On Loving Work
I read an interesting piece recently on How to Love Your Job [1]. My favorite quote from the article was “…if we all want interesting and fulfilling careers that pay well, provide prestigious job titles, and lots of freedom and flexibility to do interesting work, unleash our curiosity, and work with smart, friendly, and interesting colleagues, in cultures that are fully apolitical and aligned with our values, then quite a few of us will end up disappointed. Welcome to the real world. This isn’t a cynical take on the world of jobs, but an attempt to describe reality.” I can’t agree more and this concept led to me ponder those things that I like about my job, the people I like in my job, and how well my job is aligned with my values.
Working with people in software development roles has always been, by far, my preferred workspace. I have always been drawn to the community in large part due to the intensity developers often bring to their work, the sense of duty around sharing knowledge and best practice, and the amazing conversations in which I have had the privilege to participate. I can’t think of another community that brings the same combination of earnest sharing and genuine intelligence to their work so consistently.
My first foray into working with technical audiences was in the capacity of a consultant and instructional designer with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs IT Workforce Development group. After having spent four years in education as an English teacher, it was definitely trial by fire; it was also an amazing experience. I was able to dive deep into concepts like application security, information management, and troubleshooting with amazing professionals. Because of my background, I was not shy about asking even the most ridiculous questions and, as a result, was able to rapidly come up to speed on concepts if not implementation details in the space.
After working with VA and other government agencies for a couple of years, I moved to Cerner as a learning partner with responsibility for supporting software engineering functions. This was where my real education in the technical space began. From building courses and programs to support technical leadership to courses in testing and architecture, my exposure to the development world has been extensive. In addition to building courses and programs, I had the opportunity to work with thought and technical leaders at Cerner to identify coming trends and trends that had long since passed Cerner by but were key to the company’s progression. I worked with more forward thinking people to embed concepts like devops and continuous delivery in training long before development leadership had acknowledged the need for them; in my position, I was able to provide platforms for those forward thinking individuals to influence the future direction of the organization, to cultivate leaders who were mindful of Cerner’s technical future, and ultimately influence the direction of the organization through intentional grassroots exposure to concepts.
After a couple of years in the learning organization, a position in Cerner’s DevCulture organization became available. As a leader in that organization, I was able to bring in industry speakers to speak on topics relevant to driving the business forward. My team began publishing an internal podcast in which we interviewed people driving key change in the company ranging from topics like open source to monitoring and observability. We also started a “tech nudge” series in which we provide succinct, immediately applicable actions developers could implement to drive change in their spaces even without extensive buy-in or explicit future vision from their leaders. The ambient conversations these opportunities created led to an atmosphere in which forward momentum was being achieved along the lines of industry best practice frequently in spite of slow formal recognition of the needs.
Lastly, I was presented with the opportunity to leverage not only my extensive network but my experience with training development and change management to begin driving system change through Cerner’s engineering-aligned continuous improvement group. This position has provided me with greater opportunities to understand the regulatory and improvement spaces, recognize non-conventional opportunities for enabling the organization to achieve compliance and value through regulation, and allowing me to fully round out my experience with driving workforce change. As the leader of the embedded learning organization for Technology, Cerner’s early career software engineering program, Cerner’s development and product lifecycle management processes, Cerner’s Agile Center of Excellence, and the associated compliance and improvement groups, I have been able to bring a great deal of change to bear. Because of my prior experience and the trust I have built with the workforce, I have found that I am able to connect the need for change and how that change influences the day to day in engineering in ways my predecessors were not.
All of this culminates in a unique skill set. As something of an outsider of the tech community, I believe I have the uncommon advantage of being able to assess industry trends somewhat dispassionately. I don’t have a particular proverbial ax to grind or position to defend. As long as I have access to good feedback on whether I am directionally correct, I am able to operate independently to identify and research good practices, industry leaders, and shape content and experiences in a way to influence people in the field. My previous experience in education provides me with insight into how people absorb concepts and internalize experiences in a way to maximize learning transfer and on-the-job application.
Ultimately, what I need to love my job and my work is an interesting problem to solve, resources to solve it, and room to solve it using my experience thus far in the field.
[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90725498/how-to-love-your-job-according-to-science