Anonymous workaholic: how to motivate yourself
“ Hi, Habr! For 10 years, I changed several jobs, received additional education three times and learned to love each one of my jobs. Practically under any conditions. I have carefully studied the issues of motivating myself and realized that there is no really bad work in IT - there are beginners, whiners, “development kings”, their own and others. In general, all these armchairs-pears and anlim drinks in refrigerators do not solve anything. But that decides - let's talk about it ... That's the way I want to start my article. Give me a free microphone? "- This message was sent by one of our employees. Of course, we will.
A source
We provide a free microphone to our employees - as part of a corporate blog, they can speak on their concerns. Today is the second time. Such articles do not undergo any censorship: as they say, you have a blog, fight yourself. So, we give the floor to one of our managers, he has not been on vacation for a long time and wants to express how it works in the modern world. And how to make yourself love what you do.
So, hello, Habr! I am a manager for the implementation of CRM-systems in Regionsoft . In general, I am one of those who did not stick to the world of programmers and system engineers, but also does not accept classic sales as imposing their development. In short, an explosive mixture of engineer and merchant. My basic specialty is financial management and financial mathematics, work experience is 10 years. During this time, I realized that finding a job is an art, but holding onto it is a profession.
')
I did not work for a day during my studies at the institute - only because I wanted to enroll in graduate school and become a scientist, engage in economic analysis, statistics and modeling. My knowledge of the PC was only enough to get a diploma and make a simple calculation in Excel. I made a crazed economic models and economic calculations in notebooks in the box. I graduated from graduate school. However, I will not delve into the reasons for which I realized that economics is sick and does not wait for me - let's stop at an interesting and exciting business world. Then he seemed to me like a mirror and corresponded to one phrase: "We were not taught this."
We pronounce and hear from colleagues and friends: Friday, hell, hard labor, torture, work for paying thanks, etc. We are all clever - this is a subjective, and sometimes a superficial relationship. Work for a person is a source of well-being, often energy and growth, a guarantee of one’s own and family safety (there’s just the means to live, eat, relax, heal).
Personal motivation of an employee is closely related to the needs: to have money, to realize their potential and real abilities. In the end, make your own professionalism work for you. And the recognition of my profession and skills is also the motivation, perhaps the most basic. Separate and dominant motivation - a decent wage, correlated with the effort invested.
From how satisfied or not satisfied with all the motives of a person, depends on the motivation of the employee. Therefore, when looking for a job, a person has a complex of needs and desires. The main thing is to determine what is most important to you at the moment; As a rule, it is possible to find one or two critical points such as a good salary, work near the house / remotely or, for example, work in a project with a certain technology stack. One thing is certain - the basis of motivation must always be reasonable. It is necessary to take into account an important aspect of motivation - the possibility of achieving the goal. Each person has different opportunities, hence the differences in the needs of groups of people: career, comfortable place of work, interest in the project, and so on.
In addition to the needs and desires, there are many factors that determine a person's behavior when choosing a job, and subsequently at work. Even the ability to patience and addiction often play not the last role in the motivation of the primary choice (where to go to work) and secondary (stay for a long time). Another question is how conscientiously such an employee performs his duties and how useful is the company.
And that's what I found out: it’s impossible to satisfy 100% of needs and desires. It is necessary to highlight the highest priority at the moment. And here it is not bad at least approximately to imagine what awaits you.
At the beginning of my career, I was an active adherent of faith in a red diploma - this is such a group of young graduates who are confident that the red crust is equated with at least the certification of the head of the MUR. I don’t know what exactly helped, the mind or that diploma, but I was invited for an interview at a large telecom company. Back in 2007, I was subdued by an A + class office in the city center. And you had to listen to intuition.
The interview was complex and multi-step (it seems there were 6 of them). All opponents seemed to me adequate and intelligent people, their professionalism was felt. Except for one thing - my future immediate superior.
When they ask me what kind of noise in the background, I always answer that I am not in the office, but in the zoo.
