Loud Thoughts

RIF, or more commonly known as layoff, starts when the company learned it has more employees than it needs. Why? Most of the time, the company did not plan well. It is only academic to dig out the reasons and many MBA cases did. For you, focus on future, not past.

RIF is not cheap for the company that incurs severance costs, legal expenses, disruptions to normal operations, demoralization of employees, and, usually, bad publicity. If not done well, the company may lose critical productivity that lead to loss of revenue and another RIF — so called death spiral.

You can bet that some aspects of the RIF operation will not be done well. It is part human nature to avoid unpleasant tasks and part rushed. Try to appreciate the works senior managers must have done and understand that they actually did not have much time and were very constrained on maneuvering rooms.

The top executives of the company first decide to invest less on particular investment areas, to reallocate its resources, or both. This step is time consuming and gut wrenching. Sometime, we, mid-level executives, get a glimpse of board-room lock-horns. Most of the time, we simply observe the absence of senior executives for days, during which we get urgent and cryptic requests of information. When they come out of the smoke-filled room (OK, this is for drama, they are usually many rooms involved and execs these days do not smoke), each gets a number and a set of guidelines.

Each of the top execs then summons her staff, or few selected advisors, to plan for her number. This process cascades downward to roughly functional VP or director level. At this level, the single number has morphed into a set of actions that include the elimination/reduction of programs, number of people to layoff, a set of communiques, and a schedule. This is the time, you, the line managers, get busy.

First, learn the communiques and guidelines. Practicality does not allow thorough communication. Do not wait for the presentation or in-person training. Go to the web site, read the email, and study the guidelines. Ask questions only after you have done the homework.

Expect whoever planning this operation to have been hurried. Ask questions so that you can do your jobs, there is no need to criticize. This is hard for everyone, not just you. When you get the details, see if they will lead to disasters. If so, escalate quickly, but do not be insistent. No whining and no stating the obvious. Statements such as, “Do you realize this will impact morale and productivity?” is stupid and insulting. But, “if you substitute this with that, company can save more money, or avoid a major disaster” will be much appreciated.

It is human to dig dirt and gossip. That does not make these activities productive or less hurtful. Discourage by smiling and nodding politely. Gossips starve on the lack of excitement from the recipients.

Although not obvious, being laid-off is not really a bad thing. There is no need to be saddened. Sun gives a relatively generous severance and benefits to those laid-off. In a relatively healthy economy (like China), the laid-off employees usually find new job before the severance are used up.

In this industry, each individual faces competition from around the world. Someone from somewhere is trying to have your job, and vice versa. The only protection is your adaptability and professional competency. You are on a treadmill to upgrade yourself all the time. If you are not learning new skills so that you can do something totally different in a few years, you are risking being obsolescent. What are you learning now? Why would the employer pays you so much?

Being part of a lay-off operation bring this point close to home. If you are one that is receiving the package, thank the company to give you few months off to upgrade yourself. If you are a survivor, try to learn this lesson.

Kevin, an engineering manager, was frustrated. Good projects do not come to his engineers. If there are no projects, there will be no accomplishments, and no advancements. China will feel like the high-tech colony of the 21st century and get only menial works and be stuck in the “low wage” end of the industry.

I felt for Kevin's despair. At the same time, I was astronished on how his young engineers have missed the basics and focused on the wrong things.

Like atheletes, good software engineers move up the career ladder will skills. It is quite simple, choose the arena, suit up and compete. The winners move on. The question is, “Are you training yourself everyday?”

The general categories for a software engineer evaluation are:

• Credential:

  The pieces of paper that prove you qualified for certain tasks. The most basic ones are the diplomas. Then we have those issued by various institutes. These paper give the boss various degree of confidence that you can accomplish the tasks she needs you for. If the task has a commensurate higher job level, you may get the promotion tegether with the assignment.

  Credentials, particularly diplomas, also show your tenacity and conformity. You may not have learned much, but you stuck it out for years and met all requirements. If you can go through that, you must have what it will take to finish this project.

• Experience:

  Young engineers hate to compete on experience. You are not qualified because you have never done this before. But how can you get the 1st project then?

• Skills:

  Skills are easy. Although hard to describe precisely, an engineer know how skilled she is. Software, after all, is a craft. Within few minutes, an engineer would have sized up others and a pecking order is formed.

These basic three are part of all promotion considerations. The weights of them differ as career progresses. In general, Sun values credential the least, skills most, and experience a very close second. Ask. “Am I the most skilled and experienced among my peers?”
Like atheletic competitions, software career is meritocratic. Do not waste efforts on anything before mastering the basics.

Next time, when you have finished the project, try do a bit extra:

1. Testability:

   How is the code testable? Is there test programs that automate the process? When problems surface in the system, how easy it is to isolate the bug?

