Roman's miles

A long but (almost) complete day

Today was a long day and I'm consummating it by a short blog with a few long sentences.

The day started very typically (6.30AM): woke up, dropped off my son at school, my wife a work, drove to the office for a meeting, came back home afternoon, answered emails, had a few short calls,  went to the school (we have a first exam in 2 weeks on financial analysis - brrr...), bought food for the dog, got home (10.30PM). Still not done - the running program has a 8-mile todo task of today - ran on a treadmill (1% incline for 1:15), got home at 0.20AM (tomorrow), wrote the blog.

Now done! (not yet)

Saturday we have two other classes (Managing in the Global Economy and Strategic Communications) and I have still some 150 pages to read. Will try to swallow now a dozen at least during an after-run cocktail:-)

When it comes from push to shove a phrase "4th and inches" rings in my mind. The more pressure you put the more output is produced. The only question is how no to wreck on the way:-) Will see how much gasoline I'll have by the weekend's end...

Technorati tags: GTD, MBA, running, marathon, pressure

Are you paid fair?

I'm sure this is a question each of us asks herself now and again. Notice, I didn't ask whether you're paid well but fair comparing to a) your colleagues in the company and b) the market. Sooner or later you'll find the answer and if you're underpaid then (this time rather sooner) you'll probably will find that you can't change much now (unless you consider changing job).

If the gap between your and the position's average salary is more than 15% then you're manager can't simply give a fair-fixing increase after the next performance review. If you work in a small company he follows budget restrictions and if it's a corporation - so even worse - Its Majesty HR rules the game. In big companies there are ranks and HR looks at you through the prism of policies, rules, and processes. To give a significant increase the foremost necessary step would be to lift your rank. Now the game becomes really complex - the changing rank process is more demanding than just the increasing salary step. The manager now needs to justify the rank change and he may not have a headcount for that, or you may not fit it, or you may not have worked in the company sufficiently long to make it, or a hundred of other reasons.

Why it all happened? Many possible explanations can apply. But hearing the same story again and again I'm sure that in the majority of the cases the one to blame now is yourself. The mistake you did was to accept the offer you got at that interview when the offer blinded your mind.

When you get an offer you start a game of negotiation - a poker! Who wins the game - one who made the homework better and who's cool-headed in the game. For a company (in the person of its HR) it's much simpler so it's gotten a competitive advantage on you. But the game is not lost. If they give you an offer they value you and prefer among other candidates (tip: by all means try to not reveal your salary expectations). If you play your part right you can get the most out of this situation.

By the homework I meant that you should prepare a few things:

• Figure out how much the position is worth on the market;
• Figure out how long the company has had this vacancy;
• Figure out the current pace (and rate of success) of company's hiring;
• Figure out your absolutely lowest limit, your "ideal salary" answer, and have a contingency plan - if they don't give it to you what benefits you can ask for (including out-of-plan increase in a short time interval).

You may consider to buy this information or to hire an recruiter expert in your realm. Remember - the stake here is not your annual salary but your entry point to the company. Prepare to this poker and play it right. As in any game there is a risk of loosing it but if you've reached the offer phase and made your homework right (be fair, don't be unreasonable greedy) the odds are tiny that they revoke the offer.

What are your tips on safe landing on a new job?

Related posts:

What's important for choosing a job - Stability / Stimulation / Discovery?
Your current job -"a time to kill, and a time to heal"
Three questions employee should periodically ask themselves
Evolving from a software engineer to...
Work with pros

Technorati tags: job, career, salary, negotiation

I join the game: 5 things you didn't know about me

Richard Veryard tagged me recently so I'm joining the game and here are 5 things you probably didn't know about me.

1. I served in the Russian Army after my graduation in the most elite group of the Air Forces - military band! I played second saxophone. I also play (or used to play) cello, clarinet, saxophone, piano, and guitar.
2. I was smoking for 13 years before I quit 5 years ago.
3. I attend sauna weekly. Usually with my friends. We do our best to meet there on December, 31 and in 30 minutes I'm running away there to celebrate Russian Old New Year.
4. When I was 5 years old I wanted to be a taxi driver, a policeman, and a drummer. When I was 15 I thought the programming and business were two most boring jobs. (Disclosure: I've been a programmer for last 10 years and I'm now studying an MBA. Are the "driver, a policeman, and a drummer" waiting for me?)
5. My most loved piece of music is Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky.

Now it's time to pass the game to other bloggers which are: Brad Feld, Dharmesh Shah, Thomas Otter, Brendon Connelly, and Michael Elashkin.

Technorati tags: 5 tags

Marc Fluery about the art of selling a company and Atlanta

I've started enjoying TAG today where I gave a trial visit to listen to Marc Fleury sharing his tips on selling a company. As I wrote in the past I've been trying to answer the stay-or-leave question for myself and Atlanta projecting my future career in the startup world. The TAG gathering would be (and it is!) a good place for answering the question.