After a while I learned the categories of employees of a large company:
It was unpleasant. The first thing that hit me is KPI. Even without work mistakes, I caught a minus coefficient for the vague term "loyalty" and got paid less than promised. Then the coefficients followed and everything else. I went on several interviews, it was all wrong - they took me, but I refused and went to my penal servitude again. By the way, I would then have to think about why I was given a probationary period, and not kicked out of it - but I still did not know that a professional knows how to see a promising employee. But I thought about something else: why did I so much want to go back to this work, where everyone was sullenly sitting in their cell-cabinets, where everyone was almost a nut in a huge, perfect operator car and where I was so ... but how? I understood: I love this company and I am proud that I am part of a well-known and beloved company by millions. This is mine and I can. Since then, I have been everywhere if not well, then definitely fine. And most importantly - extremely useful.
Training. You go and you know that you have no experience - there is nothing wrong with that. It is bad not to want to get this experience, but only to ask for a salary. Even if the company does not have a mentoring and training system, use the following features:
Communication skills. My life passes between introverts and ordinary people with whom we are implementing a CRM system. The trend is obvious: soon introversion will cease to be an excuse and the skill of communication and office diplomacy will be one of the most important skills in hiring. And everything comes from the fact that we have forgotten how to communicate, while no project can be implemented without functional working groups. In a large company, in any case, you will have to negotiate, discuss, solve problems, argue. It is in them that you can fill the bumps and find out how important the relationship and how much they affect the quality of the workflow.
Conversations in the big office
Understanding corporate values. I am still an ardent opponent of all kinds of corporate events, trips and other love relationships (especially them!) Within the organization, but at the same time I really appreciate the company's spirit. So, the real corporate culture is not to swell in the drool and faithfully look into the eyes of the authorities at the regular get-togethers, but to be proud of the company and the product. Then I was proud of the millions of subscribers who loved us and which we gave the most valuable - quality communication, now I am proud of our product and the fact that they are actively used by more than 6,000 customers. If you are not ashamed to say who and where you work - you are on the right track.
Awareness of business values. When the average person sees another person, say, on Lexus and knows that he is the director of the company, he says: “Well, how cool is his business, Lexus bought it.” But he will never say: how he worked abruptly and how he famously organized his team, because it was thanks to this that money came out for the car. Office A +, macbooks on the tables, the owner’s fleet and the cars of the employees in the office parking lot are the entourage of business, but not the value. Values are a team, a product, technologies and the ability to promote and sell the whole thing, the ability to row and survive among competitors. Oddly enough, it is in a large company that you realize how important it is to work in a team and make a great product. And how bad can be every wrong step.
Awareness of the role of personality. My first job was an adequate, intelligent, visionary CEO, who among other things knew us all by sight. And he was the core of the whole business (albeit hired). It was thanks to his decisions and policies that he managed to assemble a team of top professionals under one roof and spend the budget on the development and growth of the quality of services. We have the same story at Regionsoft - the general director (not hired) does not disappear for a week, does not come to dinner, but plows next to us from morning to night, fully managing development and controlling all commerce. So it should be: if you rule the company, you must be included in the processes and be inside them, and not higher. Looking ahead, I will say that during my work at a labor startup I saw an intense fall in the company precisely because of the role of the individual: a weak manager allowed everyone to feel like Gates or Jobs. So many geniuses Bolivar could not resist ...
So, I saw what important lessons my first job gives me, appreciated them, studied, mastered the PC at a professional level. Two years later, they called me Excel guru. I did not manage to defeat a part of the problems in the first section and transferred to another service, having worked there successfully and with a normal KPI for another two years. At the end of the work, I voluntarily, at my own expense, went to study at a corporate university for a software developer. I did not become a developer, but I received absolutely amazing skills and finally began to learn English. With such baggage, I left my favorite cozy telecom in a startup in the summer.
Yes, it was the spirit that I missed so much. As in that epoch-making talk about polymers, the wind of freedom tickled everything. It was a strong software product with a global sales market and a huge advertising budget - some of the employees already looked after houses in California.
Since our startup was one and we worked really smoothly, I’ll tell you not about our mistakes, but about the mistakes of everyone as a whole.
The rules of business. Never in any company will you find yourself so close to the core of management: you can experience all the features of a business, learn how to work with regulatory agencies and competitors, how to choose partners. It is useful in any case - knowing the business from the inside, it is difficult to be categorical and easier to build relationships with management. As an additional plus, you see the development of the company from the very beginning, you live through all the periods and see all the mistakes and findings.
