Competence

[filkertom]

I love Rachel Maddow.

As we turn our attention back to the presidential campaign, to the choice we will make in November, let September 11, 2008 remind us of what we require from our leaders and from our government: competence. Our choice isn't about language or personality or how well we "relate" to a politician. This day reminds us that our choice in November is about the competence of the government we will elect.

I am sincerely hopeful that we might actually get at least a little competence this time around. It'd be nice; one would think that people who want a job as badly as these folks do would at least make an attempt to be good at it. Problem is, we've had several years of people who don't believe in the job at all, and have been more-or-less deliberately mucking it up, so they can say the job itself is the problem.

What's the job you were most competent at, and least competent at? I was pretty darn good at customer service. I like to think I'm at least halfway decent at songwriting, and better at performing. I was dreadful at butcher-shop cleaning, and nearly as bad at working at a gas station.

Comments

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Oooh...nice clip. (jeez, that sounds like a poodle pick-up line, doesn't it?)

I'm damn good at my current job, logistics auditing...I can multi-task and remember multiple details, and I've got a knack for figuring out problems and getting them fixed.

Least competent? Well, I'm told I was good at customer service when I worked at a mall bookstore, but inside I was ranting and raving at the stupid, mean, and downright irritating customers...all the while smiling on the outside.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I was a pretty decent programmer. I was a very bad bureaucrat.

("Reality TV contestant" doesn't count as a job, that was like doing summerstock. But I was decent at that too.)

And I hope to be a competent lawyer.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

Seems as though even as NBC tries to husg Keith Olbermann, Madow is willong to step into his shoes, albeit with a much gentler voice.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Most competent? Of all things, probably my 18-month gig at the fabric store shortly after I moved here.

Least competent was probably my first high school job, working in the take-n-bake pizza joint my grandfather owned, with my summer gig at the local aquarium a close second. In both cases it was mostly due to really not liking my boss, so I felt little to no motivation to do a good job. During my college summers, I instead got a gig at a donut/espresso place, and it was night and day how I got treated - and how I treated the job in return. I will never forget the owners taping a note for me on one of the cabinets, just to thank me for doing a good job. I was *much* more willing to bust my hump for them because they noticed and cared when I did right, as opposed to simply bitching when I did wrong.

[naomi-de-plume.livejournal.com]

>>least competent at
I worked for five days as a bill collector. Yes, I was that person who called you and demanded payment when you were late on a credit card debt, etc. On the 4th day my trainer educated me on telling people to pawn their TV or VCR to get money to pay their debt. On the 5th day I quit. I don’t know how people do that job.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Hard to compare competences, since I've had such different jobs. I was a very good Marine maintenance chief, supervising a platoon of mechanics and making sure a battalion of tracked vehicles were kept in shape. That job had the advantage of immediate feedback, so I knew when things were going well and when they weren't. It was much different from writing the flight software code for FUSE, but just as satisfying.

My greatest difficulties are with the management stuff. Not managing people, I can do that pretty well. It's the fiddling around with reports in arbitrary formats that bugs me. Also keeping track of the many different threads that I have all the time. I like situations where I have two or three ongoing tasks to keep me busy. When there are more than about six it really stops being fun.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I have been doing software testing since I graduated college 18 years ago. I am really good at finding the bugs in a program, even though I want to be the one creating the bugs instead of finding them. Some day I will make the jump from validation over to development, but my skill at finding the bugs makes it hard for my work to want to let me make that move.

[brmj.livejournal.com]

You know, there are plenty of free software projects you could contribute to in your spare time. It would A. help the world, B. probably be fun, and C. give you experience that might be useful latter on.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

I was a good student - not a straight A one, but I was good at working just hard enough to get good-enough grades and still enjoy collegiate life. I was also really good at customer service. I'm good at making desserts. I hope to get good at asking for money for good causes some day (recently got a job as a grant writer for a nonprofit that works with victims of domestic violence).

Least competent: door-to-door canvasser for a think tank. Long hours, aching feet, slave wages, and lots of doors slammed in my face.

Yes, I've done all of these things for real moneys, except one.

[solarbird]

I was a very good programmer, at least, up until the last year or so before I couldn't stand it anymore because of the combination of programme management fury and arm pain. I was a competent hacker with occasions of brilliance. (Hence my trophies fair share of IBM Urgent Service Bulletins, back in the day. *_*;; No, I wasn't ever paid to break systems; this is the "except one.") I'm very good at research, in the library/data-collection sense, and wasn't half bad in the original-science sense. I was good on radio (DJ and announcer). As a writer, I'm a very good at technical and nonfiction work, but was... uninvolving in fiction, which is a polite way of saying FAIL.

I'm a pretty good graphic designer, particularly of books and booklets. (Recent example of a booklet. Also, have a little assortment of overdesigned convention newsletters. ^_^ ) If I worked at it - to, say, make it a full-time career thing - I'd be very good, but I don't. I'm only a fair illustrator-type artist, though occasionally there are exceptions. (The Lake Monsters of the Allies series, for example.) Judging from reception, I was pretty good at glass sculpture.

