career development

 by Brendon J. Wilson

AOE II/Career Plan

In the race towards the end of this module of the MBA, I’ve been procrastinating with Ages of Empires II: Ages of Kings. Yeah, yeah, it’s an old game, but it fulfills the purposes of “wasting time” and “fulfilling my God complex”. Though playing the game is meant to be a distraction, I’ve been introspective: How I play the game seems to reflect the way I approach problems – and a big problem under consideration at the moment is where to go after I finish the MBA.

For those of you not familiar with the game: it’s your basic military strategy game in which you build a village, gain technologies, and defend yourself from an enemy. My usual tactic is to surround an area with a fence, and have my villagers work like mad to mine/harvest/log resources to climb the technology curve as quickly as possible. I usually create only a small military, just enough to fend off any enemy troops who choose to assault my city walls. It works pretty well, but it also appears to be a metaphor for how I have approached my career: go to school, get degree, work hard, get an MBA, et cetera.

The question is: how well will this incremental strategy work in real life, against real (human, not software) opponents?

For example, I’ve been thinking about eventually starting my own tech venture and working towards that in a methodical fashion. Though I could start something upon completion of the MBA, it feels like it would be better to return to the regular working world for a while. Part of this is driven by pure economics (I’d like to replenish my financial reserve) and part of it by my current lack of a solid business idea. Returning to the metaphor of AOE II: I’m choosing to develop the next round of technology and hoard resources instead of attacking the enemy immediately.

Am I being strategic, or risk averse? Is trying to return to PK3i a smart, logical move that will advance my business expertise and help build a track record that will serve me when I actually start something? Or is it me “playing safe”?

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 by Brendon J. Wilson

Internship Secured

It was a busy week, but I managed to secure myself a pretty sweet internship with the Premier’s Technology Council. The PTC is responsible for providing “advice to the Premier on all technology-related issues facing British Columbia and its citizens”. I’ll be working with the Emerging Technology Work Group, headed by William Koty, which is responsible for researching emerging technologies, analyzing how these technologies will impact BC, and making recommendations on how the BC government can stimulate economic development in those areas within BC’s technology industries.

The interview for the internship was probably one of the more enjoyable interviews I’d ever had. William Koty, along with Michael Desandoli, a consultant volunteer with the PTC, had a relaxed interviewing style that felt more like a conversation than an interview. That said, it appears that they were still working off a set script for the interview, judging from the similarity I gathered between my interview and that of the other interviewees. There were the usual “why do you want to work with us” type questions, and a few “what is X technology” questions, but nothing unusual.

The part that was unusual was one of Mike’s questions: “So, how are your listening skills?”.

I couldn’t finesse that question, so I opted for honesty: “To be honest my listening skills need work.” Honesty seemed to satisfy them, which was good.

The call-back interview with William had a similar tone and, again, some difficult moments of honesty. William was concerned that I might be too opinionated – fair enough, I said, something to work on. Being aware of my shortcomings seemed to be more important to William than being “perfect”. All in all, I felt like I got more useful insight in two interviews than in most of my MBA.

The biggest problem I have is when people aren’t willing to provide feedback on interpersonal skills. If there’s something I’m doing wrong, the only way to help me develop is to tell me. I’ve spent the last ten years working with extremely smart engineers – smart people that see things in black and white. Either you’ve got the right answer or you don’t. Period. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. The transition to dealing with non-technical people is probably the most difficult obstacle I’ll have to overcome in my business career.

But as long as people tell me what I’m doing wrong, or how they feel about how I interact with them, I’m sure I’ll be able to overcome these obstacles. So bring on the feedback!

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