Self-presentation skills. You talk about the project in pitches before investors, call partners, look for potential distributors and learn. Even programmers cannot avoid it - it is on their shoulders that there is an “evidence base” of quality, product demonstrations, test setups, improvements, and even salesman’s training in product benefits. Together with software (or something else), you learn to present yourself, to speak briefly and to the point.
People management skills. In a startup, everyone controls everything, everyone acts as an internal customer and an internal performer. The team needs to be constantly reorganized for various tasks, and this is the way of compromise, competent management and self-discipline.
For the sake of this startup, I began to receive an education as a translator from English and learned the basics of web development. I loved this job, sincerely believed in what we were doing, but previous experience helped me before the others to understand that things are not as good as it sounded at the morning meetings. The startup began to be bent from children's and not absolutely already children's diseases. A significant role in the destruction of a good company was played by strange partners, the pliable CEO was the unfortunate factor. We went, who where. No one is missing.
Six years after the beginning of my work experience, I knew about what I wanted. I was not attracted by the new high-rise of Gazprom, did not attract banks, did not inspire the desired third city managers Atomenergoproekt. I didn’t think about my business, but I didn’t want to start up either - just resigning, I realized that I was burned out nowhere else. I got to Regionsoft in the most ordinary way: resume - interview - work. But the work itself is not quite standard: I rarely go to the office, and even have my place in another business center. It's more convenient for me geographically and purely functional. So, the first thing I noticed was that I immediately joined the company, as I did in the family and had never had the feeling that I was separate, but they were separate. Above, I have already said that in many respects this is the merit of the head: the company is small, it is enough for everyone. Another important feature is in contrast to the “anthill”, where there were a lot of people with duplicate functions, here each is exactly in its place. Actually, it is precisely the feeling of being needed and useful, perhaps, that keeps employees 10-15 years old. For the modern world, this situation is rare.
Sometimes it happens
Stable professional growth. With each new client, I get a new experience, overcome special problems - there is growth, I realize that I am a professional. It costs a lot.
Respect for skills and knowledge - when you directly interact with the general (there is no “ant” bureaucracy), and he knows how to listen and discuss, you understand your place in the company and feel the value. You can always find an application for your skills and, unlike a startup, no one will be very jealous that it was you who invented this. There is one drawback - some solutions are delayed and may lose their relevance. I learn to perceive it philosophically: it means that it was not so necessary.
New knowledge. In companies of this type, each is responsible for a relatively wide range of responsibilities, which means that you have to understand the related functions in order to approach the work more comprehensively. Again, the atmosphere of dialogue reigns at work - you can easily ask a question to your colleagues or superiors and get not a vague, but a competent and accurate answer. By the way, this is an advantage over a large company, in which you can generally work carelessly - because of the duplication of functions, they are not immediately noticed.
Huge horizon of development. Small companies with a good product actively compete for the market in conditions of limited resources - investors seldom get money in their beaks, investors often lack hands, most often - time. Almost every one of us dreams of having 48 hours a day. So, after 10 years of continuous activity, I can say that such conditions are ideal for the development of a professional. Well, this is about as a session in which you learn more than during the school year. The only difference is that concentrated knowledge and skills are constantly consolidated in practice.
Confidence in the team. When a team is stable, welded and knows all the goals for which it works, the employee feels the bottom. Without conflicts, it does not do, as in any human community, it happens that in a family it is not without a freak. But this is perceived as a normal workflow, and not as a reason for the year gossip in an anthill or a personal tragedy in a startup. In general, the importance of good relations among colleagues cannot be underestimated.
Summing up, what is important for self-motivation?
You should not force yourself to work by force - sooner or later you will break the strings. Work should not be a tedious boring burden; it is worth learning how to find the best experience in each work and shape your experience out of it. With each place of work you gain value as a professional, acquire knowledge and skills. This baggage is yours only. Positive thinking is a trite phrase, and the thing is cool. What matters is how you perceive certain things. Believe in yourself - it will not walk in a circle.
