April 30, 2019 at 04:20That guy's resume
Friends, we are incredibly lucky. That guy hadn't left yet, and I asked him for a resume. Not because I want to take him to work - I'm not that person. It just seems to me that it's worth it to be published. If only because it has 22k letters. Have you ever met such a nightmare somewhere?
And this guy claims that this is how one should write a resume. Decent people will not read papers filled in according to standard site forms. I do not know whether he is right or not - you are the judge. Well, in fact, let's see if he finds work with such a sheet or not.
So, next - a solid quote without my edits.
I do not like standard resumes. But objectively I understand that you, most likely, know nothing about me, and this gap needs to be filled. Therefore, I will write an unusual resume. Summary article.
Pour some tea or coffee, we have a longrid here.
For many years of work in IT, I realized that it is more interesting not the list of companies in which a person worked, but the roles that he performed. And what successes on these roles he achieved.
I was on the following roles and functions:
1. 1C programmer;
2. programmer js;
3. team leader;
4. project manager;
5. IT director;
6. business programmer;
7. a writer of texts;
8. product manager;
9. strategist;
10. business partner.
I’ll tell you more about each of the roles.
This is a role that I have not parted since the first day of my work. Whatever I do, I always programmed in 1C. Just a little bit.
I love 1C and program on it. I sincerely believe that 1C programmers are the most underrated kind of people. But, this does not stop me from loving, for example, javascript. I have long gone beyond the age of holivars, and I understand: for each task there is a solution.
So, do not be distracted ... I am a very good 1C programmer. Not to be confused with coders, architects and other evil spirits. There were almost no 1C programmers in the world, and it is high time we were put in the Red Book.
A 1C programmer is a person who understands a business task without technical specifications, functional requirements and other bureaucracy. As my mother-in-law accountant said about such people, “I haven’t finished yet, but he’s already sausage something.” Business users love such programmers if they are allowed to work directly, without the mediation of an effective manager.
What I just did not do as a 1C programmer. Implemented soft starter in large factories when he worked in 1C franchisee. Created my own configurations. I finalized a typical soft starter for 1C (if you have it installed, then there is my code). I wrote a bunch of subsystems - planning, procurement management, sales, CRM, strategic indicators, task management, cost management, cost discovery, MDM, working with third-party web services, etc. Simply put, almost everything there, in this 1C, is.
There are several generally accepted hits on which you can evaluate my decisions. For example, the cost structure, which sold thousands of copies. Nothing more decent in exploring costs over the years has come up. Or take a data check - the best tool for ensuring data quality. Or the same auto tasks - a fundamentally new approach to control automation. Or read the description of the bottle subsystems.
In general, it’s easier to list what I didn’t do there. I did not work much with retail. I don’t know all kinds of ticket offices there. The theme, although hype, but some kind of non-programmer, or something ...
I have an author's approach to automation, called customization on the fly. There is an article of the same name on this subject - read it if you want. The essence is simple: I create universal tools that allow you to quickly solve a specific class of problems. For example, checking data when writing directories / documents. By programming, each check is added in half an hour, and through the tool in a couple of minutes. I created 30-40 such tools. The auto tasks mentioned above and data verification also apply to them.
The role is relatively new to me, but worth mentioning - suddenly it is important to you.
I understood the programming language itself and fell in love quickly enough. Especially after 1C, it breaks the brain straight - where is it seen so that the function is a property? Yes, in 1C with such capabilities we would have turned mountains!
But I cannot call myself a direct js programmer, because I did not have time to understand the related technologies, which after 1C are not easy. For example, I don’t know how webpacks work. That is, I’ll write the code, but I don’t know where to put it.
The matter, of course, is fixable, just experience is not enough.
One of my favorite roles. In this position, I have achieved particular success.
The main thing: I learned to build effective work. It sounds, of course, like a standard phrase from a standard resume. But I also have numbers: efficiency increased 4 times. Just like that - programmers under my leadership do 4 times more work in an identical period of time.
It’s not in me, but in the technique. I mixed Scrum, Theory of Constraints, boundary management, statistical process control, volumetric scheduling, methods of the Roman Catholic Church, Genghis Khan, Belbin, controlling and a lot of other things, including one that I invented.
From each technique I took the best. And only what works, i.e. really improves efficiency. Then everything went wild.
Since then, I can’t pass by without tears those who “we work on Scrum”, or “we settled on DevOps”, or “the best practice - Kanban”. Not if you like to work at low revs, but have a beautiful flag and certificate in your hands - for God's sake.
