Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: work

  • LinkedIn, are you trying to drive me away?

    I’ve changed jobs frequently during my career – eight companies in 25 years. That’s not unusual in software development, which is my line of work. Because of my nomadic ways I’ve worked with many fine colleagues, and LinkedIn has been a great tool for keeping track of them. (If I were only better at keeping in touch…

  • Living life after running out of things to graduate from

    I overheard my sons talking the other day about college. I found that to be encouraging, because I think they’re both bright and capable and should go to college. My youngest said, “Elementary school prepares you for middle school, which prepares you for high school, which prepares you for college. And then college prepares you…

  • Frozen glue

    A rerun, from 2010. For ten minutes one afternoon in 1986, I thought I had killed a little girl. I worked my 19th summer for my aunt Betty’s delivery service. Her small company shuttled papers, packages, and supplies  for industrial clients all over northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan. She did a good business with maybe…

  • Multitasking hurts productivity

    I’ve started a new blog about making software. It’s called Stories from the Software Salt Mines, and you’ll find it at softwaresaltmines.com. I started it because even though this blog is mighty eclectic, my occasional posts about what I do for a living have never felt quite at home here. Now they have a home…

  • I believe in A teams over A players

    I’ve heard it again and again at work. “We need to hire a real A player for this job, a total rock star.” This statement usually comes at a time some critical task or function isn’t being done well (or at all) and it’s causing projects to fail. “If we can just bring in a…

  • Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer says no more working from home – and I say, “Right on!”

    They say that the first secret of success is simply showing up. For those of us who work in software development, I say that means going to the office every workday. Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo!, seems to agree. She recently told the Internet company’s employees that they would no longer be allowed…

  • Technical problems can almost always be solved, but people problems are hard

    I’ll never forget the revelation it was when I figured out how to write computer programs. You mean, I thought, I can make this machine do what I want it to? It was a watershed moment in my life. I was shy, introverted. People often frightened me, at least a little. I struggled to interact with people I…

  • Seven things I want my sons to know about making their way

    Now that you’re both teenagers, my job as your dad is changing. When you were little, my job was more about teaching you some basics, keeping you safe, and showing you love. Now it’s about slowly letting go and coaching from the sidelines so you can go in your own direction and hopefully find success…

  • Time for new business cards

    I start a new job today! I have joined a small software company as their Director of Quality Assurance. I won’t name the company – it’s not top secret or anything, but a lot of what I do is confidential research and development. I will say that this is a very small company getting off…

  • The Blizzard Queen

    The summer after I graduated high school, to save money for college in the fall I got a job at a Dairy Queen. A former teacher of mine had recommended me to Mr. Frick, who owned the store. Marilyn was his store manager. She was short and slight with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and out-of-style drop-temple…

  • Even a mediocre plan will work if everybody follows it

    I have been astonished in my life by how few problems are truly unsolvable. I have also noticed that, most of the time, when a problem ends up not being solved it is for one of two reasons: people deny the problem, or they won’t work together on the solution. I make software for a…

  • Eventually you realize you’re the common denominator in your problems

    When something you don’t like happens to you over and over again, at some point you have to look hard at the part you play in it. At the beginning of this year a larger company bought the company for which I work. Most acquisitions seem to be about neutralizing a competitor or reducing overall…