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Anyone take SHRM? How many hours did you study?
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Email horror stories ... go!
Got a random email from a supposed Amazon recruiter for a SDE position (which is not at all a fit). The email is amazon.com domain and there are no red flags in the body but it doesn't feel like an Amazon recruiter due to the tacky signature, etc. Has anyone seen this kind of cold-calling from FAANG recruiter?
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I did and I hated it! As a former military officer I was always very clear. I dont like figuring out a riddle. And of course, most of the time it resulted in a deliverable other than what he wanted due to his inability to articulate his thoughts
Project manager giving directions? That's not the job of a PM
Couldn’t agree more… I think it’s absolutely unacceptable a manager pushes down the burden or his inability or incompetence down to the junior ranks.
It’s also one way to decide who to never work with again if you can help it
Hi! I’ve been on both sides of this exchange regularly throughout my career, so I understand how frustrating it can be being on the receiving end, and how the vague communication can happen from the giver. Going to share why this happens and how to navigate it successfully so that it can help you handle these situations in your career. You can’t change that it happens, but you can be prepared to handle it.
WHY AND HOW THIS HAPPENS:
Generally, the higher up you go in the organization, the more strategic you have to be to get things done - there’s just too much scope to be in the details. Each MD has something like 70 people in their reporting lines on average, and no matter how well intentioned, it’s impossible for an MD to know the context of every situation, think deeply about every problem, and give a thoughtful, detailed answer and set of instructions on every problem. Great MDs have to think big picture, about the whole team, where the team is headed, and their primary focus is on the clients.
They tend to provide broad directional guidance/objectives to the SM’s, and rely on the SMs to know how to take that, infer the details, and run with it. For example:
MD: “John, our client was pretty upset after that meeting. You need to handle that.“
SM: “Agreed. He seemed most upset when his name wasn’t credited for the big win recently. I’ll set up time with John, hear how he was feeling, and find a way to ensure he gets recognized with his boss for the great partnership. I’ll also pass the feedback on to the team so we ensure we present this differently going forward.”
MD: “Great, thanks.”
SM’s role in this firm is to be that translator between the MD and the managers. But SMs have about 20 people on average reporting to them, similar to the MD problem.
SM: “Hey, M, thanks for all the hard work on that presentation. I spoke with MD, and John seemed pretty upset that he wasn’t credited. I need you to find a way to get him credit in one of our future presentations somehow.”
At this stage, you have M-level individuals who are experienced and capable of making it to the next level, and those who can’t.
Inexperienced/Weak M: “Uh, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to handle that?”
Experienced/Strong M: “You’re right, I can totally see how John would feel upset by that. We’ve got a steering committee meeting next week, and I’ll get the team to put a slide in there about John’s help so he gets the credit he deserves.”
Next, M goes to C or A:
M: “I need you to create a slide for the Steerco next week about our recent accomplishment and highlighting John’s contributions specifically.”
A: “What do you want the title to be? How do you want it formatted?” (Thinks, why is M so vague?!?)
VS.
C: “Can you clarify what the context is here so I can get this right?”
…and so on.
If you feel like your manager is talking in riddles, they might genuinely be poor communicators. It is also possible, based on my experience, that there is a level and experience gap between you and that you may need to work on your ability to ask the right clarifying questions to understand purpose and intent, infer what you need to do proactively, repeat that back to get their input, and then go do it.
Seems to be every manager I’ve worked with at my company. It’s quite infuriating, just get to the point