My most disliked attitude: Definitely the "Know it all", it blinds people and often times backs teams into a corner because there wasn't enough input from around the table.
Other disliked attitude: "Complacent developer guy" - Very frustrating trying to move a project along when someone you depend on doesn't want to move forward or put in the work to make great things happen.
Other disliked attitude: "I got this manager job because I have extensive military training" IT Manager. No doubt that I am thankful for your service and we need to make sure we've got opportunities for vets... no politics here. But when you make them the leader of a multi-million dollar IT organization, it's pretty insane. No doubt that I had a lot of laughs in that position though. Very interesting when you try to transform an engineering culture into a group of "rank and file" workers.
Lead Developer, business owner, US Army veteran. I build things for the web. My website is a bunch of HTML pages that didn't need a framework. Yours can be too!
As a military veteran and senior software engineer, I feel like this needs challenging...
In the US Army at least, there's an entire 'Signal Corps' which is in charge of networking/communications/IT for A $trillion+ organization (well, the DOD as a whole is a trillion+ organization)
Even a battalion with a couple of thousand soldiers probably owns and maintains millions of dollars of signal gear. A Signal Warrant Officer or Senior NCO would probably make an amazing IT manager for any size company.
I was infantry myself, with a lifelong interest in IT and engineering. I got out and went straight to work based on previous experience and code-level work I did in the Army as an additional duty (assisted greatly by the GI Bill and a flexible schedule). I have little interest in being a people manager, but I can tell you I have years of experience doing it because of the Army.
The manager might have been bad at managing civilians, or they might have just been incompetent, but hiring Vets (especially in a field their MOS specialized in) is almost always a safer bet for an employer, all other things equal. There's risk with any new hire. I just don't think the cause was because they were former military.
First and foremost, thank you for your service. I'm glad that you were able to get into the industry and pursue a career in a field you were passionate about.
My example is indeed an extreme case and those issues have nothing to do strictly with the person being in the military. The issue I have lies with management hiring someone for the role just because they had military experience. The individual in my example had zero IT experience in the military, and "copy+paste" was literally a miracle to him. Assignments for entry level helpdesk staff and interns were literally cleaning his desk and hanging a huge portrait of the USS Enterprise on his office wall. The portrait was badass though.
I would welcome any former military officer with relevant IT experience into an organization. It is likely that they'll have the drive, commitment and leadership abilities more than many other candidates depending on the role. As you said, it is indeed a safer bet.
Lead Developer, business owner, US Army veteran. I build things for the web. My website is a bunch of HTML pages that didn't need a framework. Yours can be too!
Hey, no issues here... We're not any less prone to being incompetent in fields we never trained in :D, and a lot of guys get out thinking they can do anything, whether they've trained in it or not hahaha!
Yeah, that's definitely a hiring issue. As much as I support hiring Vets, they set him and your whole team up for failure. If he's starting over, a lot of career guys don't realize they might need to start from the bottom in a new field.
We have impressive-sounding jargon and monetary 'responsible for' numbers in our resumes, and may have even handled civilian VP-level tasks (I know I did), but if your skills don't translate then you AND your team are going to be frustrated.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the details!
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My most disliked attitude: Definitely the "Know it all", it blinds people and often times backs teams into a corner because there wasn't enough input from around the table.
Other disliked attitude: "Complacent developer guy" - Very frustrating trying to move a project along when someone you depend on doesn't want to move forward or put in the work to make great things happen.
Other disliked attitude: "I got this manager job because I have extensive military training" IT Manager. No doubt that I am thankful for your service and we need to make sure we've got opportunities for vets... no politics here. But when you make them the leader of a multi-million dollar IT organization, it's pretty insane. No doubt that I had a lot of laughs in that position though. Very interesting when you try to transform an engineering culture into a group of "rank and file" workers.
As a military veteran and senior software engineer, I feel like this needs challenging...
In the US Army at least, there's an entire 'Signal Corps' which is in charge of networking/communications/IT for A $trillion+ organization (well, the DOD as a whole is a trillion+ organization)
Even a battalion with a couple of thousand soldiers probably owns and maintains millions of dollars of signal gear. A Signal Warrant Officer or Senior NCO would probably make an amazing IT manager for any size company.
I was infantry myself, with a lifelong interest in IT and engineering. I got out and went straight to work based on previous experience and code-level work I did in the Army as an additional duty (assisted greatly by the GI Bill and a flexible schedule). I have little interest in being a people manager, but I can tell you I have years of experience doing it because of the Army.
The manager might have been bad at managing civilians, or they might have just been incompetent, but hiring Vets (especially in a field their MOS specialized in) is almost always a safer bet for an employer, all other things equal. There's risk with any new hire. I just don't think the cause was because they were former military.
Hey Scott,
First and foremost, thank you for your service. I'm glad that you were able to get into the industry and pursue a career in a field you were passionate about.
My example is indeed an extreme case and those issues have nothing to do strictly with the person being in the military. The issue I have lies with management hiring someone for the role just because they had military experience. The individual in my example had zero IT experience in the military, and "copy+paste" was literally a miracle to him. Assignments for entry level helpdesk staff and interns were literally cleaning his desk and hanging a huge portrait of the USS Enterprise on his office wall. The portrait was badass though.
I would welcome any former military officer with relevant IT experience into an organization. It is likely that they'll have the drive, commitment and leadership abilities more than many other candidates depending on the role. As you said, it is indeed a safer bet.
Hope this clears things up!
-- Jimmy
Hey, no issues here... We're not any less prone to being incompetent in fields we never trained in :D, and a lot of guys get out thinking they can do anything, whether they've trained in it or not hahaha!
Yeah, that's definitely a hiring issue. As much as I support hiring Vets, they set him and your whole team up for failure. If he's starting over, a lot of career guys don't realize they might need to start from the bottom in a new field.
We have impressive-sounding jargon and monetary 'responsible for' numbers in our resumes, and may have even handled civilian VP-level tasks (I know I did), but if your skills don't translate then you AND your team are going to be frustrated.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the details!