In real life, none of us lives by any one technique. They sleep one by one, eat another, communicate with children in the third, and on the bike they drive in the fourth. And in total, a happy life is obtained. And it suits everyone. Why arrange this circus at work? Unless to feed reputable consultants.
I doubted my methodology for a long time, because no one undertook to implement it at home. And recently, someone took it. And got similar results. Even in the money has grown. So there is no more doubt.
The technique is quite formalized for myself - I even wrote a half-book about it, somehow, on occasion, I’ll finish it. There is no process and requirements - just a set of tools suitable for specific situations.
So, if you want to see me as your team leader, know what I will do - to increase the team’s work efficiency. So that she gives out the result faster.
Well and yes, I can work with people. I talk with them, I can find a common goal, which includes private and personal. I understand the differences in psychology, and I will not force the performer to generate ideas, and the idea generator to write reports.
Perhaps the main achievement can be called the opinion of the guys from the team: we want to work with you. Even if you do not like the company in which the business takes place.
Of course, they are ready to work hard. With all my heart and with all diligence. To experiment, try new approaches, develop, learn technology, delve into the business mud. They understand why.
I do not really like this role, because I get into a rage and am very fond of. Especially when the goal is clear.
For example, there was such a project - to put the warehouse in order. Accounting was a curve, up to half of the warehouse turned out to be in deviations according to the inventory results. The goal was set simple - to reduce deviations to 5%. I was so carried away that I reduced it to 0.1%.
The project was comprehensive - these are much more interesting. I programmed there, and rewrote the processes, and came up with a system of motivation and fines, and I worked out political intrigues.
But if in general, then I am close to project management using flexible methods. Again, not “we manage Scrum projects,” but a sane mixture of methods that produce results.
Somewhere I am tough, especially in terms of data quality control, if required by the project. I work with the list of tasks very clearly and formally, otherwise people like to organize a parade of hoteliers, splashing out negative things and chewing snot. I rank the tasks as clearly as possible, according to several criteria - for example, by value for the next release.
He even invented his own technique, on the basis of flexible ones - called “Rides”. I haven’t told anywhere yet, because she has not yet taken shape. Allows you to run several projects at the same time, reducing what fashion guys call time to market.
In short, in project management, I focus on the business result, and not on the smearing of snot on the budget. Extremely fast, but without loss of quality. And releases more often.
Well, 100,500 times I was convinced of the correctness of the Pareto principle. No matter how you try, no matter how you veil, but still the result is provided by 20% of the work, and 80% - unnecessary garbage.
One of my favorite roles. I grumbled in it for several years.
When you read the resume of CIOs, you fall asleep on the third line. They list some technologies, software products, all in English, which they successfully implemented. And who the hell, when will he write how this helped the business.
And when you directly ask about the benefits for business, they look like a madman. Our goal, they say, is to support IT infrastructure. But guys, let me ... Supporting IT infrastructure is the goal of system administrators. These are excellent, very smart guys who know their job very well. It was from their resume that you wrote off all your smart words in English.
The main goal of the CIO is to develop the business by all available means. Actually, like any other director.
Support is, of course, how to brush your teeth in the mornings and evenings. To be proud that the entire IT infrastructure works, of course, is possible, but only if it was lying on your side before you.
I am a bad CIO. So would say any other director who worked next to me. Only the owner considered me a good CIO.
Because I did not give rest to anyone. It’s not enough for me to know which process needs to be automated. I need to know the process. And also find out why he is so clumsy. And also to improve it. Yes, I don’t need to know - I’ll come and say that the process is bad. Especially if it spoils life to other processes.
I will offer a comprehensive solution for changes - the process, and the motivation, and the goal, and the management system, and, like a cherry on the cake, automation. Of course, if a person wants to develop his department.
And then there are a lot of leaders for whom the main thing is to sit still. Development is contraindicated in this way, the main thing is to maintain one’s power.
If the chief accountant asks me for the support of his employees by programmers, I automate routine operations, establish data quality control and track metrics by data entry time, in order to dismiss a couple of accountants in the end.
If the procurement director asks me to add a checkmark to the order, I implement a needs calculation system with personalization of security tasks, and now every second I know who normally fulfills her duties and who just came to sit. In the end, by the way, it turned out that a young, new employee works best of all, and two old inveterate supply workers are kicking the bulldozer.
The wider the CIO looks at tasks, the better. So I decided for myself. True, he ceases to be an IT director, but turns into a misunderstanding of whom. Something like a development director. Or a business programmer.
I coined the term myself. The meaning is this: this is a person who changes business as a system.
I became a business programmer when I was an IT director. And I remain a business programmer to this day. Maybe you will be like that.
