April 2, 2015 at 08:077 amazing facts about career guidance
When my colleague slavapankratov and I launched our annual training program , from the very beginning we wanted to make the training plan individual for each student. For this they called for help the second tower of slavapankratov in practical psychology, selected two detailed tests (one for 580 questions) and began to ask students not only to pass the tests, but also to write an essay about their history, goals and plans.
After a couple of months, we launched vocational guidance as a separate service , finally digging in the profiles and essays of our students.
For 3 months, it was possible to analyze more than 500 profiles, which not only made me feel like a professionalornithologistorientologist, but also gave food for interesting observations.
This is not a professional study, but you must understand that behind each questionnaire there is a career and the fate of a particular person. Damn it, it sounds pathetic, but it is. Curiously, people from a wide variety of companies (and even not only the IT industry), people of all ages (from 24 years to 51 years), and 6 countries sent us questionnaires — this probably indicates the universality of the problems noted.
So, what was noticed.
That boring test with 580 questions is the MMPI test in one of its software implementations. The test is good because it is calibrated by tens of thousands of respondents, and there are so many questions because they have several scales for checking the sincerity and validity of answers.
But in fact, the test shows inclinations in professional activities. Relatively speaking, in which direction it will turn out better. So, more than half of our respondents test shows that they have no inclination to anything! Typical picture:
Administrative management -7.00 b
Production 0.00 b
Office work -6.50 b
Service -12.50 b
Pedagogy -8.50 b
Expedition -5.50 b
Science -4.00 b
Art -1.50 b
Sport -4.00 b
Military Service -6.50 b
Programming -2.50 b
Category names do not mean exactly what is written (some decoding is usually required here).
For example, expeditions are not a trekking tendency, but a kind of logistics. That is, the direction where it is necessary to see the process as a single picture, keep in memory all the details, dock them, share responsibilities, check the intermediate results. In a word, such a specialist as a puzzle adds up the entire workflow, forcing him to work on the result.
And military service is not a desire to repay a debt to the motherland, but a tendency to work in a fairly formal environment with established processes.
But that's not the point. The bottom line is that in all categories instead of normal +5, +7 hard minuses are visible. To the question “What do you have a penchant for?” the body replies: “Leave me alone, I do not want anything!”
Sometimes this is accompanied by the only powerful plus in the “Production” category, which can be interpreted as: “Can I go to work instead of this long test and finally die there?”
fifty%! 50% of people who came to study, many of whom themselves paid money for this training, are in a tense state. From all this, several rather sad conclusions can be drawn:
It is clear that we have our professional deformation. We are engaged in training, people come to us to study. I am sure that the owner of a wineglass, if he had conducted a survey of his clients, would have shared even more shocking results: 100% of respondents (well, except that guy with an expensive watch in the corner) are in a non-resource state!
But in our particular case, this means what? Cons in the MMPI questionnaire mean either accumulated fatigue, or a (recently transferred) state of stress, or general strong dissatisfaction with the current situation.
People want to change something because they feel that they are going somewhere wrong. And they are trying to find a way out in training. When you first need to take a vacation (at least for a couple of weeks), disconnect from the Internet, TV, news, mail and phone. To be alone with oneself (he will also go with his family), read good art books and clear his head of slag that clogged her.
What is the current state of the people in your team? Over the 14 years of work in IT and the subsequent 7 years of training for IT companies, it has not been noticed that the situation in IT projects is very relaxing and similar to an all-inclusive holiday in Cyprus. Usually it’s: faster, faster, aaaa deadline, and “can you still include these 5 features in the release until the evening?”
At the same time, smart specialists, on whom everything rests, go on vacation less often than others, because see the paragraph “Everything rests on them”. What does this mean? This means that people can break the lid at any time. The question is - do you track their status?
Why are we at all our seminars, conferences and trainings talking about regular meetings 1: 1 ? Yes, that's why!
If a person is in a non-resource state, it is useless to put pressure on him, develop him, cite the example of outstanding industry leaders. He is not up to it now. Give him a break.
In our company, we have learned to drive each other on vacation - it helps.
But back to the facts that were discovered in the questionnaires.
