You need a degree to work for BigCo

[shae]

I found this today: Why you need a degree to work for BigCo by Reg Braithwaite.

This article covers my thoughts on working for Raytheon, better than I could do myself.

Clearly I'm doing the wrong thing with my life.

Comments

[titivillus]

I love that article. Actually, I really enjoyed several articles on his blog, he seems to have stopped writing it though, which I found disappointing

And?

[shae]

So, what did BigCo say to your wife?

I was able to make money outside of the system quite well when I was self-employed.

I forget which management guru said that companies should be no larger than eight people, but part of his approach was that lots of small four to eight person companies would in fact approach capitalism. He did not explicitly say that the current structure does not approach capitalism, but I will say that I don't see performance based results where I work now.

Re: And?

[titivillus]

BigCo said that my wife saving the lab was just average on the performance review. In addition, since she's only worked six months, the raise would be prorated(2 comments: #1 - I realize other people aren't getting raises this year, so, you know, we're grateful, but #2 - WTF? Who the hell does that? I mean, this is _extra_ crazy, even for _my_ low expectations of corporate America). It was about like the time BellSouth said I was below average with computers. The difference, of course, is this was my wife's first review, and I have some expectation of this type of crap. If you want to know more, I'll send an email(no sense invoking the Ghost of Usenet postings past :) ).

Actually, a more general discussion of effective group sizes involves Dunbar's limit(aka Dunbar's Number), and generally, I find management guru's are often at least partially right, and much like religious prophets, no one listens to the really good stuff

[catamorphism]

I hate that kind of attitude, even though I do have multiple degrees. Want to start a research lab/goat farm with me in Vermont?

[shae]

Um, how about Jamaica or someplace warm? :-)