PS: we are looking for a Delphi programmer and a full stack of a web developer in an office in Nizhny Novgorod for a full-time job (it is possible to combine with studies, age also does not matter). All that is needed, we will train, we will complete the education and show. Call, negotiate, come - we do not like to write requirements, we need a candidate who is ready to work and grow. The summary is sent to contact@regionsoft.ru Territorially - Sormovo.
In other cities of the Russian Federation and the CIS, we are looking for salespeople on the remote site - if with programmer skills, it is generally perfect. Write to contact@regionsoft.ru
We have nothing to add from the company - we set out our position several posts earlier. So just a poll.
A source
We provide a free microphone to our employees - as part of a corporate blog, they can speak on their concerns. Today is the second time. Such articles do not undergo any censorship: as they say, you have a blog, fight yourself. So, we give the floor to one of our managers, he has not been on vacation for a long time and wants to express how it works in the modern world. And how to make yourself love what you do.
So, hello, Habr! I am a manager for the implementation of CRM-systems in Regionsoft . In general, I am one of those who did not stick to the world of programmers and system engineers, but also does not accept classic sales as imposing their development. In short, an explosive mixture of engineer and merchant. My basic specialty is financial management and financial mathematics, work experience is 10 years. During this time, I realized that finding a job is an art, but holding onto it is a profession.
')
I did not work for a day during my studies at the institute - only because I wanted to enroll in graduate school and become a scientist, engage in economic analysis, statistics and modeling. My knowledge of the PC was only enough to get a diploma and make a simple calculation in Excel. I made a crazed economic models and economic calculations in notebooks in the box. I graduated from graduate school. However, I will not delve into the reasons for which I realized that economics is sick and does not wait for me - let's stop at an interesting and exciting business world. Then he seemed to me like a mirror and corresponded to one phrase: "We were not taught this."
In short: work, motivation and value system
We pronounce and hear from colleagues and friends: Friday, hell, hard labor, torture, work for paying thanks, etc. We are all clever - this is a subjective, and sometimes a superficial relationship. Work for a person is a source of well-being, often energy and growth, a guarantee of one’s own and family safety (there’s just the means to live, eat, relax, heal).
Personal motivation of an employee is closely related to the needs: to have money, to realize their potential and real abilities. In the end, make your own professionalism work for you. And the recognition of my profession and skills is also the motivation, perhaps the most basic. Separate and dominant motivation - a decent wage, correlated with the effort invested.
From how satisfied or not satisfied with all the motives of a person, depends on the motivation of the employee. Therefore, when looking for a job, a person has a complex of needs and desires. The main thing is to determine what is most important to you at the moment; As a rule, it is possible to find one or two critical points such as a good salary, work near the house / remotely or, for example, work in a project with a certain technology stack. One thing is certain - the basis of motivation must always be reasonable. It is necessary to take into account an important aspect of motivation - the possibility of achieving the goal. Each person has different opportunities, hence the differences in the needs of groups of people: career, comfortable place of work, interest in the project, and so on.
In addition to the needs and desires, there are many factors that determine a person's behavior when choosing a job, and subsequently at work. Even the ability to patience and addiction often play not the last role in the motivation of the primary choice (where to go to work) and secondary (stay for a long time). Another question is how conscientiously such an employee performs his duties and how useful is the company.
And that's what I found out: it’s impossible to satisfy 100% of needs and desires. It is necessary to highlight the highest priority at the moment. And here it is not bad at least approximately to imagine what awaits you.
Class A + anthill
At the beginning of my career, I was an active adherent of faith in a red diploma - this is such a group of young graduates who are confident that the red crust is equated with at least the certification of the head of the MUR. I don’t know what exactly helped, the mind or that diploma, but I was invited for an interview at a large telecom company. Back in 2007, I was subdued by an A + class office in the city center. And you had to listen to intuition.
The interview was complex and multi-step (it seems there were 6 of them). All opponents seemed to me adequate and intelligent people, their professionalism was felt. Except for one thing - my future immediate superior.
When they ask me what kind of noise in the background, I always answer that I am not in the office, but in the zoo.
After a while I learned the categories of employees of a large company:
- normal colleagues - work quietly, honestly carry out tasks, do not guzzle anyone
- pets, they are scammers - harmless, but unpleasant guys
- klyuzniki - sometimes very experienced and intelligent employees from the series "do not rush to go ... - more expensive", are especially dangerous
- thieves are important proteges and proteges of important, and sometimes not very important; As a rule, they rarely work, and almost never work well.
