Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
What happens when the perfect job opportunity appears in front of your eyes but it would require moving to the other side of the continent, moving from the East Coast to the West Coast?
Here is what might happen:
1. I tell myself that it's obviously not the PERFECT job for me since it's not a very convenient location based on my current residence. The perfect job would be the same job description, located within 30 minutes of my house.
2. I start to wonder whether I really can't get my family to consider the West Coast. It's not the first time I've looked at Seattle jobs after all... why not re-initiate that discussion with the family?
3. I remind myself that I've already made other career redirection decisions very recently and I might want to stick to them and stay the course..... for a while.
4. I force myself to remember that a) job announcements can be deceiving and don't necessarily tell me much about what the experience will be like; b) the chances I'd actually get the job should I apply are X %?
Does that mean that the most likely response to dream-like opportunities flashing in front of my eyes is to find excuses for not pursuing them? Or, does is it just a normal second stage: first I get all excited about the opportunity, second I think it through and it's just not going to work... third I either let it go or I try to find a way to make it work... somehow. After all, it's not necessarily the position, paycheck and/or job title, that are of greatest interest to me. What if the real attraction is the nature of the work to be performed?
Here's the job announcement responsible for my "ouch" moment!
"The Center for Internet Studies of the University of Washington, Information School, has an outstanding opportunity for an experienced research manager and research coordinator to oversee the implementation of an 18-month study examining ICT public access environments across 25 countries. This research program focuses on libraries and other public access venues across a wide range of countries of differing socio-economic conditions, and aims to collect data that will allow comparative analyses of the political, economic, human resource, and technological and physical infrastructure factors among others that affect public access to ICT. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply early. For full job descriptions, please visit: http://www.cis.washington.edu/about/jobs.html "
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Kristina A. Diekmann, Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni, and Max H. Bazerman. "Why We Aren't as Ethical as We Think We Are: A Temporal Explanation." Published September 6, 2007.
Udo Averweg & Susan O'Donnell. "Code of Ethics for Community Informatics Researchers." Community Informatics, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2007).
I've developed a fresh interest in ethics. It's probably not too surprising as someone who does a significant amount of work on evaluation that I would come across some tricky situations.... so I'm reading up on other people's experience and trying to identify guidelines that satisfy my own internal sense of right and wrong --- and everything in between.
Udo Averweg & Susan O'Donnell. "Code of Ethics for Community Informatics Researchers." Community Informatics, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2007).
I've developed a fresh interest in ethics. It's probably not too surprising as someone who does a significant amount of work on evaluation that I would come across some tricky situations.... so I'm reading up on other people's experience and trying to identify guidelines that satisfy my own internal sense of right and wrong --- and everything in between.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen
Impressive dynamic visual presentation of development data... and at the end of the presentation, one animation showing the advance of the Internet in relation to economic growth across countries of the world. For more information about the software used, see the Gapminder.org website.
This is related to one of my latent interests -- visual representations of data. If you don't know the work of Edward Tufte, please do check it out. I haven't seen a lot of emphasis on dynamic/interactive data in his work. However, he has a greater emphasis on aesthetics in addition to a strong focus on the integrity of the visual representation of data and the analysis of data.
Impressive dynamic visual presentation of development data... and at the end of the presentation, one animation showing the advance of the Internet in relation to economic growth across countries of the world. For more information about the software used, see the Gapminder.org website.
This is related to one of my latent interests -- visual representations of data. If you don't know the work of Edward Tufte, please do check it out. I haven't seen a lot of emphasis on dynamic/interactive data in his work. However, he has a greater emphasis on aesthetics in addition to a strong focus on the integrity of the visual representation of data and the analysis of data.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Lessons Learned
I came across a little book, Post-Project Reviews to Gain Effective Lessons Learned, by Terry Williams, published by the Project Management Institute. The first half of the book is a literature review and the reference section should keep me busy with reading ideas for a while. The rest of the book is a survey of practice, a review of various methods employed by organizations to capture lessons learned, the result of a survey of organizational practices related to lessons learned, and some case studies.
None of it has anything to do with international development projects. The reason I came across this book is simply that I have been “branching out” to some extent into “project management” and looking at the literature put out by the Project Management Institute and more specifically the methodologies promoted by the Project Management Institute.
The PMI has its own vocabulary and my main professional arena, international development, has its own vocabulary. What I have been trying to do is to see whether PMI tools and methodologies could have some value in international development. Half of what PMI recommends is already basic practice in international development projects – although again, the vocabulary tends to be different.
In that context, and bringing this closer to my work on M&E (monitoring and evaluation) and lessons learned for international development projects, I have come to the conclusion that most of the projects I have encountered were managed in a very ad hoc fashion. Where there are systematic processes in place, these are mainly focused on ensuring that the regulations imposed by the funding organization are being adhered to and proper standards of accounting are followed. The rest seems to be up to the skills, aptitude and motivation of the individual project manager.
International NGOs working with donor funding are primarily project-based organizations, yet how many have a PMO (Project Management Office)? Is there an equivalent to a PMO in international NGOs? Would it make sense for international NGOs to explore what PMI tools and methodologies have to offer and adapt them to the international development arena?
I came across a little book, Post-Project Reviews to Gain Effective Lessons Learned, by Terry Williams, published by the Project Management Institute. The first half of the book is a literature review and the reference section should keep me busy with reading ideas for a while. The rest of the book is a survey of practice, a review of various methods employed by organizations to capture lessons learned, the result of a survey of organizational practices related to lessons learned, and some case studies.
None of it has anything to do with international development projects. The reason I came across this book is simply that I have been “branching out” to some extent into “project management” and looking at the literature put out by the Project Management Institute and more specifically the methodologies promoted by the Project Management Institute.
The PMI has its own vocabulary and my main professional arena, international development, has its own vocabulary. What I have been trying to do is to see whether PMI tools and methodologies could have some value in international development. Half of what PMI recommends is already basic practice in international development projects – although again, the vocabulary tends to be different.
In that context, and bringing this closer to my work on M&E (monitoring and evaluation) and lessons learned for international development projects, I have come to the conclusion that most of the projects I have encountered were managed in a very ad hoc fashion. Where there are systematic processes in place, these are mainly focused on ensuring that the regulations imposed by the funding organization are being adhered to and proper standards of accounting are followed. The rest seems to be up to the skills, aptitude and motivation of the individual project manager.
International NGOs working with donor funding are primarily project-based organizations, yet how many have a PMO (Project Management Office)? Is there an equivalent to a PMO in international NGOs? Would it make sense for international NGOs to explore what PMI tools and methodologies have to offer and adapt them to the international development arena?
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