The Unglamorous Side of Rocking the Boat
I don’t know if this applies to anyone else. This is my story about the pickle I’ve gotten myself into.
I have done a fair job of shaking things up for the Web department. I have even converted a few people in other departments into thinking a little different when attempting to solve a problem. Instead of asking How do I bull doze my way through this problem and knock it down? (Yes, some of them still think the answer is to work more and more overtime.) I see more people asking How can I reasonably solve this issue without overworking myself? What’s the real issue here?
Some of the trouble with our department was disorganization. So much time was getting wasted (when doing web site updates, for example) because a web site had too many files to search through. No one deleted anything. Everything was kept, but never archived. Or in the case of new web sites, there wasn’t a central location to send new clients when they wanted to look at designs. Looks were e-mailed to individuals (until the style gallery was set up!).
Other problems involved upgrades. Some of it was software upgrades that we needed, others were upgrades to the process of how we built stuff. We managed to get our tools upgraded (most of it was software, some of it was training) and also used new methods to build stuff. Sale books take less time to build. New web sites take less time to build. Converted web sites take less time to maintain.
So we began the long haul of fixing and improving the web sites. This is where the 99% perspiration comes in. We are on the trailing, last small percentages of sites that have not migrated to Dreamweaver. We are on the last messy set of web sites that are not yet converted to CSS layouts. And because these projects have existed so long, the finish line feels miles away.
After experiencing the process of closing a project I know this is the most difficult part. Like wood shop in high school, it’s hard to get excited about cleaning up after your pool table is built, when you’re tired and dirty and bored. To top it off, I know I have to keep going until it’s done. No one else is responsible for seeing this to its end because it was my idea. I’m cursing my overzealous past self (for now, until it really is complete!), but I know I’d do it again.
The funny part comes when I realized I can’t keep myself motivated to finish a project “for the good of the company.” It sounds sweet and altruistic, but what really makes the midnight oil burn is pure selfishness. I claim ownership of it, ugly parts and all. No one else cares if I finish it, because it wasn’t their idea. Lots of people helped in the beginning, because it was interesting and I happily credit my co-workers for their support. But towards the end, I’m the only one cares. I wouldn’t be the first to lay a project or idea in the graveyard. But if I want others to believe my ideas are legitimate and workable, I have to prove it.
What about you? What gets you to the finish line?
The Photo Department Revisited
The Good
I did not realize part of the Photo department’s problem was multiple versions of the same photo. All I saw half a million photos listed on a single server, with a count close to 750,000 photos in total on all the servers. It didn’t occur to me that the most basic file management solution was not used. So what’s the good news? With the new hardware and software, it taught the ladies in the Photo department to think differently about how they organize and manage their photos. Since they knew it would only be a short amount of time before they would max out their new computer and software capabilities, they looked at their work and asked themselves, How can we make the best use of our new stuff? How can we make it last?
Their first answer was learning to let go of the old and outdated photos. The breeders shouldn’t be allowed to use photos (of a cow) that are six years out of date anyway. It throws the idea of ethics and honest representation out the window! After they quashed the outdated photos, they moved on to keeping only a single, working copy of an animal. Yes, there was only the most recent picture of that cow, but in the past it came in six different flavors: a black and white version, a color version, the original version that was sent to them, the new version with the ugly fence PhotoShopped out of the background…you get the idea. Now they hold only the final version.
The results? 500,000 animal photos have been condensed to a slimming 57,700 and counting. (They are still in the process of adding the new animals from this past breeding season).
The Bad
If they had given up storing outdated photos long ago, they would not have needed a dedicated search machine. Now they have a very expensive dedicated search machine that sits and gathers dust, because the finder window works just fine (again). I wish I could have caught the larger problem in the first place, but I wonder how much good that would have done. (And I am not sure the Photo Manager would have gracefully accepted the idea that a peon was pointing out a flaw in their work.)
The Ugly
If our company leaders were tuned in to their employees needs, this problem would not have happened at all. At the risk of sounding like the insubordinate brat that I am, upper management deserved the extra cost for the dedicated search machine simply because they were not paying attention to their duties. Had they been aware of the photo department’s issues in the first place, they could have found alternate and less costly solutions. Really, though, I think it turned out for the best. The heavy price tag was an excellent catalyst to motivate the photo department into thinking forward.
Wanted: Entry-Level Front End Coder
We build web sites, run e-mail campaigns, post print deliverables online, manage e-classifieds, cover Angus events live on the Web and shake up the Ag. industry in general. This position can be considered an open internship if you are a student. It is a part-time gig, with pay based on level of experience and knowledge.
