Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself
by Stratoscope on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @12:31PM
(#16484777)
I don't have an answer to your question, but I've certainly felt that pain.
Years ago I worked at a desktop software company that hired me to be their "Windows expert". They had a team of strong programmers who mostly had a Mac background, and they wanted to improve their Windows offerings.
I often spent a couple of hours a day doing what I called "house calls": finding out who was having trouble with a Windows issue and stopping by to lend them a hand.
This was before "pair programming" was a common term, and full time pair programming would drive me nuts, but these house calls were very productive. The other team members knew the product code much better than I did (being a newbie), and my Windows experience helped them work through platform issues. Plus sometimes just having another pair of eyes look at a problem.
Often a 20-30 minute house call would save a team member many hours of work.
At one point, a teammate thanked me for helping with a tough problem and asked me, "How can you afford to be so generous with your time?"
Some time after that, the VP of engineering (who I'd worked with previously and was on good terms with) asked me if everything was OK. He had noticed that the other developers on the team had lately been more productive than ever, but my own productivity wasn't quite keeping up.
I think I mentioned that some of my time had gone into helping the other developers work through their Windows and other issues, but I didn't have the presence of mind to say, "Maybe my help has been one reason their productivity has gone up. I thought that's what you hired me for. Can we make it part of my job description?"
Years ago I worked at a desktop software company that hired me to be their "Windows expert". They had a team of strong programmers who mostly had a Mac background, and they wanted to improve their Windows offerings.
I often spent a couple of hours a day doing what I called "house calls": finding out who was having trouble with a Windows issue and stopping by to lend them a hand.
This was before "pair programming" was a common term, and full time pair programming would drive me nuts, but these house calls were very productive. The other team members knew the product code much better than I did (being a newbie), and my Windows experience helped them work through platform issues. Plus sometimes just having another pair of eyes look at a problem.
Often a 20-30 minute house call would save a team member many hours of work.
At one point, a teammate thanked me for helping with a tough problem and asked me, "How can you afford to be so generous with your time?"
Some time after that, the VP of engineering (who I'd worked with previously and was on good terms with) asked me if everything was OK. He had noticed that the other developers on the team had lately been more productive than ever, but my own productivity wasn't quite keeping up.
I think I mentioned that some of my time had gone into helping the other developers work through their Windows and other issues, but I didn't have the presence of mind to say, "Maybe my help has been one reason their productivity has gone up. I thought that's what you hired me for. Can we make it part of my job description?"