In addition to the MMPI test, we also suggested that people pass a psychotype test ( DISC ) and write an essay on the topic:
What was noticed. Most of our audiences have a high dominant C (Matching) by DISC. This is understandable, this is expected. C is responsible for the analytical mindset. We are in IT, right? Everything is good.
Moreover, in some cases, the essay lacks a connection between the curriculum, the solution of problem situations and the global goal.
The man writes: my global goal is to have my own company, which brings me millions of profits and joy to people. Let's say. Let's see what’s in the tactical steps: set up a continuous integration system and implement processes in the work with the testing team. Wait a minute! And where are the steps to start your own company?
Or a person writes: I want a house in Italy with access to the sea and my own yacht. An excellent goal, I also started thinking about it directly ... And what should lead to this goal? Getting a Scrum Wizard Certificate? A conversation with the boss about a 20% salary increase?
There is a feeling that the gap between the global goal and tactical steps is just a property of the psychotype. We are very good at focusing on details, on specifics, but a) we are not quite able to dream 5 years ahead b) when we try to do this, the concrete result still pulls back.
Having asked about problem situations, one cannot expect that they will tell you about inspiration, insights and other roses. Therefore, here we had to drink the cup to the bottom. What the majority of problem situations fit into, we will tell in the following fact. But it was amazing to see a large number of requests on the topic: “How can I change the behavior of the customer, colleagues, boss, etc.” In psychology, this is usually called: the goal is not under the control of the client.
Let's call a spade a spade: we cannot change other people. You cannot change the customer. There is a common phrase: "You are the main reason why you know me like that." So it is here. To change customer behavior, you need to change your own. And now this is the goal under the control of the client.
You will say: Sasha, these are obvious things. No friends, these are not obvious things. When we launched the first annual online program in 2010, 120 people came to us. How many do you think have reached the end? 20% - and this is a very good result, as we later learned from colleagues.
Many people, when they come to study, are surprised to find that they will not only have to absorb new knowledge, but also have to do something about it. And as Goethe once said there: “Many people would like to be someone, but only a few are ready to become someone.”
As part of the annual program, we recommend a course of study from 4 of our core courses:
After the third hundred participants, the distribution was fixed on the following figures:
The formula for working with people is about what, you ask? Yes, in general, about what we have been doing for the past 7 years:
Once we found the strength to put this into a short, concise, capacious video course. And so this Formula turned out - our best course in the feedback of participants. But stop bragging. What does it tell us that this course is the first in half of the students?
At one time, Tom Demarco said that most of the problems of projects are more social than technological. Nothing seems to have changed much since then. Or is it again our professional deformation.
Another interesting observation was that people almost never write about their own learning. Tell your story - I’m so many years old, I worked there, then moved there, then I ended up here, and here are some problematic situations I would like to solve ... This is what we usually see in the essay.
Friends, where's the training? Where are the books you read, the courses taken, the mentors that influenced your professional development?
After reading the first hundred essays, my complex began to develop. Am I the only one whose life has been radically changed several times by books, seminars and other people? After a dozen well-defined books, I completely rethought my approach to management. After several books and workshops. opened his own business. After two specific video courses, the business went wild with renewed vigor.
Then, thank God, words began to come across about Kurser, and about books, and about the bosses, who for each liter of blood drunk should put a liter of brandy. It is clear that if people do not write that they are doing something, this does not necessarily mean that they are not doing it.
But the general impression that I had after reading hundreds of essays is that the professional path looks like this. You go, you go, you go - everything is fine. Then bam wall. You are trying to get through, does not. Tyts, tyts, tyts in her head. So goes three years. You notice that you are standing still. ABOUT! Should I go to learn? But there’s no strength anymore ... (see fact No. 1).
Let's summarize some. Once again, I repeat, this is not a professional study - these are our notes (often emotional) and the thrill of working with a large group of people who came to us with their problems and hopefully leave without them. But if we talk about practical conclusions, questions and recommendations from this article, then I would formulate them as follows:
1. You need to rest regularly. At least two weeks in a row with the devices turned off and away from the external noise information background.
2. If you are leading someone, meet your people regularly. Clarify their condition, listen and do something about it.
3. Do not hesitate to dream big, but having returned back to reality, write at least a small step in your daily plan that will bring you closer to the big goal.