Marc's speech was great, inspiring, and informative; while Marc was experiencing Atlanta traffic I enjoying chatting with TAG members and guests. One of them, Lance Weatherby, already posted a blog about the event listing some items from the shared wisdom.

I'd add  that Marc emphasized the need to use a professional banker for negotiating the deal. There are "boutique companies" who evaluate, consult, and negotiate startup M&A deals for living. You hardly can become an expert in selling a company after reading "selling startups for dummies" and in such a vital operation the bankers really earn their share of the deal.

Marc also said that startup selling is an art rather than science, advising to align with the board the mission of selling, a strategy, and tactics. There are many pitfalls and traps on the way: it's very likely to be acquired by a competitor merely to be killed or other competitors will (absolutely legitimately) initiate negotiations solely with the target in mind to inquire on your situation, prospects, pipelines, etc.

Another question is retaining forces after the acquisition. In JBoss many of the buzdev/sales folks have gone since then but none of the R&D people. Marc pointed us to the books on the topic still underlying the importance of the question.

After the speech I approached Marc and ask him THE question: if he opens now a startup will he be doing it in Atlanta or move to Silicon Valley? The answer was categorical YES. No need to move to SV or even to Boston. He assured me that there is a plethora of highly experienced business people here and lots of venture money as well.  He thinks that we have enough nerds in Atlanta too but couldn't prove it with JBoss since they worked remotely in a global team.

Anyway, I'm joining TAG as a member and hope in the future will post on other inspiring and meetings from the program.

Technornati tags: TAG, startup, JBoss, Atlanta, Fluery

10th week of marathon preparation. 15 mile long run

You may know I'm preparing to my first marathon which should take place on March, 4th. I'm working according to Hal Higdon's plan and today completed the 10th week. Sundays are my long-run days so today I did 15 miler. First time!

It wasn't very difficult and I completed the run on a slower than race pace (10min/mile) just in 2.5 hours feeling like I could run a few other miles. But still, 15 miles is tough when you do it first time.

I have other 7 long runs before the race and the remaining distances are 16, 12, 18, 14, 20, 12, and 8. The 18 and 20 milers are scaring, indeed but I hope I'll prepare myself mentally to these experiences. At the end, if it's not easy to run marathon why should it be so to prepare? Tomorrow is a cross-training day and I'm taking swimming lessons.

Technorati tags: marathon, running, target

Joining the startup world - remain in "province" or move to Silicon Valley?

I've been struggling with answering this question for myself for a while and as I read on the realm  a set of options is widening instead of shrinking. The title question may seem to be obvious and drive to the immensely polar answer - Silicon Valley - but in reality the question should be re-asked differently. If you live in a big enough American city should you relocate to SV to make your startup adventure easier? By adventure I mean either creating your own startup or joining  an existing one. The former entails  rising funds, hiring people, organizing office, etc.  The latter makes you choosing the most attractive position from available options.

The question is very relevant for me - I live in Atlanta and as an option consider after completing my MBA to open a startup navigation, leaving my current job in SAP. I'm not trying to reiterate the well known reasons of why SV is the Rome of high-tech ventures explained and opposed  here, here, here, and here. Instead, I'm seeking for arguments whether it's possible to stay in Atlanta and achieve desired targets instead of locking myself in a void of opportunities.

On one hand, in the Bay Area a number of vacancies and VC groups looking for promising ventures is bigger - so there are more options. On the other hand, in Atlanta (or any other  city with sufficiently provided resources, infrastructure, and local VCs) the number of challengers is smaller hence one's candidacy may meet less competition.

I'm attending a presentation of Marc Fluery (the JBoss guy) next week where hope to ask this question but will be very interested in others' experience and findings. What are your thoughts? Does the province have its piece in the startup world or better off plan to move to the capital?

Update: Johanna Rothman helps to answer my questions.

Technorati tags: startup, VC, Silicon Valley, Atlanta

Ask the VC - a new blog from Brad Feld

Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson have started recently a new blog - AsktheVC - a dedicated place "to discuss relevant issues in the venture capital and entrepreneurial ecosystem".

The blog is shaped as a categorized FAQ on the venture capital and entrepreneurship areas where currently presented Accounting, Advisors, Angel Investing, Company Creation, Compensation, Conferences, Founder/Exec Exits, Fund Terms, General Q&A, General Site Info, Great VC Posts, and Media. Apart from the fact that Brad is a great blogger and every his post is worth of reading the new blog has an "ask the rabbi" button where anybody can post a question to the authors. Another interesting feature of the blog is the downloadable content. You can select interesting categories and download the blogs tagged there as an HTML or PDF doc for future offline reading.

The blog's has started with a resolute pace - just today they have 6 posts (or 6 answered questions) which gives hope the blog will become soon the VC bible in the net.

I advise everybody who's interested in the topics of VC, startups, and entrepreneurship to subscribe to the blog and post your questions there.

Brad and Jason, good luck with your new venture in the blogosphere!

Technorati tags: VC, entrepreneurship, startup, blog