So what was I waiting for?
- I didn’t hide the fact that this is my first real job, I didn’t become impudent with requests for wages (I agreed to the one proposed), but I was expecting training or a minimum internship. I was sure that further training was practiced.
- It seemed that in such a company everything is guaranteed to be professional.
- I expected well-established, streamlined business processes, free circulation of information within the company.
- I wanted my enormous theoretical knowledge and modeling skills to be used to the fullest - after all, I heard in high school that I strained with economists and mathematicians in companies.
- I rejoiced at the promised social package: VHI, corporate culture, gymnasium with a swimming pool, food and cellular compensation. By the way, make a reservation right away, everything was faithfully executed.
- I was delighted with the KPI system - whoo, how can I show myself now and start earning a bonus from the very first months.
My first mistakes
- I considered the first orders (to go around the offices of communication as a secret buyer) as offensive and made it clear that I was dissatisfied. I was given a mathematical model and I sat in a puddle - the most complex macros, unloading from billing, industry specifics - not one of my models fell into practice.
- I completely ignored the “special atmosphere” inside the department: I refused to go to someone else's dacha, did not go to a beer bar every Friday, did not discuss my personal life with curious women, did not smoke. Just walked home silently.
- I began to be friends with other departments, where I found a lot of support - too, the whole company hated the service I was in. True, this mistake saved me a little later and I was able to stay in the company for exactly 4 years.
- The story seemed completely hopeless - I was looking for a new job. But I did not know about the function of hiding resumes from selected companies. I had many, many questions.
It was unpleasant. The first thing that hit me is KPI. Even without work mistakes, I caught a minus coefficient for the vague term "loyalty" and got paid less than promised. Then the coefficients followed and everything else. I went on several interviews, it was all wrong - they took me, but I refused and went to my penal servitude again. By the way, I would then have to think about why I was given a probationary period, and not kicked out of it - but I still did not know that a professional knows how to see a promising employee. But I thought about something else: why did I so much want to go back to this work, where everyone was sullenly sitting in their cell-cabinets, where everyone was almost a nut in a huge, perfect operator car and where I was so ... but how? I understood: I love this company and I am proud that I am part of a well-known and beloved company by millions. This is mine and I can. Since then, I have been everywhere if not well, then definitely fine. And most importantly - extremely useful.
So, what can you get in a big company at the start of your career?
Training. You go and you know that you have no experience - there is nothing wrong with that. It is bad not to want to get this experience, but only to ask for a salary. Even if the company does not have a mentoring and training system, use the following features:
- ask your colleagues - formulate competent questions, digest information, try to put it into practice
- master the main tools - immersion in particular billing, internal reports and company budget gave me an impulse for a huge professional leap
- Do not be afraid to take part in complex projects - I volunteered for the most complex interregional project of introducing a corporate CRM system, that experience was the first step towards your favorite profession
- use corporate knowledge bases - even if they are not structured, most often they are.
Communication skills. My life passes between introverts and ordinary people with whom we are implementing a CRM system. The trend is obvious: soon introversion will cease to be an excuse and the skill of communication and office diplomacy will be one of the most important skills in hiring. And everything comes from the fact that we have forgotten how to communicate, while no project can be implemented without functional working groups. In a large company, in any case, you will have to negotiate, discuss, solve problems, argue. It is in them that you can fill the bumps and find out how important the relationship and how much they affect the quality of the workflow.
Conversations in the big office
Understanding corporate values. I am still an ardent opponent of all kinds of corporate events, trips and other love relationships (especially them!) Within the organization, but at the same time I really appreciate the company's spirit. So, the real corporate culture is not to swell in the drool and faithfully look into the eyes of the authorities at the regular get-togethers, but to be proud of the company and the product. Then I was proud of the millions of subscribers who loved us and which we gave the most valuable - quality communication, now I am proud of our product and the fact that they are actively used by more than 6,000 customers. If you are not ashamed to say who and where you work - you are on the right track.