4. Do not be angry at unjust bosses, customers, or anyone else. If you can do something about this, do it. You can always do something, for example, leave.
5. Learn in advance, without waiting for several years to pass in one place. Especially, learn to work with people. This is useful everywhere: at work and in the family, in hiring and in your own business.
The fact that you read this article and generally read Habr is already damn cool. But Habrom the world is not limited, right?
If you decide to understand yourself or your problems, we will be happy to help:
In any case - success!
PS Yes, yes, the world is definitely not limited to Habrom, you say, because this article is generally more suitable for Megamind. This is 100% true, and the reason for its appearance here is precisely because our corporate blog has taken root on Habré for already a year and a half. And how to move with him and with the fans who joined him (for which special thanks to them!) - we still do not understand.
After a couple of months, we launched vocational guidance as a separate service , finally digging in the profiles and essays of our students.
For 3 months, it was possible to analyze more than 500 profiles, which not only made me feel like a professional
This is not a professional study, but you must understand that behind each questionnaire there is a career and the fate of a particular person. Damn it, it sounds pathetic, but it is. Curiously, people from a wide variety of companies (and even not only the IT industry), people of all ages (from 24 years to 51 years), and 6 countries sent us questionnaires — this probably indicates the universality of the problems noted.
So, what was noticed.
FACT No. 1. 50% of respondents are in non-resource state
That boring test with 580 questions is the MMPI test in one of its software implementations. The test is good because it is calibrated by tens of thousands of respondents, and there are so many questions because they have several scales for checking the sincerity and validity of answers.
But in fact, the test shows inclinations in professional activities. Relatively speaking, in which direction it will turn out better. So, more than half of our respondents test shows that they have no inclination to anything! Typical picture:
Administrative management -7.00 b
Production 0.00 b
Office work -6.50 b
Service -12.50 b
Pedagogy -8.50 b
Expedition -5.50 b
Science -4.00 b
Art -1.50 b
Sport -4.00 b
Military Service -6.50 b
Programming -2.50 b
Category names do not mean exactly what is written (some decoding is usually required here).
For example, expeditions are not a trekking tendency, but a kind of logistics. That is, the direction where it is necessary to see the process as a single picture, keep in memory all the details, dock them, share responsibilities, check the intermediate results. In a word, such a specialist as a puzzle adds up the entire workflow, forcing him to work on the result.
And military service is not a desire to repay a debt to the motherland, but a tendency to work in a fairly formal environment with established processes.
But that's not the point. The bottom line is that in all categories instead of normal +5, +7 hard minuses are visible. To the question “What do you have a penchant for?” the body replies: “Leave me alone, I do not want anything!”
Sometimes this is accompanied by the only powerful plus in the “Production” category, which can be interpreted as: “Can I go to work instead of this long test and finally die there?”
fifty%! 50% of people who came to study, many of whom themselves paid money for this training, are in a tense state. From all this, several rather sad conclusions can be drawn:
FACT CONCLUSION No. 2. People are looking for a way out in training, when you first need to relax
It is clear that we have our professional deformation. We are engaged in training, people come to us to study. I am sure that the owner of a wineglass, if he had conducted a survey of his clients, would have shared even more shocking results: 100% of respondents (well, except that guy with an expensive watch in the corner) are in a non-resource state!
But in our particular case, this means what? Cons in the MMPI questionnaire mean either accumulated fatigue, or a (recently transferred) state of stress, or general strong dissatisfaction with the current situation.
People want to change something because they feel that they are going somewhere wrong. And they are trying to find a way out in training. When you first need to take a vacation (at least for a couple of weeks), disconnect from the Internet, TV, news, mail and phone. To be alone with oneself (he will also go with his family), read good art books and clear his head of slag that clogged her.
FACT CONCLUSION No. 3. Right now, someone in your team is in a non-resource state - that's why we need meetings 1: 1
What is the current state of the people in your team? Over the 14 years of work in IT and the subsequent 7 years of training for IT companies, it has not been noticed that the situation in IT projects is very relaxing and similar to an all-inclusive holiday in Cyprus. Usually it’s: faster, faster, aaaa deadline, and “can you still include these 5 features in the release until the evening?”