I'm a very good landlord/property manager, tho' I don't enjoy it. I was a good bank credit investigator. I was a fantastically poor charity telemarketer. (The fact that it was for a charity was the only reason I was willing to take it. I did very poorly and left. The only good thing to come out of that was an argument with someone over whether I was a recording. No lie.) I'm poor in sales, generally; I think it's because I'm poor at motivating others to take action based on data.

It's too early to say about the music, either performance or writing. But I'm learning a lot, and I did okay busking my original music this summer. ^_^

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I was most competent many years ago, when I was writing for a remodeling-industry trade magazine in Chicago. I was least competent a few years later when I was working for a statewide governmental association OR a year or two earlier when I was trying to write educational filmstrips (yes, they still existed then).

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

I suck at any kind of sales. I was pretty good at directing plays, but noone seems interested in paying me to do that.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Me at my most competent: oddly enough, computer lab help desk. But that was back in the day when the labs had terminals, and I was about as "power" a "power user" as one was likely to get on the PR1MEs, and could offer plenty of help with programming as well. Second most competent: systems programmer and jack-of-all-tech for a small consulting firm back in the early 90s (we had a LOT of people meeting that description). Me at my least competent: definitely sales.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

Job I was best at? Probably freelance writing and editing.

Worst? The time I got hired on for a big job of work upgrading computer systems for the Post Office---they'd misjudged how complex the work would be, and it was miles above my skill level.

[fionn320.livejournal.com]

What, executive management at the USPS misjudging the complexity of a task? I'm shocked and astonished. ... Yeah, not really. I deal with that on a regular basis when I get asked why my route took 10 minutes longer than they expected the previous day, or when I get told that 110 degree weather or drenching rain has no impact on my ability to deliver mail according to their timetable. If I wasn't so bloody good at my job, I wouldn't be able to effectively tell them where to stick their time projections.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I've never been employed at anything other than computer programming. I'm damned good at optimizing assembly language. I also excel at designing data structures and program interfaces. I'm pretty bad at making sense of other people's undocumented spaghetti. I suck at programming by Google (looking on the Internet for an already written solution to problem at hand and successfully integrating it into the app). Guess what my last couple of jobs have mostly involved?

[ororo.livejournal.com]

Tough call for the best. I'm certainly competent at my current job, but it's a learning experience every day, so even after three years, I haven't learned it all.

Stage managing, perhaps.

Worst--working the front office for a printer, gathering info and doing estimates.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

I'm a very good songwriter. I'm a very bad salesperson.

By the way, you need to make a post about this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12krugman.html?ex=1378958400&en=c086f0651fb9c71b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Why? You just did. :) Seriously, Krugman is a force of nature in the blogosphere. He should be on everyone's short list anyway.

[jannyblue.livejournal.com]

Worst? Television and film production crew. The environment of the placesI worked was pure poison with tons of catty backstabbing and "screw your neighbor" politics (all with a fake sugary coating). I just can't bring myself to do that, let alone do it all day every day. It's not me.

This is why I wasted 4 years of my life getting my business degree with TV production for a minor... nobody'd bothered to tell me the personality traits it required. Meh. 20/20 hindsight. *shrug*

Oddly enough, the job I've found I'm best at is sales. Specifically dealer-table sales at conventions. I'm certainly not your typical "booth bunny" but for some reason, people like to give me money for stuff.

If only it paid as well as my day-job...

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Most competent: being creative, as in finding creative solutions to problem, creating games (many friends are still playing games I made decades ago), thinking up stories that people enjoy reading, making creative use out of found stuff, coming up with "odd" alternatives that usually work out better, etc.

Worst competence: customer service and being a manager without the authority to change things that don't work.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Best? What I do now: driving. I'm an excellent driver, and have the skills to not only maneuver a 13-ton truck in heavy traffic and around construction sites but to also keep a set of maps in my head that allow me to get from point A to B in good time.

Worse? Anything retail. I couldn't care less about what people buy and I've never reacted well to being treated like a peon.

[madrona.livejournal.com]

Best? Supervising survey projects, sorting out computer issues, and sorting forms. It was all one job. It suited my ADD.

Worst? Definitely factory work. We're talking the chocolate factory episode of I Love Lucy here.

[fionn320.livejournal.com]

Best: Mail carrier for the USPS.
Second Best: Electronics Test Equipment Calibration Technician for the US Navy.
Second Worst: Retail sales.
Worst: Injection molding machine operator. For one day I ran the machine making bowling ball hole inserts. Never did get the hang of it.

bowling balls

[scotttheobtuse.livejournal.com]

O..M..G! YOU are the reason I had to have an extra finger put on my hand! Boy, are you in trouble now!

[scotttheobtuse.livejournal.com]

best? driver and manager for a 5 county delivery service(which is why I am the transport guy for Penguicon)
worst? working at a distillery when I was 21(for EXACTLY the reason you're thinking)