Awareness of business values. When the average person sees another person, say, on Lexus and knows that he is the director of the company, he says: “Well, how cool is his business, Lexus bought it.” But he will never say: how he worked abruptly and how he famously organized his team, because it was thanks to this that money came out for the car. Office A +, macbooks on the tables, the owner’s fleet and the cars of the employees in the office parking lot are the entourage of business, but not the value. Values are a team, a product, technologies and the ability to promote and sell the whole thing, the ability to row and survive among competitors. Oddly enough, it is in a large company that you realize how important it is to work in a team and make a great product. And how bad can be every wrong step.
Awareness of the role of personality. My first job was an adequate, intelligent, visionary CEO, who among other things knew us all by sight. And he was the core of the whole business (albeit hired). It was thanks to his decisions and policies that he managed to assemble a team of top professionals under one roof and spend the budget on the development and growth of the quality of services. We have the same story at Regionsoft - the general director (not hired) does not disappear for a week, does not come to dinner, but plows next to us from morning to night, fully managing development and controlling all commerce. So it should be: if you rule the company, you must be included in the processes and be inside them, and not higher. Looking ahead, I will say that during my work at a labor startup I saw an intense fall in the company precisely because of the role of the individual: a weak manager allowed everyone to feel like Gates or Jobs. So many geniuses Bolivar could not resist ...
So, I saw what important lessons my first job gives me, appreciated them, studied, mastered the PC at a professional level. Two years later, they called me Excel guru. I did not manage to defeat a part of the problems in the first section and transferred to another service, having worked there successfully and with a normal KPI for another two years. At the end of the work, I voluntarily, at my own expense, went to study at a corporate university for a software developer. I did not become a developer, but I received absolutely amazing skills and finally began to learn English. With such baggage, I left my favorite cozy telecom in a startup in the summer.
There is a place for a small digression. About the loot.
Often we argue this way: it would be loot - the rest will follow. But with such money you spend most of your life, nerves, energy and health. I know they will write to me in the comments: “I will buy everything for money.” Nothing like this. I will not repeat the truisms that health and love can not be bought. Alas! I came to the conclusion: if for the sake of this dough you walk all day on half-bent, curse everything, wait for the end of the working day as salvation, then in the end you will fall on your knees and crawl there. You will hardly become very rich anyway, but you’ll be angry and hateful. In short, I don’t want to sell my soul for loot! I'd rather put her in a good job.
Startup - Olympus in Miniature
Yes, it was the spirit that I missed so much. As in that epoch-making talk about polymers, the wind of freedom tickled everything. It was a strong software product with a global sales market and a huge advertising budget - some of the employees already looked after houses in California.
So what was I waiting for
- Triumph in the market - we believed in our program, it was easy to put on, and both business and private users could love it.
- Brotherhood and friendship at work - we did not choose words at meetings, bought goodies for the common table, spent the weekend together, looked for a new office and felt equal to the owner. Which, by the way, did not think so and periodically got out of his office in order to clarify something about sales.
- Fast money - it seemed that a few months remained before the global explosion and huge salaries. While living on money a little higher than the average in the city, everything was decent.
- Own development - I felt myself able to do a lot for the company and was ready for any horizontal movement. It was interesting to work: I created a whole product promotion strategy based on its consumer features, and not marketing chips. And it started to work.
My mistakes
Since our startup was one and we worked really smoothly, I’ll tell you not about our mistakes, but about the mistakes of everyone as a whole.
- A startup, no matter how mental it is, is not your company, it has an owner. The boss has his own views on development, which are sometimes dictated by partners and investors. All these guys have their own interests, among which a great product is not always a priority. So the next refactoring may not please anyone, just like the next development strategy.
- The head, having withdrawn from the team, receives a team-Olympus: everyone involved in the project considers himself a "big boss" and the process of destruction starts. Gradually, disagreements lead to scandals, downtime, demotivation and dismissal.
- The world is not waiting for your product and will not lash out with joy if you offer it to him. Alas, it is necessary to prove step by step your competitive advantage (if you are not unique) or your expediency (if you are a new non-standard solution).
The business did not take off at an incredible speed, as I expected. Please, help. (PayPal accept) - Chaos and mess - this is a situation where everything is urgent, and important in the span.
So what can you learn in a startup, even if it does not take off?
