Loving Husband

A man had two of the best tickets for the Augusta Masters.  As he sits down, another man comes along and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.
 
“No,” he says, “the seat is empty.”
 
“This is incredible!” said the man. “Who in their right mind would have a seat like this, the biggest golfing event in the whole world, and not use it?”
 
He says, “Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. My wife was supposed to come with me, but she passed away. This is the first Masters we haven’t been together since we married.”
 
“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that. That’s terrible. I guess you couldn’t find someone else?… a friend or relative or even a neighbor to take the seat?”
 
The man shakes his head. “No, they’re all at the funeral.”

Have you ever fired someone ? Fired or keep ?

There are times in my career where I have to make decisions over whether to keep an individual with the company or fired (him/her).  It's not an easy thing to do, no one will teach you how to do it, and you will not feel good about firing someone.

I clearly remember, the first time that I need to fire a person. I was working in a global IT company, and he is a server engineer, assigned to one of our clients (let's say his name is John).  His team leader has informed me that John has been unable to perform well on tasks assigned to him, delayed some tasks that should have been done regularly (perform backup, log monitoring, etc - all of those are server engineers daily task).  Although John has been a role model for his attendance, but the real problem is - he is not performing.  I have talked to him more than once, several sessions are with his supervisor, and others are one-on-one - just him and myself.  I tried to understand what seems to be the problem - is it problem at home (relationship with his wife, kids, etc), financial issue, or even problem with his colleague or his supervisor, etc - but there seems to be no issue.  I have constantly remind him to talk to me if there's anything at all, because if there's no issue, but his supervisor saw him under-performed, there will be problems for sure.

He was given written warnings (several times) by his supervisors for some of the task assigned to him was not properly managed, and I have confirmed with him again, one-on-one, but he said that the mistake was on his side, and it was purely human-error (lack of sleep, mistype, the whole nine-yard).  Until one time, he messed up big time (problems with one of the servers, and his team tried to restore the backup - but it was not there).  So, they need to retrieve from a past archive backup (and lost about a week work).  Clients filed a complaint, and our Boss want to have him dismissed.

In his case, I believe he is under-qualified for his job.  That way, he often felt lost when he need to perform his job.  But he is too (shy or proud ?) to admit this.  I tried to approached him and ask him whether this is the case, but he kept his guard up and did not admit this.  If currently - you yourself in this position (hired, but realized that you are under-qualified for your position), there are several things that you can do :
1) Resigned - first, and easiest steps to do; however, if you have some fighting spirit and believe you can do this, read on ...
2) Find a mentor/senior that willing to teach you.  If you are female and attractive, it's even easier (I don't mean to be sexist, but not many female in IT industry - and a lot of guys are willing to teach).  However, I find Singaporean  colleagues are less than willing to share their knowledge, due to strict competitions in Singapore (the whole kia-su culture, etc - Google it, you will understand).
3) Learn, study, teach yourself.  There are tons of books, materials out there (on the web, etc) that you can read and learn.  Moreover, people are more willing to teach you when you have some understanding, than a completely "blank" (I know nothing, please teach me).  There's no such thing as a free lunch.

When an individual is willing to learn, study, and he/she is learning at very good speed, also have good attitude - keep them.  But when the individual is slow in learning, not smart, poor attitude, last to come but first to leave (or worst - always late) - do not hesitate - fired them.  Bad seed can spread easily to another one FAST, like wildfire !

Back to John's case - I have to fired him. He messed BIG time, and boss instructions are clear - fired him, and hired a new one.

PS : I am not the one that hired John in the first place - he was hire by my predecessor.  And it's not easy being someone supervisor / boss - you need to EARN the respect - it's not given.

Posting in English or Indonesian ?

I have been asking myself, to post in English or Indonesian, and so far - I think I will keep posting in Indonesian.  One of the reasons to do so, because English is not my mother tongue - and I believe I need to practice it on daily basis (be it in writing, reading, speaking, etc), instead of stay in my comfort zone and speak Indonesian.

One of the problems for Indonesian (or any nationality - International students) when studying abroad, is that they are having difficult time to adapt to the language in their destination country, despite all of the language learning and language proficiency test that they have taken in their country of origin.  First thing that they do when arrive and settle in, is looking for a fellow country man (woman) and speak in their native language.

I understand that it's very difficult to stay away from your family, friends, etc - come to a foreign country and have to adapt to many things (food, culture, language, etc).  But when you have decide to study (or live) abroad, it's the decision that you have already made, and learn how to live with.  Same thing for "bule" or foreigner that come to Indonesia - they too have to adapt.  Imagine this from their shoe / their perspective :

Indonesia = a foreign country where the food is spicy, the weather outside is normally 30-34 C, rains every now and then, humid, most people speak Indonesian (some younger generations do speak English though), poor public transportation, pollution everywhere, people will look at you differently and keep pointing at you when you walk on the curb, although some locals will treat you like celebrity or alien by asking you to take photo with them, etc.

They are no different than us - and we all just need to adapt. And remember, do not ask "them" to adapt to you, but you must adapt to "them".  Because we are stranger and the guest, they are the "host".  If you go to a moslem country, watch your dress and appearance, do not dress too "open".  If you go to western country - and you are a strict moslem - please ask them whether the food is halal or not, do not assume.