At the same time, smart specialists, on whom everything rests, go on vacation less often than others, because see the paragraph “Everything rests on them”. What does this mean? This means that people can break the lid at any time. The question is - do you track their status?
A real life story told by slavapankratov . 10 years ago. Kiev team to develop a sophisticated lexical analyzer. The team of architect Volodya is a man of outstanding genius, talking on the air with concepts that no one has heard about. But in fact, it determines the architecture, and the component interaction interfaces, etc., etc.,
Everyone is used to the fact that Volodya will never fail. And it always gives out the created architectures on time, after which a team of hungry coders throws themselves on the skeleton in order to build software meat on it.
And now the next stage of the project, everyone is waiting for a new architecture from Volodya. At the morning meeting where Volodya should tell about her, he says that he couldn’t do it yet. Manager raises his eyes, they say, and when? Volodya says: tomorrow. The team smokes bamboo for another day.
For tomorrow there is no architecture again. The manager is starting to go wild. Volodya turns red and with double power begins to squeeze his UML diagrams.
On the third day, architecture is still not there. The manager freaks out and with the whole team makes Volodya stick - they say, what the hell, such an experienced architect - blah blah blah. Volodya silently accepts punishment, returns to the computer.
On the fourth day - Volodya is not at work. SMS comes to dinner: “Guys, I'm sorry, I let you down. I'm going home to Cherkasy. ”
The manager is horrified: Volodya, what are Cherkasy ?! Then the project will die without a leading architect. But Volodya stands his ground.
A customer arrives from the United States, finds out by the existence of minibuses, gets on a minibus, travels to Cherkasy: Volodya, okay, well, got excited, it happens.
Volodya still did not return: "I am uncomfortable with the boys for such behavior."
What turned out to be. Volodya at that moment moved his family with a small child to Kiev. And the landlady that week began to drive them out of the apartment, because the neighbors complain that the child is screaming and in every way prevents them from living. The apartment was not, the wife was on the nerves, the architecture did not come out. It all came together.
Then, when Volodya collected a box of things, they found some vitamins for brains in the nightstands. The man tried to cope with the situation as he could, but failed ...
Why are we at all our seminars, conferences and trainings talking about regular meetings 1: 1 ? Yes, that's why!
If a person is in a non-resource state, it is useless to put pressure on him, develop him, cite the example of outstanding industry leaders. He is not up to it now. Give him a break.
In our company, we have learned to drive each other on vacation - it helps.
But back to the facts that were discovered in the questionnaires.
FACT No. 4. Global Goal Unconnected with Tactical Steps
In addition to the MMPI test, we also suggested that people pass a psychotype test ( DISC ) and write an essay on the topic:
- tell us about yourself
- What problem situations would I like to solve
- How do you see your training plan
- Your global goal for the next 5 years
What was noticed. Most of our audiences have a high dominant C (Matching) by DISC. This is understandable, this is expected. C is responsible for the analytical mindset. We are in IT, right? Everything is good.
Moreover, in some cases, the essay lacks a connection between the curriculum, the solution of problem situations and the global goal.
The man writes: my global goal is to have my own company, which brings me millions of profits and joy to people. Let's say. Let's see what’s in the tactical steps: set up a continuous integration system and implement processes in the work with the testing team. Wait a minute! And where are the steps to start your own company?
Or a person writes: I want a house in Italy with access to the sea and my own yacht. An excellent goal, I also started thinking about it directly ... And what should lead to this goal? Getting a Scrum Wizard Certificate? A conversation with the boss about a 20% salary increase?
There is a feeling that the gap between the global goal and tactical steps is just a property of the psychotype. We are very good at focusing on details, on specifics, but a) we are not quite able to dream 5 years ahead b) when we try to do this, the concrete result still pulls back.
FACT No. 5. The target is not under the control of the client.
Having asked about problem situations, one cannot expect that they will tell you about inspiration, insights and other roses. Therefore, here we had to drink the cup to the bottom. What the majority of problem situations fit into, we will tell in the following fact. But it was amazing to see a large number of requests on the topic: “How can I change the behavior of the customer, colleagues, boss, etc.” In psychology, this is usually called: the goal is not under the control of the client.
