It’s been a while since I read something work quoting on Guy’s blog, but today I found lots of good stuff in this guest post by Glenn Kelman:

4. Good code takes time. One great engineer can do more than ten mediocre ones especially when starting a project. But great engineers still need time: whenever we?ve thought our talent, sprinkled with the fairy dust of some new engineering paradigm, would free us from having to schedule time for design and testing, we?ve paid for it. To make something elegant takes time, and the cult of speed sometimes works against that. “Make haste slowly.”

5. Everybody has to re-build. The short-cuts you have to take and the problems you couldn?t anticipate when building version 1.0 of your product always mean you?ll have to rebuild some of it in version 2.0 or 3.0. Don?t get discouraged or short-sighted. Just rebuild it. This is just how things work.

Right on time. There is one more hidden gem in this post but I will not comment on it.

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It is comforting to see that I’m not the only one skeptical about using MS Project. See here the post by Steve Shu.

He gives all the good reasons not to use this program. Unless really necessary, perhaps. Like implementation project involving army of consultants. For more human-scale business consulting engagements, Excel does just fine IMHO. Simple is better.

Unfortunately, there is one but important reason sometimes people insist on having MS Project deliverable – it looks sophisticated and lots of work. That’s one reason I would never agree with, but this is real life.

Of these MS Project deliverables, once delivered, I never saw any being used by the client (e.g. reviewed and updated) even once.

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I got somehow used to Moscow, but I also feel good about some change. So, this week, back to Kiev.

I wonder if it changed much since last time.

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See here on Google Poland blog.

They say new “innovation center” is just opening.

Job list includes following positions in Wroclaw:

• Director, Online Sales and Operations
• IT Field Technician
• Online Customer Support Specialist – New Graduate
• Online Sales and Operations Coordinator (Czech/Slovak)
• Online Sales and Operations Coordinator (German market)
• Online Sales and Operations Coordinator (Hungarian)
• Online Sales and Operations Coordinator (Russian)
• Online Sales and Operations Manager
• Team Lead, Online Sales and Operations

From the list it looks more like an operations and customer service center, with some local testing, rather than anything related to innovation. More of that in Krakow. But maybe it will change with time.

I couldn’t help but notice that there is also the following position on the list:

Emerging Markets Strategy Associate – Europe

Position based in London or Warsaw or Budapest or Istanbul or Prague.

(…)

The Emerging Markets Associate will work with the emerging markets team to lead strategic and operational initiatives that are critical to the ongoing growth of the company. Initiatives that the Associate may help drive include: projects to enter new markets; projects to implement our new sales channel strategy in those markets; and projects to build and train new teams in those new markets. The Associate’s role will be to provide the project management skills, analytic “horsepower” and business judgment to drive such initiatives.

Our ideal candidate will have demonstrated top quartile performance in a consulting, investment banking or line management role, and have graduated at or near the top of their class from a leading graduate academic institution. We are looking for self-starters who can work in a rapidly changing industry, tolerate ambiguity and demonstrate problem-solving leadership with limited oversight. Experience in a technology-driven industry is required, and fluency in an Eastern European language is required.

Sounds like interesting job indeed.

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