There is a programmer in the world. He is changing the information system. Every day makes some changes to it. Sometimes - on someone’s assignment. Sometimes - at your own discretion.
For example, he sees that in a certain place the system slows down, crashes, and does not allow processes to go at normal speed. It includes debugging, performance measurement, finds the cause of the brakes and eliminates it. A normal job, which, as a rule, no one notices.
So, you can do the same with ordinary business processes. There is, for example, a sales process. It starts with the customer’s call, ends with the receipt of money in the current account, if we have postpay.
A business programmer looks at this process, and understands - yeah, trouble! Three months from a call to money. Nightmare.
And it acts just like a programmer. He watches the whole chain from start to finish, with measurements, a photograph of the working day and data analysis. Yeah, I found that the products are serial, but they’re always out of stock, the customer has to wait. It is necessary to form and maintain a buffer, according to the Theory of Constraints.
Decided and done. Automated, made changes to the supply process - so that they were purchased not only at the request of customers, but also to replenish the buffer - and voila, the customer calls, and after an hour his order has already been assembled.
Or another case - an IT service. Too long time from the appearance of the customer's application to payment. A business programmer watches, and sees - there is not enough banal regular management. A person accepting applications for work looks at them once every two days. We put it on the counter, add the metric, or some SLA - and everything, how nice it takes for an hour.
We look further - the task has become a priority, but the programmer does not. We understand why. If the system is just a curve and allows it to sort the list on its own, we change it, because freedom of choice is destructive. If the programmer thinks too much about himself, then we determine the metric for him too - following the order. And we bring it into the motivation system - do it in the order you like, but at a discount.
You understood the principle. Do not just analyze like a business analyst. Do not just complete tasks as a programmer. Do not work with one part of the business system, such as automation, motivation, processes, etc., but with all at once. Act on the lever that will lead to the result faster, and not on the one that is closer, clearer or more accessible.
So, I am a business programmer. True, on one condition - if it allows me. And if they don’t allow it, I’m trying to achieve this. Well, there it goes.
Yes, I turned business programming into a science. I wrote and continue to write about methods, practices and cases. You never know, suddenly someone else wants to go this way.
I ended up playing this role by accident. Just at some point, two years ago, I decided to write a couple of articles, and then off and on.
At first, he simply wrote what and how it turns out, without any purpose. But gradually, over time, I realized the power of this instrument - texts.
For most people, writing a text is a terrible, unpleasant, difficult task. Write the code - please. Release is easy. And to write the text about this code, release or product - no, thank you.
As a result, one creates the product, and the text creates the other. Inevitably there is a deaf phone and, as they say on the Internet, a "marketer of detective."
A bunch of useful products that disappear into obscurity, because they are written about a curved text, if at all written. A lot of smart people creating masterpieces disappear in vain, because they can not express their thoughts in the form of letters.
Well, the most unpleasant thing is millions of faceless company websites, with the same texts like “people are our main asset”, dead news sections and terrible pages about corporate life at the kindergarten level (“oh, look, we are collecting garbage!”, “Hooray, they brought us a new transformer!” Or “Look, we went to the conference!”).
So, I mastered writing texts well. I can write technical articles, instructions and descriptions of programs and services. I can write entertaining articles promoting these very products and services. I can write something like hudlite. I can write moralizing. I can write news. In short, I can write almost everything.
It is clear that I am far from professionals, some copywriters or bloggers. But there is a difference, I’m an IT specialist, and I continue to be one. For me, writing texts is an auxiliary tool. He promotes products, company, methods, and sometimes me. Roughly speaking, I write between things when a minute is given out. Well, when is it useful for business.
I included writing of texts in the resume simply because other friends, as a rule, ignore this skill. Although it seems to be useful.
There are formal achievements. I write on two sites - Infostart and Habr. On Infostart, I - in the first place in the rating, on Habré - I swim, I got to the second (there the rating decreases over time). So, just in case, I mentioned, suddenly this is important to you.
The role for me is relatively new, but progress is pleasing. I have been managing product development for less than a year.
The first product was, in fact, the site (the link is in the profile). My business partner made the technique, I filled the site with content. There is something to read, there are services - task management and life management.
Task management was my second product. As I mentioned in the Timlider section, I have a task management technique that can significantly increase work efficiency. Part of this technique is completely realized by technical means, which is reflected in the product. True, I did not have time to launch it to the masses.
Life management has become the third product. This is a cool service that allows you to manage the balance in life by registering activities. There was only one article about him, but we quickly got about a thousand users. Then one sensible programmer made a mobile application with the same logic and, like a good person, gave a link to my article. I may still be developing this product - there are a lot of plans for it. Personally, he changed my life a lot.
