This weekend (October 21st - October 23rd, 2011) is the first annual CMAP GiveCamp to take place at UMBC's Information and Engineering Building. This event begins on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. What is GiveCamp - it's an opportunity for the local technical community to “code for charity”. It is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. Since its inception in 2007, the National GiveCamp program has provided benefits to over 150 charities, with a value of developer and designer time exceeding $1,000,000 in services!
This is CMAP's entree' into planning and holding this event and it's the first GiveCamp to take place in the Baltimore region. I am on the board of CMAP and I am very proud to be involved with this event in which nearly 25 local charities are participating. So much hard work has gone into this and I can't wait to see the results. I am also proud to state that AIS, my employer, is supporting this event.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
How Would You Decide?
I have recently read several articles and blogs about what's important to a candidate when they are considering a new position. Obviously, each candidate has a unique set of circumstances and their own decision-making criteria, but the general categories are "relationships", "work/life balance", "type of work", "company" and "financial considerations".
With each general category, there are subfactors:
Relationships (sample list below)
1.) Who would you report to?
2.) What are the peer to peer dynamics?
3.) Who reports to you?
4.) Are you working within a team?
Work/Life Balance (sample list below)
1.) How many hours a week are you expected to work?
2.) Are you expected to participate in after-hours work events?
3.) Is there a travel component?
2.) What are the commuting expectations?
Type of Work (sample list below)
1.) Will you have more responsibility?
2.) Is the work challenging?
3.) Are you learning new things?
4.) Is the work personally rewarding?
Company (sample list below)
1.) Company location
2.) Organizational culture
3.) Value proposition
4.) Future growth
5.) Prospects for career advancement
6.) Work environment
Financial Considerations (sample list below)
1.) Increase in salary
2.) Potential for incentives
3.) Overall benefits program
4.) Does the company "pay for performance"?
Generally, people look for job stretch. This means some combination of the following:
- More responsibility
- More money
- Better benefits
- More opportunity for career advancement
- More challenging work
What's interesting, especially over the last couple of years, is that salary is typically not the most important factor. Of course, it is part of the decision, but it doesn't solely make the decision. If you could only use of these factors to make a career decision, which would it be? How would you decide?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)