Let's call a spade a spade: we cannot change other people. You cannot change the customer. There is a common phrase: "You are the main reason why you know me like that." So it is here. To change customer behavior, you need to change your own. And now this is the goal under the control of the client.
You will say: Sasha, these are obvious things. No friends, these are not obvious things. When we launched the first annual online program in 2010, 120 people came to us. How many do you think have reached the end? 20% - and this is a very good result, as we later learned from colleagues.
Many people, when they come to study, are surprised to find that they will not only have to absorb new knowledge, but also have to do something about it. And as Goethe once said there: “Many people would like to be someone, but only a few are ready to become someone.”
FACT No. 6. Social problems are the most common
As part of the annual program, we recommend a course of study from 4 of our core courses:
- Growth formula: how to become a manager (skill and career block)
- Formula for working with people
- Project management formula
- Negotiation formula
After the third hundred participants, the distribution was fixed on the following figures:
- 49% - The formula for working with people
- 27% - Growth formula: how to become a manager
- 13% - Project Management Formula
- 11% - Negotiation Formula
The formula for working with people is about what, you ask? Yes, in general, about what we have been doing for the past 7 years:
- How different people are
- How to find your own approach to each
- How to constructively solve problems with people
- How to track people's condition
- What to do in steps if you started to lead a team
- What to do if you got this or that team
- How to build relationships with management, customers, colleagues
- ...
Once we found the strength to put this into a short, concise, capacious video course. And so this Formula turned out - our best course in the feedback of participants. But stop bragging. What does it tell us that this course is the first in half of the students?
At one time, Tom Demarco said that most of the problems of projects are more social than technological. Nothing seems to have changed much since then. Or is it again our professional deformation.
FACT No. 7. Learning is not present in 90% of the essay
Another interesting observation was that people almost never write about their own learning. Tell your story - I’m so many years old, I worked there, then moved there, then I ended up here, and here are some problematic situations I would like to solve ... This is what we usually see in the essay.
Friends, where's the training? Where are the books you read, the courses taken, the mentors that influenced your professional development?
After reading the first hundred essays, my complex began to develop. Am I the only one whose life has been radically changed several times by books, seminars and other people? After a dozen well-defined books, I completely rethought my approach to management. After several books and workshops. opened his own business. After two specific video courses, the business went wild with renewed vigor.
Then, thank God, words began to come across about Kurser, and about books, and about the bosses, who for each liter of blood drunk should put a liter of brandy. It is clear that if people do not write that they are doing something, this does not necessarily mean that they are not doing it.
But the general impression that I had after reading hundreds of essays is that the professional path looks like this. You go, you go, you go - everything is fine. Then bam wall. You are trying to get through, does not. Tyts, tyts, tyts in her head. So goes three years. You notice that you are standing still. ABOUT! Should I go to learn? But there’s no strength anymore ... (see fact No. 1).
conclusions
Let's summarize some. Once again, I repeat, this is not a professional study - these are our notes (often emotional) and the thrill of working with a large group of people who came to us with their problems and hopefully leave without them. But if we talk about practical conclusions, questions and recommendations from this article, then I would formulate them as follows:
1. You need to rest regularly. At least two weeks in a row with the devices turned off and away from the external noise information background.
2. If you are leading someone, meet your people regularly. Clarify their condition, listen and do something about it.
3. Do not hesitate to dream big, but having returned back to reality, write at least a small step in your daily plan that will bring you closer to the big goal.
4. Do not be angry at unjust bosses, customers, or anyone else. If you can do something about this, do it. You can always do something, for example, leave.
5. Learn in advance, without waiting for several years to pass in one place. Especially, learn to work with people. This is useful everywhere: at work and in the family, in hiring and in your own business.
The fact that you read this article and generally read Habr is already damn cool. But Habrom the world is not limited, right?
If you decide to understand yourself or your problems, we will be happy to help:
In any case - success!
PS Yes, yes, the world is definitely not limited to Habrom, you say, because this article is generally more suitable for Megamind. This is 100% true, and the reason for its appearance here is precisely because our corporate blog has taken root on Habré for already a year and a half. And how to move with him and with the fans who joined him (for which special thanks to them!) - we still do not understand.