Then there was 1Snny product called Flowcon. This thing started to bring money directly, and I did it myself. For 4 months they sold 16 subscriptions, there were several releases, and the prospects are the most promising. And all this - without advertising, sales managers, demonstrations, etc. Texts only.
There was, or rather - there is another product, but I can not talk about it, because NDA. But he is so cool that he still throws shivers - could I really come up with this?
Yes, there is still body-math.com. Do not follow the link, there is nothing there. I came up with and tested on myself how to lose weight without diets, fitness, pills and diet restrictions. A purely engineering approach, machine learning, and common sense. I will definitely complete this project.
I repeat, all this - in less than a year, by two people. Despite the fact that we also earned money with ordinary projects and services.
I won’t call myself a decent product manager - there is little experience. But he is.
It sounds beautiful, in fact - nothing special. I just had to manage the strategic change of the company as a whole twice in my life. Both times, alas, the rope suddenly broke.
There are two pillars in strategic development: purpose and principles.
First you need to clearly and clearly articulate the purpose of the changes - what the company should become.
In the first case, it was an increase in sales. I don’t remember exactly - every 2 or 3 times.
In the second - the sale of self-service products and services (to sell and work without our participation, because we are few).
When the goal is chosen, it is necessary to formulate the principles of movement towards it. At this moment, one usually wants to write not principles, but concrete events and projects - it’s better not to do so. Because the understanding of the connection between actions and goals is very quickly lost.
And principles serve as a link between purpose and action. For example, to increase sales, there were such principles: increase in passage (according to TOC) and the number of supply chains. For the sale of services, the principle is even simpler: give all your free time to the development and release of services.
Then come up with events, projects, tasks, etc. But, since there is a principle, you can always evaluate the feasibility of an event.
Offer to develop a new product? Well, consistent with the principle of increasing the number of supply chains. But at this particular moment it contradicts the principle of increasing the passage, because there is no way to push through. So get in line.
The client came in, wants an implementation project? Alas, friend, it’s not fate - you will delay the achievement of the strategic goal for at least a year.
The chief accountant wants to introduce some kind of reconciliation management service? Does not comply with any of the principles, alas. Not only that - it also reduces the passage, because people directly involved in sales will begin to be distracted by some nonsense.
The first strategy was implemented successfully, but not for long. A new director came and said that he would lead the strategy.
The second strategy was implemented for a long time and not very successfully, because at the very beginning, a mistake was made - not everyone agreed with the goal. Therefore, periodically the strategy stalled, but still crawled. If the goal is wrong, then you can not waste time.
A smaller strategy had to implement hundreds. Just like you. Each product, project, task, person, etc. there is a strategy, just no one calls it that. And this text has a strategic goal and principles. I will not tell only which ones.
And finally, the latest experience. For two years I was a partner in a two-person business.
The most interesting thing for me in this experience is the opportunity and the need to do everything in a row. This was not in any of the previous roles. Especially considering that there were two of us, without subordinates.
Actually, you need to work - to program, introduce something to customers, solve their problems, provide support, answer questions, etc.
You have to do something with sales - write texts, create communities, correspond, chat, demonstrate, etc.
It is necessary to somehow control the cash flows, so as not to remain without pants.
It is necessary, with grief in half, to implement the company's development strategy.
It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of everything that comes to hand - programming, working with texts, solving customer problems, etc.
We must constantly think about the future. No, not so ... We must constantly worry about the future, because there is no one else.
Well, and most importantly - one must be aware of responsibility. This is probably the key difference from hired work. Do not work - no money. Work - there is money. Although it happens that you work, but there is no money.
Actually, everything that I did as a business partner was written above - products, services and the strategy that generated them. On the whole, the experience was damn useful, but it remained incomplete - it was not possible to achieve the strategic goal, which upsets me immensely.
I have not mentioned a couple of roles from the field of IT that I performed in life. For example, I was once a system administrator. But, firstly, it was a very long time ago, and secondly, I no longer claim this role.
But the main buzz, of course, is not in specific roles, but in their mutual penetration. The more positions I took, the better I understand and fulfill each of them.
Only having been an IT director did I understand the mistakes of myself as a programmer. Having only worked as a business partner, I realized how poorly I understood the business as an IT director. Having created my first products, I realized how to make projects. Having written hundreds of articles, I realized why programmers for hours do not dare to call the client. Only after successful team leadership did I manage to become a leader in company changes. Only thanks to business programming I know that in any company in our country there is something to do.
