What are your biggest challenges in your current position?

Every role that I have been in has had different challenges over time. Sometimes the challenge is a technical one that relates to scalability, or some specific technical topics. Other times the challenge may be an employee, subordinate, co-worker or your supervisor. You might have issues with time, resources or your work environment.

I worked in one position for several years and one day the company hired a middle-manager, someone who was not very technical, but also not very experience with management. Prior to that person becoming my manger, I had loved ever aspect of the job, and the team. But with one wrong hire (in my opinion) everything changed. The job shifted from one that I loved to contribute at, to instead one that I did not want to even be there any longer. There were no technical challenges on my part, no resource challenges, and no product challenge, it was just a personnel issue. I could not stand the new manager that I had to report to. Before long I no longer worked there, and I was off on my own path to start Stedman Solutions, LLC.

Other times, I have worked on projects where the technology was so far behind that it severely hindered the progress of the team. Imagine when others are running SQL Server 2017 or SQL Server 2019, you are still stuck on SQL Server 2000, with no feasible plan to move forward. Then you might ask why projects take so much longer, well that has something to do with running on 20 year old technology.

Sometimes the biggest challenge can be getting the details on a project. Someone may want you to start on their vision of a project without taking the time to share with you the details of that vision. When you ask questions, you are shunned for wasting their time. How can you create their product vision without them caring enough to take the time to explain it to you.

With Covid-19 over the last year and half that has put a whole new set of constraints on what we can do and what you cannot do. In person meetings are few and far between, and zoom is the standard. Some people thrive in that environment and some are challenged. I have seen some customers that have excelled during the Covid times and others that almost have used it for an excuse to be slow and off focus.

What are your challenges that you face at work on a daily basis? Are the technical, personnel, or something else? Feel free to post anonymously on this one if you are concerned about your employer or coworkers seeing your comments.

What are your biggest challenges in your current position?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply