Widgets Update; Mentoring
Widgets: Just an update for Widgets expatriates. The Production department is slowly splitting up--programmers will go to the technology group, Admaster to Sales (and I assume the SPCs too), project managers and other capable people to new product and partner management jobs. I don't know what's going to happen with the designers but getting broken up in to multiple groups organized around areas of work (sales, application development, ?) is likely.
It's likely that this won't be the end of the changes but I think this change (which they've needed for several years) will be an improvement. The next big change they need, something I offered an opinion on in my exit interview (I think she kept a copy if you want to check), is the hiring of an Operations Manager to keep the company running day-to-day by coordinating resources in a planned way according to company priorities. Oh yeah, you have to set priorities...well, it's still a good idea.
Mentoring: A few months ago I got an email at work asking for volunteers to be mentors for new employees. I wasn't sure if I was company-ready enough to mentor but I asked my manager about it and he encouraged me to do it. The people to be mentored are in a special program that lets people right out of college rotate between three jobs in the company during their first two years of work. They get different job experiences, meet a lot of people and create big networks, and have a chance to figure out what they might like to do.
About six weeks ago I received an email saying that a new programmer had started that I could mentor and I would receive two twenty-page books explaining the mentoring program. After I lightly skimmed the material I set up a first meeting during his second week of work.
We've met three times now. I think our last meeting hit the right mix of suggestions from me about training and ways to find information with friendly talk about families and vacations. I also helped him find an expert on some software he had been told to research. The company doesn't demand too much of the mentors (meeting every two or three weeks) but I hope to be helpful.
BTW, the company is celebrating the mentoring program with a lunch next week. We get a ten dollar voucher at the cafeteria (way too much for lunch) and then meet in the special events room for discussion and prizes. I hope I don't wind up with another company lunch bag!
It's likely that this won't be the end of the changes but I think this change (which they've needed for several years) will be an improvement. The next big change they need, something I offered an opinion on in my exit interview (I think she kept a copy if you want to check), is the hiring of an Operations Manager to keep the company running day-to-day by coordinating resources in a planned way according to company priorities. Oh yeah, you have to set priorities...well, it's still a good idea.
Mentoring: A few months ago I got an email at work asking for volunteers to be mentors for new employees. I wasn't sure if I was company-ready enough to mentor but I asked my manager about it and he encouraged me to do it. The people to be mentored are in a special program that lets people right out of college rotate between three jobs in the company during their first two years of work. They get different job experiences, meet a lot of people and create big networks, and have a chance to figure out what they might like to do.
About six weeks ago I received an email saying that a new programmer had started that I could mentor and I would receive two twenty-page books explaining the mentoring program. After I lightly skimmed the material I set up a first meeting during his second week of work.
We've met three times now. I think our last meeting hit the right mix of suggestions from me about training and ways to find information with friendly talk about families and vacations. I also helped him find an expert on some software he had been told to research. The company doesn't demand too much of the mentors (meeting every two or three weeks) but I hope to be helpful.
BTW, the company is celebrating the mentoring program with a lunch next week. We get a ten dollar voucher at the cafeteria (way too much for lunch) and then meet in the special events room for discussion and prizes. I hope I don't wind up with another company lunch bag!
posted by changingagain at 8:57 PM
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