Posts for Professionals

Competence gaining

Last time, we looked into why competences are important for your job and your salary. Now, we are taking the opportunity to discuss how to actually gain competences. I recently put up the website for competences and this post here is a part to get some more focus on the competence matter as announced.

How to get a higher salary

In my recent post, I stated that I want to focus more on individual competences. To motivate the topic a bit, I would like to start off today with something very practical: How to improve your salary.

Do stuff. Fail. Learn. Repeat. Build up competences.

It is very difficult to show when you achieve competences. For example: I visited a basic and an advanced seminar on simulation software for optics. Do I feel competent? No. I am lacking practice. And here is a simple key of achieving competence: Learning by doing. It is simple yet effective. Let us check how to achieve greatness by achieving compenteces.

Generation Y and their resigning habits

Recently, I have not been happy concerncing my work environment: The work load and interactions with my superiors. So I resigned, without a job offer already at hand. I tried beforehand to explain my reasoning, however, without a future job offer, for the old generation’s boss this looked more like blackmailing and bluffing. Thus, let us analyse the mindset of generaion Y a bit.

Project managers do not need a MBA

I had recently a talk with a coworker. Apparently, his wish has been to go from an engineering position to a project management position. As wise as he is, he decided to learn the necessary skills beforehand. I congratulated him on his decission but I could not agree to pursue a MBA. It is not the right way and I will tell you now what I have told him: Project managers do not need a MBA.

EU ruled: Employers are forced tracking working time

We work to earn money, so we change time for money. In most small and medium companies it is not common tracking working time. I have seen many times what happens when people work and do not track their times. They accumulate a non-neglectable amount of overtime and this is never paid back by holidays or moneywiese. So, we can see here a benefit. But what disadvantages might occur?

Unique competences are poisonous

How interchangable are you? Think about it: Where can you go right now in your organisation and still help out to at least 80 % of your actual position capabilities. I have had some thoughts about it and would like to share them. Let us talk about unique competences and why they hinder more than help.

Leading by example

I have recently read an article about the art of leading by example. Leading by example is something great – in theory. In this blog entry, I would like to discuss the issue of what this means in an organization and how it is a key to protect your coworkers by a certain standard.

Team Leader: First year reflection

The jolly ol’ christmas time brought a lot of something one rarely sees these days: Relaxation. I tried to use this time of year to reflect my doing and undoing of the last several months. The end of the year is perfect because you are drained heavily to family and friend events and get away from your job time. The distance to the rat race is gold, let us talk about how I used the calmer season.

The skill of failing – lessons learned

Our society celebrates victories and success. These successes are often celebrated after project milestones. But nobody likes to talk about the stories behind them. The story of careful planning, focusing for goals, fighting against all odds and failing multiple times. I think failing is a very important skill and hugely underestimated as a soft skill. I consider it as the one of the most important skill for research and development.