Important in a job #keepsake

I wrote myself a list in 2000 of what I like in a job, most to least. I think it related to the job I had at the time but suspect it was one of those reflective times when I was thinking about what motivated me with a view to finding the perfect job, rather than seeking to fix something in the one I currently had. Wonder how it maps to what I do today?

1. focussed work on one project
2. control, central knowledge of project – specialist position
3. some hands on e.g. enough to know basic workings of a system
4. technical involvement even if at a high level
5. writing specs/guidelines
6. control of work and workload
7. implementation work – client side i.e. working with clients as they understand and use a new system and feedback/suggest modifications to development company
8. self-delegation and responsibility
9. processing feedback and requirements
10. flexible work hours and telework environment

A process or system gives a sense of expectation.

20 March 2000

At the time I was working at Innovus which had recently bought out Extrados/Spunk Media so having our small web services company swallowed up by a larger corporate probably brought on my evaluation.

Now, as the Community Manager at Xero I’d say this list if applied practically is flipped on its head – I probably still value all these things but in reality:

• I don’t have focussed work on one project, in fact my work is not a project
• My days are interrupt driven by whatever comes my way from a selection of social media sites so in any day I could do one thing or a hundred things. I have no control over my workload in that sense but I also have a manager in a different location and not much contact so am totally autonomous in that regard
• I do work remotely quite a lot but always feel terribly guilty about it
• My entire days are filled with processing feedback and requirements with a certain amount of helping our customers understand how to use Xero and interpreting/translating/feeding modifications back to our own product and development teams
• I don’t have control at a project level or control over my day but I do feel in control (mostly) of Xero’s social media – I am totally responsible for Twitter and other means of responding to customers using social media sites
• I’m getting less and less hands on but I still know the product. I don’t write much any more, let alone specs and guidelines
• My work is all public now like it’s never been before, public and attributable, not just content on a website
• I’m developing a thicker skin – everyone’s watching, colleagues are questioning, the CEO sees what I do

Interesting. Would be good to see this again in another 10 years.