The rules of business. Never in any company will you find yourself so close to the core of management: you can experience all the features of a business, learn how to work with regulatory agencies and competitors, how to choose partners. It is useful in any case - knowing the business from the inside, it is difficult to be categorical and easier to build relationships with management. As an additional plus, you see the development of the company from the very beginning, you live through all the periods and see all the mistakes and findings.
Self-presentation skills. You talk about the project in pitches before investors, call partners, look for potential distributors and learn. Even programmers cannot avoid it - it is on their shoulders that there is an “evidence base” of quality, product demonstrations, test setups, improvements, and even salesman’s training in product benefits. Together with software (or something else), you learn to present yourself, to speak briefly and to the point.
People management skills. In a startup, everyone controls everything, everyone acts as an internal customer and an internal performer. The team needs to be constantly reorganized for various tasks, and this is the way of compromise, competent management and self-discipline.
For the sake of this startup, I began to receive an education as a translator from English and learned the basics of web development. I loved this job, sincerely believed in what we were doing, but previous experience helped me before the others to understand that things are not as good as it sounded at the morning meetings. The startup began to be bent from children's and not absolutely already children's diseases. A significant role in the destruction of a good company was played by strange partners, the pliable CEO was the unfortunate factor. We went, who where. No one is missing.
Company "family" type
Six years after the beginning of my work experience, I knew about what I wanted. I was not attracted by the new high-rise of Gazprom, did not attract banks, did not inspire the desired third city managers Atomenergoproekt. I didn’t think about my business, but I didn’t want to start up either - just resigning, I realized that I was burned out nowhere else. I got to Regionsoft in the most ordinary way: resume - interview - work. But the work itself is not quite standard: I rarely go to the office, and even have my place in another business center. It's more convenient for me geographically and purely functional. So, the first thing I noticed was that I immediately joined the company, as I did in the family and had never had the feeling that I was separate, but they were separate. Above, I have already said that in many respects this is the merit of the head: the company is small, it is enough for everyone. Another important feature is in contrast to the “anthill”, where there were a lot of people with duplicate functions, here each is exactly in its place. Actually, it is precisely the feeling of being needed and useful, perhaps, that keeps employees 10-15 years old. For the modern world, this situation is rare.
So what was I waiting for
- I wanted to work in the CRM market , but did not want to leave my hometown. I was very lucky that in Nizhny Novgorod there was not a franchise, not a bent, but a full-fledged vendor of CRM-systems with a sales market for the entire CIS. In principle, we relatively recently began to actively move forward - we already have enough work: most of the implementations are carried out as an integration project. I like it, this process is much more interesting than the boring sale of SaaS products.
- Again, I was waiting for training. Even though I worked in the IT field, and had certain skills and a theoretical basis, I lacked the knowledge of the specifics of integration, business automation, and the structure of such software. The only thing I had was participation in the most powerful implementation project in telecom. I am in favor of the fact that everything in the software, from the implementer to the PR man and sales person, must deeply know their software, understand how it works on the client side.
- Untied hands - what I wanted as a professional. It would be desirable not just to step from task to task (which, by the way, we are registered in our own CRM ), I wanted to bring something of our own to the work. From my previous job I still have an understanding of the laws of business and its problems, which means I understood how a part of these problems can solve CRM. And I wanted to work from the standpoint of the client’s advantage, to play in his field. So it happened.
- I wanted to be heard. The problem of my first place of work was total deafness to the initiative from below - the line bosses and the middle link simply turned off all ideas and proposals in the bud for obvious reasons. The whole scope of activity was limited to the proper organization of its tables, calculations and models. And the ideas were and with experience they only added. I am ready to discuss each of them and actively implement everything that seems useful.
- It was interesting to see pure B2B. Before that, I worked for B2- 70% at B2C, and this area seemed to me, though interesting, but somehow homogeneous: the company offered a product or service, and the consumer was actively or not very much buying them. There was no complexity, but at first my tasks were generally more about post-analysis and current information and technical support for commerce. 2 is another story, it is a multidimensional world, where there is both a human factor, and a technical side, and individual features of each company. In fact, every new project is a new job, 100% will not get bored.
