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I also think you rule and would love to work in the type of environment for which you strive. I want to air out this one:

  • Are you a team player or a loner?

This boils down to-

  • Are you a yes man or a trouble maker?
  • Are you a sheep or a free thinker?

Team player != good collaborator. Little, if any, genius in history has come from teams, but almost all of the bad stuff in the world does. A friend of mine says, "The IQ of a meeting starts at 100 and drops 5 points for every person present."

I'd rather have a workforce 10 friendly "loners" than 100 "team players." The idea of team encourages the idea of group responsibility. The idea of group responsibility discourages achievement, self-satisfaction, and the kind of person who believes in taking responsibility for one's own mistakes and successes instead of "that guy" which every "team" has and everyone but HR and the manager knows is dragging the place down. Star players tend to change teams so often for just this sort of reason.

I'd also like to air out this from tinita above:

you realize that everybody has weaknesses.

I don't realize that and I can't believe everyone just swallows this pill without so much as a grain of sugar. People, like things, have right places and wrong places. What's a scalpel's weakness? That it can't cut a sandwich without making a mess? People are the same. Managers should try very hard to get people into the places they belong. The right person in the right job might have no "weakness" at all. The right person in the right job can create such a surplus of productivity that it covers for the 5 employees who stumbled through life into career paths for which they have no talent, no drive, and no affection.

Oh, and I guess a comment on this one too-

(Of course, this doesn't count certifications required to practice the craft, such as CPA.)

Malpractice kills something like 100,000 people a year in the US. Some estimates go quite a bit higher too. What better "certificate" than a degree 6-12 years in the making with 1-3 years of on the job training afterwards? Since even that can't be reliable, all certs are suspect. (I know you know this, just bringing it up; the legal requirement for a cert changes nothing.)

Whew! On the other points I especially appreciate this: "Do you work days or nights?"

Some, me included, simply do better, more focused, work at night. Fewer distractions. Fewer things to do instead. Little to no chance of being interrupted when in the middle of a sticky problem.

The fact that you're thinking this stuff through, without a top 10 list from Business 2.0 or some shite, puts you at the head of the management class already. If you weren't in OH I'd probably be private msg'ing you right after this. :)

In reply to Re: Certifications are dumb. by Your Mother
in thread Certifications are dumb. by dragonchild

and:  <code> code here </code>

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