So Chegg launched our new eReader today so I thought I would take a moment to talk about writing a Project Charter per Johanna Rothman’s excellent book on project management. Johanna recommends that for every project you sit down and…
Author: pierce
Job Hunting Sucks
A friend of mine who is job hunting (he’s looking for a job in Software QA if you know of any positions) emailed me this morning for help with his job hunt. Here’s my tough-love answer: Your job right now…
Always Learning: The Good Will Hunting Method
There’s a scene in the movie Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon tells this stuck-up guy in a bar: ” You blew $150,000 on an education you could have gotten for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library.”…
Hiring Athletes instead of Bigfoot
I was talking with a recruiter about a position at their company the other day and after reading the job requisition I commented to her that it was a “Bigfoot” requisition; the kind of req that reads “Must be a…
Job Hunting: What I’ve learned so far
Background: This is the first time I’ve ever really applied myself fully to hunting for a job. Looking back, I’d always done a mediocre effort at it while simultaneously working full time. Job hunting requires 20-30 hours/week of work…
CrockPot Agile: AdHoc to Agile in 10 Steps
Ok, so you’re working at a non-Agile shop, possibly even a shop with bad project management. How do you get them to being Agile if you’re not the CEO or VP of Engineering? By doing something I call: CrockPot Agile…
Why Agile Works: The Success Well
One of the useful concepts I learned in martial arts was the idea of a success well. Every person has a success well. If you try something and fail, your success well empties. If you try something and succeed, you…
Job Hunting is Like Dating
If I call the recruiter at the company too soon I’m desperate. If I wait too long, I’m not interested.
Resume, Aim, Hired
Recently, I was at a company website browsing for jobs. As usual, I ran into a typical catch-22: Every career advisor on the planet will tell you to customize your cover letter and résumé for the position, but I have…
Mac voodoo: Always use the combo updater
This is just a piece of mac OSX voodoo: I never use Software Update for a major OS upgrade, I always use the combo installer. Even though it’s a larger download, the combo updater ends up refreshing a big hunk…