Song of The Day: Severed Hand - Artist: Pearl Jam
To all my diehard fans, 8.8e-07% of Internet users in the US :), of my blog I am officially leaving AOL to pursue new opportunities.
Yesterday, as a part of layoff notices, I was given a severance package. Although I could officially pursue opportunities within AOL until the end of February or so, I do not plan to do so.
I’ve been with AOL over 10 years and want to venture out. Now seems like the perfect time for me to do so. I am actually quite enthusiastic and optimistic about what the future holds! For those that followed the last link, I thought it was quite comical that someone actually gave me one last AOL t-shirt as I was leaving! The AOL-way :). LOL. However, it was not an ‘06-style version of the one shown on Flickr!
On a more serious note, I’ve worked with a lot of talented and dynamic persons over the years and I really appreciate the connections and experiences. I wish everyone well as AOL embarks on its new strategy. I hope to keep in touch through my blog and personal connections.
I could probably write volumes about my experience at AOL; however, there are a few guidelines that I’ve learned and tried to follow, which I think have worked for the most part. Perhaps someone will find them useful as well:
- 1. Pursue what you love and be educated and passionate about it.
- 2. Invest in people (i.e., colleagues and customers); they are the epicenter of success; time invested is time well spent.
- 3. Once committed, grind it out. Be persistent.
- 4. Corporate noise is like 3D stereograms; Look past the noise to see the big picture.
- 5. Don’t take the job or yourself “too” seriously. Take micro-sabbaticals.
So many times I’ve seen folks translate this into a lack of maturity or into a lack of discretion. I recall one of my bosses (i.e., a long time ago so no one currently at AOL is implicated) that scolded me for wanting to write code. The person said, “I’d like to write code too, but I have a job to do.” The person came across like I needed to “grow up” and accept my lack of passion for the current job. I’ve never accepted these notions, and I’m glad I didn’t!
I think this also encompasses “staying sharp” and not getting “too comfortable.” This helps when the career is going well and, especially, if the career takes a different turn. It’s been interesting to me over the years to observe how people have varying ways of keeping their skills and mind sharp: reading books, writing essays, taking classes, writing code, honing algorithms or math, etc.
No one way is necessarily right or better compared to another IMHO. The important thing is to stay sharp and relevant in one’s field.
Some folks pay this “lip service” because it is hard to execute, which is unfortunate. However, corporate cultures that value people (i.e., relationships, skills, expertise, etc.) always have a better probability of success IMHO. There are many examples I could share, and I won’t now, but this tenet has always paid off for me.
Here is an except from Michael Abrash:
My friend David Stafford, co-founder of the game company Cinematronics, says that shipping software is an unnatural act, and he’s right. Most of the fun stuff in a software project happens early on, when anything’s possible and there’s a ton of new code to write. By the end of a project, the design is carved in stone, and most of the work involves fixing bugs, or trying to figure out how to shoehorn in yet another feature that was never planned for in the original design. All that is a lot less fun than starting a project, and often very hard work–but it has to be done before the project can ship. As a former manager of mine liked to say, “After you finish the first 90% of a project, you have to finish the other 90%.” It’s that second 90% that’s the key to success.
…
A lot of programmers get to that second 90%, get tired and bored and frustrated, and change jobs, or lose focus, or find excuses to procrastinate. There are a million ways not to finish a project, but there’s only one way to finish: Put your head down and grind it out until it’s done. Do that, and I promise you the programming world will be yours.
I don’t have anything more to add except that this transfers to other non-techie type tasks as well.
I recall early on that I was fairly unhappy in a particular circumstance. One day it dawned on me that I had “choices.” I could do something about it or accept it. I had finally seen past the “noise” of the situation to the bigger picture. I stopped complaining and changed my situation for the better.
It is good to be serious about what you want to do and how to go about doing it, but I think it is also important to have some fun along the way and to step back and take a fresh look at situations outside the day-to-day grind.
We’ve probably all heard about Gates’ Think Week. It’s a time that he collects papers, and thoughts, and contemplates the future of the industry and Microsoft. Maybe you’ve seen a few of Sree Kotay’s posts before :).
For me it surface[s|d] in various ways: joking with a colleague, blogging, contributing to open source initiatives, etc. Even taking up an “unrelated” hobby, like I did with astronomy or running, may allow one to rejuvenate and to take a fresh perspective on current situations.
Well, that’s not a lot, but there it is. That’s over 10 years of AOL into 5 bullets (one point per 2 years). I am now “distinguished in the art of PowerPoint.”
As far as further reflection (e.g., best of times, worst of times, etc.), well, I don’t feel the need for that right now. Perhaps in the future I will have more to say, who knows? :)
Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, AOL