And in which role you need me, decide for yourself. I am interested in each. And I will still bring in particles of the rest, if it is more effective.
And this guy claims that this is how one should write a resume. Decent people will not read papers filled in according to standard site forms. I do not know whether he is right or not - you are the judge. Well, in fact, let's see if he finds work with such a sheet or not.
So, next - a solid quote without my edits.
I do not like standard resumes. But objectively I understand that you, most likely, know nothing about me, and this gap needs to be filled. Therefore, I will write an unusual resume. Summary article.
Pour some tea or coffee, we have a longrid here.
Roles
For many years of work in IT, I realized that it is more interesting not the list of companies in which a person worked, but the roles that he performed. And what successes on these roles he achieved.
I was on the following roles and functions:
1. 1C programmer;
2. programmer js;
3. team leader;
4. project manager;
5. IT director;
6. business programmer;
7. a writer of texts;
8. product manager;
9. strategist;
10. business partner.
I’ll tell you more about each of the roles.
Programmer 1C
This is a role that I have not parted since the first day of my work. Whatever I do, I always programmed in 1C. Just a little bit.
I love 1C and program on it. I sincerely believe that 1C programmers are the most underrated kind of people. But, this does not stop me from loving, for example, javascript. I have long gone beyond the age of holivars, and I understand: for each task there is a solution.
So, do not be distracted ... I am a very good 1C programmer. Not to be confused with coders, architects and other evil spirits. There were almost no 1C programmers in the world, and it is high time we were put in the Red Book.
A 1C programmer is a person who understands a business task without technical specifications, functional requirements and other bureaucracy. As my mother-in-law accountant said about such people, “I haven’t finished yet, but he’s already sausage something.” Business users love such programmers if they are allowed to work directly, without the mediation of an effective manager.
What I just did not do as a 1C programmer. Implemented soft starter in large factories when he worked in 1C franchisee. Created my own configurations. I finalized a typical soft starter for 1C (if you have it installed, then there is my code). I wrote a bunch of subsystems - planning, procurement management, sales, CRM, strategic indicators, task management, cost management, cost discovery, MDM, working with third-party web services, etc. Simply put, almost everything there, in this 1C, is.
There are several generally accepted hits on which you can evaluate my decisions. For example, the cost structure, which sold thousands of copies. Nothing more decent in exploring costs over the years has come up. Or take a data check - the best tool for ensuring data quality. Or the same auto tasks - a fundamentally new approach to control automation. Or read the description of the bottle subsystems.
In general, it’s easier to list what I didn’t do there. I did not work much with retail. I don’t know all kinds of ticket offices there. The theme, although hype, but some kind of non-programmer, or something ...
I have an author's approach to automation, called customization on the fly. There is an article of the same name on this subject - read it if you want. The essence is simple: I create universal tools that allow you to quickly solve a specific class of problems. For example, checking data when writing directories / documents. By programming, each check is added in half an hour, and through the tool in a couple of minutes. I created 30-40 such tools. The auto tasks mentioned above and data verification also apply to them.
Js programmer
The role is relatively new to me, but worth mentioning - suddenly it is important to you.
I understood the programming language itself and fell in love quickly enough. Especially after 1C, it breaks the brain straight - where is it seen so that the function is a property? Yes, in 1C with such capabilities we would have turned mountains!
But I cannot call myself a direct js programmer, because I did not have time to understand the related technologies, which after 1C are not easy. For example, I don’t know how webpacks work. That is, I’ll write the code, but I don’t know where to put it.
The matter, of course, is fixable, just experience is not enough.
Team leader
One of my favorite roles. In this position, I have achieved particular success.
The main thing: I learned to build effective work. It sounds, of course, like a standard phrase from a standard resume. But I also have numbers: efficiency increased 4 times. Just like that - programmers under my leadership do 4 times more work in an identical period of time.
It’s not in me, but in the technique. I mixed Scrum, Theory of Constraints, boundary management, statistical process control, volumetric scheduling, methods of the Roman Catholic Church, Genghis Khan, Belbin, controlling and a lot of other things, including one that I invented.
From each technique I took the best. And only what works, i.e. really improves efficiency. Then everything went wild.
Since then, I can’t pass by without tears those who “we work on Scrum”, or “we settled on DevOps”, or “the best practice - Kanban”. Not if you like to work at low revs, but have a beautiful flag and certificate in your hands - for God's sake.
In real life, none of us lives by any one technique. They sleep one by one, eat another, communicate with children in the third, and on the bike they drive in the fourth. And in total, a happy life is obtained. And it suits everyone. Why arrange this circus at work? Unless to feed reputable consultants.