Is It Your Dream Job ? How to pick the right career path to fast track your career

A guy from Australia, Ben Farrell - recently quit his job as Quality Program Manager from Apple, Inc in Sydney, Australia.  Some of us may find working in Apple (or Google, Microsoft, all the world class company) as "the dream job".    You can find Ben Farrell posting in his blog : http://roadlesstravelled.me/2015/04/06/why-steve-jobs-motivated-me-to-quit-apple/

As posted in his blog, he mentioned several facts about working conditions in Apple :
1) 16 hours a day work, filled with meetings after meetings, and more meetings.  Even when he is on a day-off, he needs to dial-in to what seems to be an important conference call, where little to none of the attendees showed up.
2) "Sickness, family emergencies, and even weddings are given no respect at Apple" -- these are quoted directly from Ben's blog.  In other words, Apple don't want you to have your personal life.  You are hired with great compensation package, so we expect you to sacrifice these things for company.
3) No team spirit, as people attack each other or have their own agenda.

At the end of his posting, Ben added Steve Job's quote : " Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Thanks Steve, I choose to follow your advice."

Now, I don't think you and me have the right to judge Ben or people from Apple now - we are not in their shoes, pr we might not know the whole story.

However, look at your current situation or condition now, and ask yourself : Am I doing the right thing with my career now ?

I have here another article posted in Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-stanford-students-turn-down-150000-entry-level-salaries-carlson

For these Stanford graduates, they are looking for something beyond the salary offer, or the job security.  They are looking for the challenge, purpose/mission, ability to grow (be it career-wise, experience-wise), working with interesting people, and freedom,

So, what do you need from a job ? Personally, I list down the priorities from the most important one (to me) to the lest important one in these orders :
1) I must love the job (scope) and what I will be doing.
2) The challenge, or experience that I will gain.  Remember these will relate with the company that you are working for - compare working for Pepsi Cola and Apple, Inc (yes, I am taking John Sculley as example - those of you that has no idea, just google John Sculley).
3) The salary (well, yes, I still need the "moolah")
4) The working environment - Are the people great to work with ? Do they encourage information sharing and mentoring - so that you will improve your ability at the same time ? Or is it full of back-stabbers playing office politics to maintain their "status quo" ?
5) The boss and the colleagues.  Good Boss will praise you for your achievement in front of the others, and scold/point out your mistakes behind the closed door (that, my friend - is the Basic Management 101).  However, there are some "Gestapo" or "KGB"-educated Boss that like the otherwise approach (scold you in front of your colleague during the office party, and using the ^*%*%^&^ words) - and thinking that they are "doing you a favor" and taking "what didn't kill you will make you stronger" approach.

Well, those are my priorities,  You may find yourselves in a different situation, but you may find the above helpful for your considerations.

Enjoy your Monday !

How to troubleshoot your Home Wireless Access Point problems

Have you ever experienced problem with your Wireless at home ? Below, I provide you a simple troubleshooting steps on how to resolve the problem on your own.

Look at one of the icon below. 

A) No WiFi signal

 It means, no WiFi signal is detected.  You may try to move closer to your WiFi access point, or move the WiFi access point closer to you.

B) WiFi signal is detected, but not connected

See the yellow dot ? It means, your computer can detect WiFi signal, but unable to connect to WiFi access point.

How to resolve above situations ?

1) Try to reboot your WiFi access point.  You can login to your WiFi access point, and select restart / reboot (if you know the password/configure it yourself), or you can simply unplug the power and plug it back in.  PS : Remember to keep your WiFi access point in a well-ventilated area, provide a proper ventilation, or put a small fan towards the device.  You will shorten your WiFi access point device life if you keep it (say) in a drawer, cramped with other stuff, because it will cause your WiFi access point to get overheated.

2) Try to flush the DNS.  Sometimes, you will need to flush the DNS of your computer (because you may have used your computer in office, in school, at public place like Starbucks, etc).  One of the reasons to flush your DNS, so it can pick up the DNS from your Wireless Access Point / from your Internet Service Provider at home.  To do this, in your computer (I assume you use Windows-based machine), click on Start - Run - type cmd - then a command prompt will show up.  

Type ipconfig /flushdns

C:\Users\user>ipconfig /flushdns

Windows IP Configuration

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

C:\Users\user>

3) Check your Internet connection with other device.  If you have other device, such as Smartphone, iPad, etc - test your Internet connection using thise (remember to turn off the data connection from mobile device, so your device is solely connect using WiFi).  If your other device can connect to Internet solely using your WiFi, but not your computer - it means your computer network connectivity is the culprit.

4) Call your Internet Service Provider.  There are times, the problem is coming from them.  Call them if you have tried everything else and fails.

The challenge to keep posting and writing

Do you realize that when you started to write, it's very difficult to keep up with your promises to keep writing and updating your blog, because you will find so many reasons not to ?

I have tons of excuses that may have encountered to you as well, let me share with you :
* Busy with work, school, families, etc
* Something has come up (kids start to go to school, need to go to PTA meetings, etc)
* Something broken and need to be fixed (house, car, etc)
* Family is coming / visiting
* Family going on vacation
* Business trip
* etc

Basically, you will just need to discipline yourself with this new routine of your life called "Blog" and regularly writes.  It can be something as interesting as "How To Troubleshoot Wireless Problem At Your Home" or as simple as "The Difficulty of Preparing Birthday Party for a 5-years old kid".

If you are still having problem, think of this blog like  "Captain Log, Stardate xxx" from Star Trek, or those cool diaries from Doogie Howser (yeah, you are "the" Doogie Howser).

I set myself up now, to update this blog EVERY MONDAY - and I am planning to do so regularly.

Wish me luck.