Looking back to go Forward

As you know, we’ve discussed multiple topics ranging from “Keys to a Strong Resume Summary”- a brief look into what recruiters and hiring managers expect to see in a resume, to “That was a great solution!”- a perspective on the value of acknowledging others for their efforts. The goal of each discussion is to look at situations from a positive perspective. While it’s true that we could discuss negative events in our work lives or complain about the manner in which we felt ignored by someone in the work place, our ability to recognize what can be learned from these events and sharing this information with others can be insightful and encouraging.

Sharing knowledge gained from our personal struggles is one way we can help others to see that there is light at the end of a tunnel, even if it means that we have to turn around and head back. In other words, although we could share events from a point of anger and WIFM (What’s in it for me?) it seems to be more productive for everyone if we shared events from the point of opportunity and how our knowledge can help others succeed. This is not to suggest that we ignore our trials and the tribulations which brought us to our point of an epiphany. It’s simply to suggest that we avoid getting caught up in the negative energy that is often associated with the difficult path that helped to strengthen our character and our ability to persevere.

For example, I remember a time when I was six years old and my father, a business man, professional welder and general contractor, believed that it was necessary to punish me for not having the intuitive knowledge of knowing the names and use of every tool in his tool box. I recall a time when he was working on a welding machine out on the back patio of our home. I wanted to sit outside and watch my dad work. I looked up to him. Unfortunately, I had already learned that my father was not a patient person. Going to him for advice or asking him questions so that I could learn was not something that I would recommend to anyone. I learned to fear my father and how he would respond to situations. It kept me from learning from his incredible knowledge and personal life experiences. When my dad worked I knew that he expected me to help with the level of knowledge that a seasoned professional might have. I knew that I couldn’t offer him any value at that time because I didn’t have any knowledge that could be of use to his standards. As I was standing inside our house next to the sliding glass door I watched him work. He took the welding machine apart and he was troubleshooting the problems. My curiosity and admiration of how my father was able to repair machines kept my attention. Then, my father caught sight of me and asked me to bring him a tool. After that I knew I would be in trouble because when he asked for certain tools I had no idea what he was talking about.

Rather than going into the details of the negative events that transpired I learned that we all need to take time to understand the strengths and opportunities of others. Whether they are our friends, family or colleagues, it’s important that we understand each other’s skill sets and abilities. Having this knowledge will help us to understand how everyone can contribute. This knowledge will add value to not only completing projects, but it will add to the value of recognition of others. In terms of co-workers, it can help us identify training needs or apprenticeship opportunities. Taking a positive approach that is geared at helping others succeed will have a positive impact for years to come.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
www.linkedin.com/in/eduardodiazphd

That was a great solution!

What would it feel like to be acknowledged for a solution you suggested, implemented, or supported? I guess that would depend on who you are, how you interpret feedback, and perhaps what the circumstances were during the time you were acknowledged. People respond to feedback differently, including positive feedback. The reason for these different responses can be generalized into many categories, but we will use three main ideas in this example; self-perception, perception of others and environment.

Self-perception (i.e. life experiences, self-perceived value, expectations) is how you view yourself. It affects how you interpret situations. For example, maybe you’ve experienced a tough situation at home where a family member was hospitalized, maybe you’re mentally preparing to run a marathon, or maybe you feel self-doubt about your ability to meet the standards of others because you’ve experienced failure in the past. These life events affect how you view yourself and they influence how you interpret feedback from others.

Perception of others (i.e. body language, authority figure, appearance) is how you interpret others. The presentation of others could include the way they dress, the facial cues they communicate, a fragrance they’re wearing, their tone of voice and other verbal and non-verbal cues. All of these human to human signals could remind us of past situations where we experienced a positive or negative emotion. When these emotions are triggered, good or bad, it could affect how you perceive others and this in-turn could affect how you interpret feedback.