Requirements:
- Exceptional coder (HTML and CSS required) /* Hmm…I hope this line doesn’t put off students. */
- Standards-based development (W3C validation. Section 508 a plus)
- Experience using WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver or GoLive
- Understand cross browser/cross platform compatibility
- Image manipulation and optimization using PhotoShop or Fireworks
- Knowledge of Mac OS X and Windows XP platforms
- Experience with JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, XML, and/or Flash a plus
Responsibilities:
- Update content on existing sites
- Build new pages for existing sites
- Build Flash banner ads
- Design ads to run in e-mail campaigns
- Post print deliverables (sale books, ads, brochures) online
- More advanced projects available depending on skill level.
See more about us at http://api-webservices.com. Our scheduling is flexible, but we are in the office from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Send your resume and portfolio to Rich Masoner.
This position is on-site at the office (3201 Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph, MO) with flexible hours. Rich asked me to write the job description and he approved it yesterday. What isn’t mentioned in the description is that it is a part-time position that can lead into an offer for full time. We are hoping to fill the position before October. If you know someone interested, send them the detailed PDF.
Not Just a Web Monkey
I recently read posts on a job site in order to emulate a good job description for our potential part-time employee.
I hate being in that spot where the description reads like it’s over a candidate’s head (but the job is not), or when the job is really more responsibility than articulated (but the wording makes it sound simple). How do you convey a set of responsibilities without writing paragraphs?
I asked this of my boss and he looked at me. “They’re just doing updates. What’s the big deal?” Yikes. Forget I asked. I do updates most of my day, so is he saying my job is unimportant? No. (I get ready to defend my responsibilities when I realize he’s smiling as he says it.) He’s just poking at me. I relaxed.
What I want to write is a job description along these lines:
“Must be able to open up a web site, analyze the files in it, know if it uses Lightbox, Spry Assets or another AJAX technique; must be able to open file, read the code and get a general idea of what it does; must be able to recreate what it does (by adding a new menu item to the Spry navigation, add a new image using Lightbox or link the last half of the alphabet to an AJAXified members list).
Can you read the code and draw the table in your head? Or for that matter, can you take the table I’ve drawn and type out the code? Do you see the class assigned to the image and know how to modify the CSS if something isn’t quite presented right? Do you know how to declare a variable and write a simple JavaScript function for a rotating header image? If Dreamweaver misbehaves, can you open up the text editor and force the code to behave?”
Understanding how another person thinks and codes is more difficult than given the luxury of developing a project alone. Learning how to implement someone else’s code and modify it is even more of a challenge. Do you enjoy deconstructing web sites and reading the guts of a page, trying to understand how it works? Sometimes, the other developers are nice enough to leave comments to hint at why they approached solving the problem the way they did. Comments are rare, most of the time.
If I could, I might write this job description:
Wanted: insatiably curious mind willing to continue a lifetime of learning. Must be responsible and capable of working with a small team or independently with minimal direction. Must be well-versed in the nuances of D/X/HTML (pick your flavor), CSS and JavaScript and motivated to finish projects started.
Instead, I am stuck with this:
Front End Coder
We build web sites, run e-mail campaigns, post print deliverables online, manage e-classifieds, cover Angus events live on the Web and shake up the Ag. industry in general. This position can be considered an open internship if you are a student. It is a part-time gig, with pay based on level of experience and knowledge.
Requirements:
- Exceptional coder (HTML and CSS required)
- Standards-based development (W3C validation. Section 508 a plus)
- Experience using WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver or GoLive
- Understand cross browser/cross platform compatibility
- Image manipulation and optimization using PhotoShop or Fireworks
- Knowledge of Mac OS X and Windows XP platforms
- Experience with JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, XML, and/or Flash a plus
Responsibilities:
- Update content on existing sites
- Build new pages for existing sites
- Build Flash banner ads
- Design ads to run in e-mail campaigns
- Post print deliverables (sale books, ads, brochures) online
More advanced projects available depending on skill level.
Hmm…the responsibilities come off as underwhelming, unless a candidate does their homework. With 240+ web sites, updating the content on them is a large undertaking of its own. (Just an FYI-most of our customers wouldn’t update their site themselves even if they had the opportunity. The general reaction we get is, “That’s what I pay you for. Why would I want to do it?”)
The upside is, when you create a new feature or service that makes the cut (past the internal politics), it’s wonderful. People treat you like you have just invented the next best thing to sliced bread. No one has been attempting to blaze new trails in technology while representing the cattle industry. No one has developed any services pertaining to them. That’s where our team comes into play.
Web Services is Growing!
We have just been approved to hire a new entry-level web designer. I am excited at the prospect of getting some help, but am not ready to believe it will happen. For one, they only want to hire a part-time person. Upper management doesn’t believe we have enough work to keep a full-time hire busy, which is not true.
Second, they will not disclose what the wages are. Which leads me to believe they are not competitive with Kansas City and therefore we will not attract any potential employees.
