I’m bored and tired and bored while trying to take notes in a business meeting that is largely over my head. Feeling kind of disgruntled. So to stay awake, maybe I can poll you all here on something that bothers me. I’m currently working in a company in an extremely complex business domain. More to the point, the idjits in management stuck me on a team that requires a background in the industry in order to succeed. (It wasn’t done because I’m good at anything in particular, it was just one of those reorgs where they move bodies around. Now I seem to be stuck with it as long as I work here.)
Been here almost 4 years now. I started out with a good attitude, willing and eager to learn. Last year it became clear to me that it’s just not possible to learn this stuff fast enough by osmosis. I’ve asked to be able to spend a week at a customer’s site to learn what they do in more depth, nope. How about sitting with our customer service team? Nope. Sent to training offered by our industry standard body? Heck no, that’s expensive.
I’ve managed to learn a bit, but it’s shallow. What is needed for this team is deep knowledge. Frustratingly, since I’ve been here for a few years now, people treat me like an SME when I really don’t know enough to be an SME. There are other new employees in this position, too. So I’ve been wondering… how would a company go about giving it’s new employees a decade or more worth of business domain knowledge in one or two years?
Can the knowledge be categorised and structured in such a way as to make it possible to learn the structure quickly, then self-teach the structured/documented knowledge?
(or in other words - don’t try to learn what can easily be looked up - so find a way to make the knowledge lookup-able)
Not sure. It seems to me that the depth of the knowledge is largely the history of how and why things are done the way they are. And this is for a global industry, not just one business. So it’s an enormous mountain to climb. I’ve been thinking that maybe the company should stop hiring people “off the street” and only hire industry insiders.
The other problem I’ve seen here a LOT is that it’s hard to learn from the seniority people because they’ve internalized so much that they don’t even think of explaining a lot of it. It’s like a PHD in quantum mechanics trying to teach his subject to a first grader. Sort of.
Just out of curiosity, what industry is it or what about the industry is so complex that you haven’t got a decent grasp of it (or at least the part of it that’s relevant to your job) after 4 years?
The airline industry. I had no clue what was involved in computing fares, and I’m astonished at the complexity involved. I spent almost a decade in public safety, and computer aided dispatch was a complex subject. It’s nothing compared to automating a way for all airlines to collaborate and compete in a global marketplace without collusion and antitrust.
A person could absolutely learn it, bit by bit. But the “throw them in the deep end and see if they swim” is a recipe for failure.