Environment (i.e. timing, location, events) can be easily explained by using scenes from a movie. For example, the hero in a movie is saved by a girl who managed to stop a bad guy from getting the hero. The hero dialogues with the girl about how thankful he is that she saved his life. They talk about how if it was only seconds later it would have been too late. Meanwhile other people are trapped inside a burning building, the other bad guys are getting away, a top secret device is being stolen and the audience is yelling at the TV screen to get on with it! Seriously…! Was that the time to take a 5-minute break from all the havoc just to acknowledge someone for the value they added to the situation? Couldn’t a simple “thank you” suffice for the time being and then after all the events have cooled off come back and spend the same 5-minutes to express gratitude? Maybe the hero could offer to take her out for coffee or lunch, give her a thank you card and emphasize the real value that her actions brought to the successful outcome of the situation. It’s been said that timing is everything and in situations for offering feedback, the environment can affect how you interpret feedback.

We can’t always anticipate how positive feedback will be interpreted. Sometimes a simple “thank you” will suffice. However, if it’s followed by “you’re doing a great job, let’s get together for lunch this Thursday” that would be an entirely new level of awesome. Acknowledgments go a long way. They offer a boost in someone’s confidence, it motivates others to keep up the good work, and it reminds others that they are important. It’s critical that we engage and acknowledge others for their efforts. We can only hope that the message will be well received.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
www.linkedin.com/in/EduardoDiazPhD

Technology drives Human Factors

How far will the advancements in technology take us? I remember when I first attended college I became passionate about understanding people. I wanted to identify how and why people respond differently to given situations. Technology has played a significant role in helping me to evaluate the data and with the ever increasing amount of new technology, which allows us to capture more and more information, the opportunity to evaluate data, make correlations, and identify cause and effect is becoming more readily available.

Analyzing data has always been fascinating. I remember during one of my psychology classes we were discussing the behavioral approach to psychology; the belief that environmental or external factors influence and shape our behavior. In this approach observation is a key element to understanding why an individual will respond a certain way to a given situation. For example, if there’s a fire in a bedroom one person will run out of the house for safety while another will find a fire extinguisher, return to the fire and attempt to put it out. Identifying and understanding why these two individuals respond differently to a situation could assist in determining what jobs would be the best fit. However, this is just one factor and it doesn’t exclude someone from a career. If, for example, the person who ran out of the house for safety wanted to become a fire fighter, then having the knowledge that they run away from fire could provide insight into the type of training they will require in order to help them overcome their behavioral response to fire.

With the advancement of technology, it’s possible that we could improve our understanding of how and why certain behaviors are triggered. Technology will enable us to analyze more variables and correlate other factors which influence human behavior. Technology will help us to more accurately determine cause and effect. This information will enable us to improve a behavior response so that a person could improve their skill sets and perform tasks that might not otherwise be possible in given situations.

Advancements in technology will continue to improve our ability to apply new methods for assessing human factor variables. These analytic processes will advance our understanding of human behavior and assessment tools like the Data Driven Approach to Hiring Talent, screening process for selecting Private Astronauts, and team development designed to improve organizational performance.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
www.linkedin.com/in/EduardoDiazPhD

It's Not Me, it's You

Isn’t software development just like a relationship? We either make it work or we dump it and move on. So what is it about development that makes us push beyond those tough moments and overlook the little things? Is our long term vision of what we’re developing the key factor that pulls us forward? Is it our common purpose at work that helps to create our organizational culture? When like-minded people are pulled together because they share the same vision they become a support group for each other, they become the motivation, the drive and they protect each other from outside distractions; a culture develops.

Having a clear vision, a common goal, gives us direction.

So what happens when we reach our destination? What happens when we achieve our goal? Do we marvel at the success of our work? Do we take a deep breath and smile? Or do we dwell in the hard times that we had to overcome in order to achieve our goal? In my own personal experiences it’s usually a quick celebration that could last a few hours over sushi and beer or a weekend break to reflect on the long awaited success. However, it doesn’t take long before I begin thinking about the next project and I start to feel the pull of wanting to get back to the adventure of working with my team and pursuing the next goal.

What is the vision that you share with your colleagues? Do they share the same vision?

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-diaz-phd-12219034

Everything you need to know about Technology

If you ever wonder why we innovate, develop and improve technology, just look at my daughter's smile as she's enjoying a Popsicle made with state of the art refrigeration. It's all about the end user.

