutes in a walk outside with my camera. I set the timer on my watch for 20 minutes and go out wandering, taking photographs of what I see along the way. I figure twenty minutes of aimless walking in a non-linear path along with 10 minutes of retracing my steps just about equals 30 minutes.

As for sitting on any of those benches, you forget -- it's Winter over on our side of the planet. It's been far too cold for me to sit outside (my body doesn't retain heat well. This makes Bonn very happy at night in bed, but makes me cold most of the time) although I did see a woman sitting and eating lunch on a bench in the garden area I walked through yesterday.

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[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

ah, the quickly eat lunch at the desk routine. ... at least you then go out for a bit of a wander to refresh yourself... my partner continues to work through lunch as he isn't paid for a lunchbreak.
haha, yeah, i do forget about the seasons being opposite! :-)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

I used to do the work-through-lunch thing until I got laid off from the last good job. After that I started making sure I took time out for lunch or something during the day to get me away from the office.

The UNC campus is so nice and big that it invites a nice afternoon walk.

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[dystropia.livejournal.com]

may I add you ? :)

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

Sure, of course.

While I'm not exactly sure why anyone would be interested in reading me and/or looking at my images, you're more than welcomed to.

I took a quick look at your images and I like them a lot. I've returned the friending. :-)

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[dystropia.livejournal.com]

to be honest, that cary balloons picture caught my attention, then I kinda went through a couple, maybe more, of entries and I like the way you write. I also like your pictures and btw I got here throught Audrey's journal. :)