I doubted my methodology for a long time, because no one undertook to implement it at home. And recently, someone took it. And got similar results. Even in the money has grown. So there is no more doubt.
The technique is quite formalized for myself - I even wrote a half-book about it, somehow, on occasion, I’ll finish it. There is no process and requirements - just a set of tools suitable for specific situations.
So, if you want to see me as your team leader, know what I will do - to increase the team’s work efficiency. So that she gives out the result faster.
Well and yes, I can work with people. I talk with them, I can find a common goal, which includes private and personal. I understand the differences in psychology, and I will not force the performer to generate ideas, and the idea generator to write reports.
Perhaps the main achievement can be called the opinion of the guys from the team: we want to work with you. Even if you do not like the company in which the business takes place.
Of course, they are ready to work hard. With all my heart and with all diligence. To experiment, try new approaches, develop, learn technology, delve into the business mud. They understand why.
Project manager
I do not really like this role, because I get into a rage and am very fond of. Especially when the goal is clear.
For example, there was such a project - to put the warehouse in order. Accounting was a curve, up to half of the warehouse turned out to be in deviations according to the inventory results. The goal was set simple - to reduce deviations to 5%. I was so carried away that I reduced it to 0.1%.
The project was comprehensive - these are much more interesting. I programmed there, and rewrote the processes, and came up with a system of motivation and fines, and I worked out political intrigues.
But if in general, then I am close to project management using flexible methods. Again, not “we manage Scrum projects,” but a sane mixture of methods that produce results.
Somewhere I am tough, especially in terms of data quality control, if required by the project. I work with the list of tasks very clearly and formally, otherwise people like to organize a parade of hoteliers, splashing out negative things and chewing snot. I rank the tasks as clearly as possible, according to several criteria - for example, by value for the next release.
He even invented his own technique, on the basis of flexible ones - called “Rides”. I haven’t told anywhere yet, because she has not yet taken shape. Allows you to run several projects at the same time, reducing what fashion guys call time to market.
In short, in project management, I focus on the business result, and not on the smearing of snot on the budget. Extremely fast, but without loss of quality. And releases more often.
Well, 100,500 times I was convinced of the correctness of the Pareto principle. No matter how you try, no matter how you veil, but still the result is provided by 20% of the work, and 80% - unnecessary garbage.
IT Director
One of my favorite roles. I grumbled in it for several years.
When you read the resume of CIOs, you fall asleep on the third line. They list some technologies, software products, all in English, which they successfully implemented. And who the hell, when will he write how this helped the business.
And when you directly ask about the benefits for business, they look like a madman. Our goal, they say, is to support IT infrastructure. But guys, let me ... Supporting IT infrastructure is the goal of system administrators. These are excellent, very smart guys who know their job very well. It was from their resume that you wrote off all your smart words in English.
The main goal of the CIO is to develop the business by all available means. Actually, like any other director.
Support is, of course, how to brush your teeth in the mornings and evenings. To be proud that the entire IT infrastructure works, of course, is possible, but only if it was lying on your side before you.
I am a bad CIO. So would say any other director who worked next to me. Only the owner considered me a good CIO.
Because I did not give rest to anyone. It’s not enough for me to know which process needs to be automated. I need to know the process. And also find out why he is so clumsy. And also to improve it. Yes, I don’t need to know - I’ll come and say that the process is bad. Especially if it spoils life to other processes.
I will offer a comprehensive solution for changes - the process, and the motivation, and the goal, and the management system, and, like a cherry on the cake, automation. Of course, if a person wants to develop his department.
And then there are a lot of leaders for whom the main thing is to sit still. Development is contraindicated in this way, the main thing is to maintain one’s power.
If the chief accountant asks me for the support of his employees by programmers, I automate routine operations, establish data quality control and track metrics by data entry time, in order to dismiss a couple of accountants in the end.
If the procurement director asks me to add a checkmark to the order, I implement a needs calculation system with personalization of security tasks, and now every second I know who normally fulfills her duties and who just came to sit. In the end, by the way, it turned out that a young, new employee works best of all, and two old inveterate supply workers are kicking the bulldozer.
The wider the CIO looks at tasks, the better. So I decided for myself. True, he ceases to be an IT director, but turns into a misunderstanding of whom. Something like a development director. Or a business programmer.
Business programmer
I coined the term myself. The meaning is this: this is a person who changes business as a system.
I became a business programmer when I was an IT director. And I remain a business programmer to this day. Maybe you will be like that.
There is a programmer in the world. He is changing the information system. Every day makes some changes to it. Sometimes - on someone’s assignment. Sometimes - at your own discretion.