Winter during Summer

Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall are often used as a metaphor to refer to the seasons of change as they relate to life. Initially, when I first heard of this idea of applying the seasons to life plans my perspective was more of what I actually do during the winter. I would get stuck on the fascination of winter, never going beyond my personal experiences. For example, I enjoy the winter in terms of skiing down the slopes or building an igloo with my daughter. During the winter I relax with a cup of hot chocolate and mini-marshmallows or a bowl of popcorn while watching a Star Wars trilogy. My ability to apply the metaphor in terms of how it relates to preparing for life and what’s to come never went beyond my actual life experiences until I had children. Once I understood the metaphor it was a life changing moment.

In terms of software development the winter could be a time when Murphy pays a visit (Murphy’s law: “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”). For example, when my colleague and I were improving the response time for end users to retrieve customer information from a SQL database we kept running into a script error in dev. At first it was a simple syntax fix where the wrong character was being used, but when the syntax was no longer the issue it was discovered that the real issue was far worse. Years back we hard coded several pages in order to quick fix something that was crashing our system. After we fixed the issue we had to get back to what we were originally working on at the time and we put off making a more practical, permanent fix to the temporary hard code solution. So as time moved forward we forgot about the hard code. When the problem resurfaced we spent weeks going through the lines of code to properly address the issues. Most of our time was spent recalling the original problem. This event occurred at a time when we were launching new products, increasing sales, and enjoying the fruits of the year. It was our summer that was interrupted by a brief winter. Just like the winter season when plants stop growing and things freeze over our development stopped progressing and we were feeling the pressure from clients and our sales team to get the next release published.

It’s never a question of whether or not seasons will change, it’s a question of when. Making a plan, allowing time for Murphy and being at the ready to address unexpected changes in the seasons of life will help you meet these opportunities and character building days. Sometimes winters can be long, but it helps to understand that just like the changing of seasons it will pass and make way for spring.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-diaz-phd-12219034

The Best Resume Ever Written

When I was growing up I was taught that there’s always room for improvement. For example, when I was in high school there was a teacher who believed that giving students 100% on an assignment was not a good policy. It was his position that the moment he acknowledged that something was 100% he was admitting that it can no longer be improved upon and by default he was limiting his students. I had an employer who shared a similar opinion. She would never give a perfect quarterly review. It was her belief that there’s always opportunity for doing things better. However, she also believed that by giving an employee a perfect score it would either suggest that she overlooked something which could be scrutinized by others or that all past wrong doings by the employee was excused, which ultimately gave the employee a point of argument if they were ever reprimanded (i.e. a get out of jail free card).

As much as I can appreciate the perspectives that each of these individuals offered, I feel that it’s important to acknowledge when something is completed to expectations. It’s important that we have a measure by which we can assess whether or not something is achieved or needs improvement. While it’s true that there’s always opportunity to improve upon something it’s equally important that when someone achieves a level of exceptional work (i.e. meets expectations) it should be celebrated! The same holds true for resumes and the candidates that meet minimum qualifications.

It’s important to have measures in place that will be used to assess a resume against a job description. As you can imagine my team and I receive hundreds of resumes every day. We add them to our applicant tracking system (ATS) and we evaluate the content of each resume against multiple job descriptions. Even as the months and years pass we continue to evaluate resumes in our database against new job requisitions. It’s an ongoing process. In fact, just last month we identified and submitted a candidate for consideration to a developer opportunity. Their resume was in our system for nearly two years! After a resume is parsed into our ATS we assess the information for accuracy against the original document. Then, we source each resume by checking to see if it meets a minimum number of the requirements deemed acceptable for the next step; an interview. The minimum number of requirements deemed acceptable can vary depending on the difficulty of a project and the needs of a project. Often a candidate might be missing one or two of the requirements, but if they have experience in another skill set that is similar to what we are looking to acquire then we would still consider the candidate.

The best resume ever written is one that includes;

· first and last name

· contact phone number

· valid email address

· detailed summary of years of experience

· education

· honest details about where work was performed

· technology skills applied on each project

The best resume ever written is the one created with honesty. If you’re an excellent technology guru who needs help writing a resume I suggest reaching out to almost any recruiter in the tech industry and ask if they would be willing to assess your resume. Most of us are happy to assist in any way that we can.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-diaz-phd-12219034