   Along the same line is demo. How would you show someone your proud achievement? Did you write another piece of program to show it off?

2. Usability:

   Is there a web-based interface? Is there a tool to make it easier? How is the user experience? Do not hide behind areas of technology. A kernel module or a device driver can have user interfaces just like a Java application. As long as a human being can use it, you need to consider usability.

3. Elegance:

   Is the code efficient and pretty? Nicely modulized, neatly formated, appropriately named, cleanly inferfaced? How did you treat the global state variables? How much you rely on side-effect to accomplish works? Are you proud of this piece of work like a poet?

4. Documentation:

   Did you comment the code well? Did you write the design document? Did you let the next person who is unfortunately stuck with your code know where to pay attention?

These are where you gain experience without the assigned project. There is always something extra you can do to make your project better. When you are doing that extra amount of work, you gain experience on areas you do not normally practice in. Choose what you need to practice and do the extra work there.

And you would have done something wonderful to yourself. When you are doing those, your manager will notice that you walked the extra mile and did the extra-currriculum work. That shows your diligence, willingness to learn, and potential.

Most importantly, you gain control of your own career by doing these. Those extra works make you a better software engineer. An accomplished software engineer write his/her own ticket. You will name the next project you want to work on. Opportunities will come knocking on your door.

Lastly, wherever you look, there are bugs to be fixed and source code to be read. Pick an area of interest, read the source code, try to fix few bugs that seems trivial, talk to the owner of the code and ask him/her to review or integrate what you have done. They will appreciate it and you get the experience. This is the power of Sun's openness. Don't squander.
Train yourself.

Career progresses not linearly. After few years, you have become proficient with your job, how does it go from here? Where do you break out from this current path?

Corporate ladder is more like a pyramid. There are fewer and fewer positions as you move up. With each rung, there are only a fraction of people who will advance. How would you be the one that get chosen? More importantly, how is the selection done? Without knowing the rules of the game, how is it possible for you to win?

I frequently tell the old Chinese folklore of waiting for the rabbit (守株待兔).

There was a farmer who was resting under a tree after a long morning's work. A rabbit dashed through and crashed into him. The farmer was pleasantly surprised. This made up more than the rest of the work. He took the rabbit and enjoyed the meal.
The next day, the farmer chose to wait under the tree for another rabbit. It did not come. But the farmer kept on waiting, day after day.

Imagine you are one of a group of farmers waiting for rabbits. There is a luck element here. If it ran the other way, someone else will get it. You will just keep on waiting.

If, however, the rabbit comes your way, are you skilled enough to capture it? Are you nimble enough? Do you design traps? Do you work with the ones next to you to optimize the chances for both of you?

First thing a manager must do is get better with what he does. Everyday, think how can you do better, what skills do you need to acquire, and who can do it with you? There are few basic skills every manager must have. Review them. Ask a mentor to give you candid feedbacks.

And when the rabbit comes, what I call the defining moment, are you sure you know what it looks like? Surprisingly, a promotion opportunity is not that recognizable. You should train to recognize them.

Most common opportunities come in the form of a resignation. A peer or someone a level higher quit. That causes the organization to shift. This means you can benefit from it. Obviously, it will be much better if you learned about the departure ahead of the time. A good resignation is done secretly. Very few people will know about it. But the big boss is always in the knows. He either has a plan or will need a plan quickly. You may be just what he needs. But your timing must be perfect so that he can plan with you as an element.

Second form is a reorganization. Companies today must be agile to deal with the dynamics of the market. As the result, they re-align their resources to enhance the chance of achieving the goals. Since the market changes frequently, the goals, short- and long-term ones, shift priorities. Re-org is when new priorities are recognized officially. What exactly are the new priorities now? How would your skills be applied, differently, now? Make that known to the decision makers so that your skills can be better utilized.

Expansion is clearly the easiest one to recognize. But getting promotion from it always comes with a price. All major expansions begin with some studies, but not all studies lead to real, funded expansion. Those who contributed the studies, investigation, or prototyping are frequently tapped to participate the expansion project when it is funded. Why are you not there on “ground zero?” Two possibilities: your skills were not required in the early stage or you did not show willingness to contribute without assured return.

Downsizing is such a dreaded word that few recognize its benefits. If done properly, downsizing can be great career opportunities. Downsizing means the cancellation of projects that are large enough to meet the financial target. The surviving groups usually end up with slightly more resources, therefore, it is actually expansion for them. Again, if you are skilled, there is nothing to worry about.

Build your skills relentlessly, answer the door when opportunity knocks. It hurts when the rabbit comes and you are not ready. It hurts even more when someone captured a herd of geese and you did not even know what is a net.