For example, he sees that in a certain place the system slows down, crashes, and does not allow processes to go at normal speed. It includes debugging, performance measurement, finds the cause of the brakes and eliminates it. A normal job, which, as a rule, no one notices.
So, you can do the same with ordinary business processes. There is, for example, a sales process. It starts with the customer’s call, ends with the receipt of money in the current account, if we have postpay.
A business programmer looks at this process, and understands - yeah, trouble! Three months from a call to money. Nightmare.
And it acts just like a programmer. He watches the whole chain from start to finish, with measurements, a photograph of the working day and data analysis. Yeah, I found that the products are serial, but they’re always out of stock, the customer has to wait. It is necessary to form and maintain a buffer, according to the Theory of Constraints.
Decided and done. Automated, made changes to the supply process - so that they were purchased not only at the request of customers, but also to replenish the buffer - and voila, the customer calls, and after an hour his order has already been assembled.
Or another case - an IT service. Too long time from the appearance of the customer's application to payment. A business programmer watches, and sees - there is not enough banal regular management. A person accepting applications for work looks at them once every two days. We put it on the counter, add the metric, or some SLA - and everything, how nice it takes for an hour.
We look further - the task has become a priority, but the programmer does not. We understand why. If the system is just a curve and allows it to sort the list on its own, we change it, because freedom of choice is destructive. If the programmer thinks too much about himself, then we determine the metric for him too - following the order. And we bring it into the motivation system - do it in the order you like, but at a discount.
You understood the principle. Do not just analyze like a business analyst. Do not just complete tasks as a programmer. Do not work with one part of the business system, such as automation, motivation, processes, etc., but with all at once. Act on the lever that will lead to the result faster, and not on the one that is closer, clearer or more accessible.
So, I am a business programmer. True, on one condition - if it allows me. And if they don’t allow it, I’m trying to achieve this. Well, there it goes.
Yes, I turned business programming into a science. I wrote and continue to write about methods, practices and cases. You never know, suddenly someone else wants to go this way.
Text writer
I ended up playing this role by accident. Just at some point, two years ago, I decided to write a couple of articles, and then off and on.
At first, he simply wrote what and how it turns out, without any purpose. But gradually, over time, I realized the power of this instrument - texts.
For most people, writing a text is a terrible, unpleasant, difficult task. Write the code - please. Release is easy. And to write the text about this code, release or product - no, thank you.
As a result, one creates the product, and the text creates the other. Inevitably there is a deaf phone and, as they say on the Internet, a "marketer of detective."
A bunch of useful products that disappear into obscurity, because they are written about a curved text, if at all written. A lot of smart people creating masterpieces disappear in vain, because they can not express their thoughts in the form of letters.
Well, the most unpleasant thing is millions of faceless company websites, with the same texts like “people are our main asset”, dead news sections and terrible pages about corporate life at the kindergarten level (“oh, look, we are collecting garbage!”, “Hooray, they brought us a new transformer!” Or “Look, we went to the conference!”).
So, I mastered writing texts well. I can write technical articles, instructions and descriptions of programs and services. I can write entertaining articles promoting these very products and services. I can write something like hudlite. I can write moralizing. I can write news. In short, I can write almost everything.
It is clear that I am far from professionals, some copywriters or bloggers. But there is a difference, I’m an IT specialist, and I continue to be one. For me, writing texts is an auxiliary tool. He promotes products, company, methods, and sometimes me. Roughly speaking, I write between things when a minute is given out. Well, when is it useful for business.
I included writing of texts in the resume simply because other friends, as a rule, ignore this skill. Although it seems to be useful.
There are formal achievements. I write on two sites - Infostart and Habr. On Infostart, I - in the first place in the rating, on Habré - I swim, I got to the second (there the rating decreases over time). So, just in case, I mentioned, suddenly this is important to you.
Product manager
The role for me is relatively new, but progress is pleasing. I have been managing product development for less than a year.
The first product was, in fact, the site (the link is in the profile). My business partner made the technique, I filled the site with content. There is something to read, there are services - task management and life management.
Task management was my second product. As I mentioned in the Timlider section, I have a task management technique that can significantly increase work efficiency. Part of this technique is completely realized by technical means, which is reflected in the product. True, I did not have time to launch it to the masses.
Life management has become the third product. This is a cool service that allows you to manage the balance in life by registering activities. There was only one article about him, but we quickly got about a thousand users. Then one sensible programmer made a mobile application with the same logic and, like a good person, gave a link to my article. I may still be developing this product - there are a lot of plans for it. Personally, he changed my life a lot.