My mistakes
- Errors in the work - it is difficult to manage without them, especially in the new industry. There were technical errors, commercial, communicative. I “missed” potential partners, did not recognize the competitor's messenger and managed to work for free for a couple of people who were particularly involved in the trust. We are not blamed for mistakes (well, almost), but I had science.
- Misunderstanding of the laws of automation. It seemed to me that it was possible to automate a business in parts, and then somehow collect data in another system. Now I know that patchwork automation and zoo systems are evil, there is a lot of this evil in companies and it is very interesting for me to change the situation as much as I can.
- I underestimated the horrors of the CRM market in Russia. This, as in the old joke, is not horror, horror, horror, but yes, horror. The main troubles: CRM is called everything that is not falling; managers are actively resisting implementation; business does not understand the benefits and does not trust anyone; competitors lie about their functions, hoping to "somehow somehow resolve"; after unsuccessful implementations, the business does not want a new CRM; freelancers make hell like it is.
Sometimes it happens
- I thought too well of those who addressed us. Business is afraid of automation, it is not ready to analyze, let alone change business processes. Entrepreneurs do not understand that accelerating and optimizing processes is their profit. It seems everyone is waiting for something. No need to wait, we must act.
What can you learn and what can you get by working in a “company-as-family”?
Stable professional growth. With each new client, I get a new experience, overcome special problems - there is growth, I realize that I am a professional. It costs a lot.
Respect for skills and knowledge - when you directly interact with the general (there is no “ant” bureaucracy), and he knows how to listen and discuss, you understand your place in the company and feel the value. You can always find an application for your skills and, unlike a startup, no one will be very jealous that it was you who invented this. There is one drawback - some solutions are delayed and may lose their relevance. I learn to perceive it philosophically: it means that it was not so necessary.
New knowledge. In companies of this type, each is responsible for a relatively wide range of responsibilities, which means that you have to understand the related functions in order to approach the work more comprehensively. Again, the atmosphere of dialogue reigns at work - you can easily ask a question to your colleagues or superiors and get not a vague, but a competent and accurate answer. By the way, this is an advantage over a large company, in which you can generally work carelessly - because of the duplication of functions, they are not immediately noticed.
Huge horizon of development. Small companies with a good product actively compete for the market in conditions of limited resources - investors seldom get money in their beaks, investors often lack hands, most often - time. Almost every one of us dreams of having 48 hours a day. So, after 10 years of continuous activity, I can say that such conditions are ideal for the development of a professional. Well, this is about as a session in which you learn more than during the school year. The only difference is that concentrated knowledge and skills are constantly consolidated in practice.
Confidence in the team. When a team is stable, welded and knows all the goals for which it works, the employee feels the bottom. Without conflicts, it does not do, as in any human community, it happens that in a family it is not without a freak. But this is perceived as a normal workflow, and not as a reason for the year gossip in an anthill or a personal tragedy in a startup. In general, the importance of good relations among colleagues cannot be underestimated.
Summing up, what is important for self-motivation?
- Inner sense of freedom.
- Return on what you do - when you see the result, the work becomes more fruitful.
- Independence from negative circumstances.
- You do not need love, let the work will be respect.
- Democracy must be pumped at the tip of each person’s nose.
You should not force yourself to work by force - sooner or later you will break the strings. Work should not be a tedious boring burden; it is worth learning how to find the best experience in each work and shape your experience out of it. With each place of work you gain value as a professional, acquire knowledge and skills. This baggage is yours only. Positive thinking is a trite phrase, and the thing is cool. What matters is how you perceive certain things. Believe in yourself - it will not walk in a circle.
There is work in Nizhny Novgorod and not only
PS: we are looking for a Delphi programmer and a full stack of a web developer in an office in Nizhny Novgorod for a full-time job (it is possible to combine with studies, age also does not matter). All that is needed, we will train, we will complete the education and show. Call, negotiate, come - we do not like to write requirements, we need a candidate who is ready to work and grow. The summary is sent to contact@regionsoft.ru Territorially - Sormovo.
In other cities of the Russian Federation and the CIS, we are looking for salespeople on the remote site - if with programmer skills, it is generally perfect. Write to contact@regionsoft.ru
We have nothing to add from the company - we set out our position several posts earlier. So just a poll.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/332800/
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