tim ferro
professional software developer, gen y advocate, blogger, and orator

I was reading The Office Newb’s blog post about intra-company SLA’s and I could not agree more. One of the biggest gripes at my last company was that human resources was completely inept. It would take multiple emails and phone calls to just get an address changed. I once had to bring the issue to a company VP just to get some results. It was during these experiences that I was involved in a group that was helping to make the company a better place to work. One of our main ideas was to institute a service level agreement between the employees and the human resources department with measurable metrics to then evaluate their service. This is not a post to complain about human resources as there are plenty of good ones, my current company is wonderful, but more to bring this issue to attention for all internal company departments. Leave comments about how to help others address this issue at their places of work.

– Tim Ferro

Nadira A. Hira’s article over on CNN Money got me fired up! Not only do I completely agree with her assessment of the current situation in corporate America but I have more to add to it.

When shown “true” loyalty from a company, not only Gen Y but all employees, will show loyalty back. The problem is that it is rare when a company is truly loyal. Bottom lines are the way of business and they aren’t loyal. This is why we job hop and hopefully this will cause enough of an issue that companies will wake up to this reality.

We don’t mean to be revolutionaries but it is much easier for Gen Yers to job hop because we have little roots in anywhere we go. Usually we don’t have kids and a lot of us don’t have mortgages.

So here are a few tips to companies who want to know what loyalty is to Gen Y.

• If the employee is doing their job well, a raise should be cost of living plus a percentage based on evaluation.
• Pay employees what they are worth. Being underpaid is a sign of disloyalty from the company.
• The employee needs to know that they have a future with the company and a plan to achieve it.
• Annual reviews should mean something.
• Training and certifications should be encouraged.
• Bonus Points for companies who ask Gen Yers about how they can better be utilized within the company.

–Tim Ferro

The first 2 seem obvious, the 3rd, not so much. Here’s why, unless you stay active after college, you will gain weight. Sounds simple, but graduates don’t realize just how much walking they do in college. After graduation, most will get some sort of office/desk job where they will be mostly immobile during the day. Conversely, they will continue to eat the same things post graduation.

This combination will lead to many graduates gaining weight or an “office ass”. This can lead to a number of problems associated with obeseity, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The latter of which I had a problem with.

After just a couple of years post graduation, I was diagnosed with very high cholesterol. I had access to free gyms at my apartment complex and work but I never went as often as I should and never ate as well as I could. This year, after another cholesterol test revealed that I hadn’t been doing much to get better, my doctor wanted to put me on Lipitor. This was the kick in butt I needed. I told him “no way, refer me to a nutritionist”. I followed the nutritionist’s plan and also got a new trainer at the gym, which I had joined a few month earlier.

Only 3 months later my cholesterol was completely fine and lost 38lbs. I should never have let it get to this point, but for those that have, you need to get healthy. Let this be an example to those graduating, keep in shape or face real problems. When you are in your 20s, you are no longer “invincible” like you were in college.

– Tim Ferro

I have been thinking about getting on Twitter for a little while now, but I didn’t really get it until the other day. I was watching Californication on Showtime On Demand and I thought “This is a freaking great show.” Then I thought about blogging about the show but I didn’t feel like putting out a blog post that would essentially equal “This show is great. filler filler flattery.” Then it suddenly hit me; this is where Twitter fits into my life. Minutes later I had an account and a couple tweets about the show. Done. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timferro

–Tim Ferro

I want to take a second to point out a post that my friend, and former classmate, wrote about employee retention. His company has the same problem as a lot of companies: retaining Gen-Y employees, aka “keeping the young kids around”. He points to 3 main reasons: “Economics, Environment, and Rewards”. It is an intriguing, well written piece and it definitely needed a shout out!

– Tim Ferro

As of today, I am honored to be a blogger for BrazenCareerist.com. Check out the site and my sweet profile!

Co-Working is something that I have been thinking about for a while now. Then I saw this article and that solidified my position on it. It’s a great idea. It is a great balance and middle ground for those that could telecommute but don’t want to give up office interaction completely. It would shorten the commute but still allow for team collaboration. Win Win. This article and blog post are great starting points for broaching the subject at your current jobs.

– Tim Ferro

If I had a lot of money I would invest it right here and now. The new solid state drives are killer. They actually look semi-affordable too. Too bad the largest capacity you can get is 120GB. Looking beyond their capacity, they scream like a newborn with an ear infection. With read speeds of 120MB/s and write speeds equally mind blowing at 40-100MB/s. The speeds vary whether the SSD is based on SLC (single level cell) or MLC (multi-level cell) technology.

With drives this fast and affordable we are looking at the equivalent of the industrial revolution for storage devices. This breakthrough is as major as when the video processor broke free from the processor and became its own uber-powerful add-in card. To put it in short easy terms it’s as big as Voodoo was in the 90’s.

There are two major players in this SSD market; Super Talent, a major memory maker, and OCZ, also a major memory maker that has recently reached into new markets with cooling units and power supplies. If I were you I would invest in both. How much for god-like speed you ask? It’s only $449 for a 60GB, don’t whine about it, just do it. Buy one.

Here is another beautiful X-bit link if you would like to know more.

Being a long time fan boy of AMD, it hurts me to see Intel slashing its prices. Although un-like other fan boys I know when it’s time to jump ship (only for a little while). For only 25 bucks more than AMD’s cheapest quad core, you’ll get Intel’s quad core which spanks AMD’s best quad core in almost every benchmark, ouch. By the way, I do mean on DDR2 mobo’s, I’m not counting Intel’s advantage with DDR3, because that would be even more painful.

For me it’s not about brand loyalty, if you are a sheep then maybe it is for you. If you are a true geek or nerd or whatever you call yourself it’s about speed, pure and unadulterated speed, (and cost). That magical price/performance ratio. So all hail to the new price/performance king, Intel.

Here’s the link to another beautiful xbitlabs article, it includes the new pricing.

Google, oft the trend setters, have a position within the company of Chief Culture Officer. This person is in charge maintaining and innovating the culture at Google to keep their employees happy. The fact that this position exists shows their complete commitment to their employees, their happiness, and most importantly, employee retention. At Google, the position is held by the person who is also head of Human Resources.

In my opinion, this works because CCO is now her full time job. This position cannot be a part time job. More companies need to adopt the position and seriously work on making it a priority. Most companies care about their employees and “try” to keep them happy, but this is rarely achievable. Money is rarely the only reason employees leave their companies. This is where the CCO comes into play. When it comes to employee retention, having a CCO can make a huge difference.

This position has unique challenges for companies of all sizes. Large companies have the money and man power but have to work on keeping thousands happy. Smaller companies might not have the man power or money but have less people to work with. Some companies don’t make much of an effort to keep employees happy and some try a good amount but that is still not enough. In today’s work environment, there is always someone else, like Google, going the extra mile or 10 miles just to attract and retain top employees.

The CCO is the new, progressive position to start hiring and utilizing for companies of all sizes. This is increasingly important given the current environment of the IT industry, where employees, especially Gen Y ones, are job hopping for more than money.

– Tim Ferro