Then there was 1Snny product called Flowcon. This thing started to bring money directly, and I did it myself. For 4 months they sold 16 subscriptions, there were several releases, and the prospects are the most promising. And all this - without advertising, sales managers, demonstrations, etc. Texts only.
There was, or rather - there is another product, but I can not talk about it, because NDA. But he is so cool that he still throws shivers - could I really come up with this?
Yes, there is still body-math.com. Do not follow the link, there is nothing there. I came up with and tested on myself how to lose weight without diets, fitness, pills and diet restrictions. A purely engineering approach, machine learning, and common sense. I will definitely complete this project.
I repeat, all this - in less than a year, by two people. Despite the fact that we also earned money with ordinary projects and services.
I won’t call myself a decent product manager - there is little experience. But he is.
Strategist
It sounds beautiful, in fact - nothing special. I just had to manage the strategic change of the company as a whole twice in my life. Both times, alas, the rope suddenly broke.
There are two pillars in strategic development: purpose and principles.
First you need to clearly and clearly articulate the purpose of the changes - what the company should become.
In the first case, it was an increase in sales. I don’t remember exactly - every 2 or 3 times.
In the second - the sale of self-service products and services (to sell and work without our participation, because we are few).
When the goal is chosen, it is necessary to formulate the principles of movement towards it. At this moment, one usually wants to write not principles, but concrete events and projects - it’s better not to do so. Because the understanding of the connection between actions and goals is very quickly lost.
And principles serve as a link between purpose and action. For example, to increase sales, there were such principles: increase in passage (according to TOC) and the number of supply chains. For the sale of services, the principle is even simpler: give all your free time to the development and release of services.
Then come up with events, projects, tasks, etc. But, since there is a principle, you can always evaluate the feasibility of an event.
Offer to develop a new product? Well, consistent with the principle of increasing the number of supply chains. But at this particular moment it contradicts the principle of increasing the passage, because there is no way to push through. So get in line.
The client came in, wants an implementation project? Alas, friend, it’s not fate - you will delay the achievement of the strategic goal for at least a year.
The chief accountant wants to introduce some kind of reconciliation management service? Does not comply with any of the principles, alas. Not only that - it also reduces the passage, because people directly involved in sales will begin to be distracted by some nonsense.
The first strategy was implemented successfully, but not for long. A new director came and said that he would lead the strategy.
The second strategy was implemented for a long time and not very successfully, because at the very beginning, a mistake was made - not everyone agreed with the goal. Therefore, periodically the strategy stalled, but still crawled. If the goal is wrong, then you can not waste time.
A smaller strategy had to implement hundreds. Just like you. Each product, project, task, person, etc. there is a strategy, just no one calls it that. And this text has a strategic goal and principles. I will not tell only which ones.
Business partner
And finally, the latest experience. For two years I was a partner in a two-person business.
The most interesting thing for me in this experience is the opportunity and the need to do everything in a row. This was not in any of the previous roles. Especially considering that there were two of us, without subordinates.
Actually, you need to work - to program, introduce something to customers, solve their problems, provide support, answer questions, etc.
You have to do something with sales - write texts, create communities, correspond, chat, demonstrate, etc.
It is necessary to somehow control the cash flows, so as not to remain without pants.
It is necessary, with grief in half, to implement the company's development strategy.
It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of everything that comes to hand - programming, working with texts, solving customer problems, etc.
We must constantly think about the future. No, not so ... We must constantly worry about the future, because there is no one else.
Well, and most importantly - one must be aware of responsibility. This is probably the key difference from hired work. Do not work - no money. Work - there is money. Although it happens that you work, but there is no money.
Actually, everything that I did as a business partner was written above - products, services and the strategy that generated them. On the whole, the experience was damn useful, but it remained incomplete - it was not possible to achieve the strategic goal, which upsets me immensely.
Total
I have not mentioned a couple of roles from the field of IT that I performed in life. For example, I was once a system administrator. But, firstly, it was a very long time ago, and secondly, I no longer claim this role.
But the main buzz, of course, is not in specific roles, but in their mutual penetration. The more positions I took, the better I understand and fulfill each of them.
Only having been an IT director did I understand the mistakes of myself as a programmer. Having only worked as a business partner, I realized how poorly I understood the business as an IT director. Having created my first products, I realized how to make projects. Having written hundreds of articles, I realized why programmers for hours do not dare to call the client. Only after successful team leadership did I manage to become a leader in company changes. Only thanks to business programming I know that in any company in our country there is something to do.
And in which role you need me, decide for yourself. I am interested in each. And I will still bring in particles of the rest, if it is more effective.