What do I do for work? So....

I am a technical lead in a developer support team that helps developers work around problems encountered in web based applications. I have 3 primary responsibilities

1. Provide solutions to customers. Customers run into problems, i fix them or get them fixed by the susteined engineering team,
2. Ensuring my team has the knowledge and resources to resolve customer issues. Manage the business from the technical perspective. Arrange for the know-how for the team to do their job and manage the relationship withthe dev team.
3. Act as a resource to my team and others in the wider organization. Point of contact for the technologies, specialize in a couple and be generally available in others for external and internak consultations

I like to hear "It works" and often.

Why am i leaving this?

It is time to grow big, make bigger things work and make sure that things I help fix dont break in the first place.

Is that reason enough? Am I competent enough? Is that enough to transition?

Hopefully the answer will be in next week.

Plan of action

10 day vaccation!

Took some time off work and tried to stay away from school thoughts but in vain. I need to figure out my core competency and then define my personal value proposition . i can then go on and market my professional skills. that means, i need to find out the market, zero in on the niche and then find a beachhead to start my career.

Problem: An overall end goal that can be reached in a variety of ways, and personal finances and constraints that provide little flexibility to take drastic actions.

With the constraints in mind, i plan to evaluate my resume for marketibility in my future career which begins 2 years from now.

ACTION PLAN

1. Get an appointment with the business connection center co-ordinators for evaluating my career so far and assesing marketable skills.
2. Figure out the next set of skills and the best means to get them
3. create a plan of action: typically, narrow down jobs to say 20 in maximum 3 categories. research the field and then make individual plans
4. execute with an eye on backups till i succeed. there will be no turning back.

When the going gets tough the tough get going !
I'm finally getting into the Zone

:-)

Arms around MacroEconomics

I have been revising my understanding of macroeconomics from the explosion far away to a more manageable issue or set of issues. Heres my first skinny on it

1. The Economy has 2 primary categories of actors consumers and suppliers
2. The economy runs on the basic principle of supply and demand
3. Overall measuring supply and demand is impossible and so statistical means are used therefore we have somethign called aggregate demand and aggregate supply
a. Y=C+S+T (all that you make can be consumed or saved or paid in taxes)
b. Y=C+I+G+(X-M) (all expenses by consumers, investments, governemnts and cros border trade also amount to overall product)
c. Growth in Y is not unlimited and dependent on a variety of factors.
d. All actions result in an opposite reaction(of lower magnitude)
4. Economies chug along on business cycles, i.e. there will be booms and busts.


Then there are details :-)

Schools been keeping me busy. I had to research an industry of my choice and come up with a paper and presentation on Trade bariers in the industry. Being involved in the service industry for more than 10 years, naturally picked up services, instead of narrowing down into specifics, aggregated it to abstract comparisons between Developed and developing countries.

For a quick summary
> 1. Gats provides a framework for analysis of service types( pure services)
> 2. The developed and developing countries comparative advantages
> 3. Developed countries typical errect barriers in modes 2 &4 and
> developing countries typically in Modes 1&3
> 4. Each wants the other to take the barriers off and this is happening to some extent but slowly both ways
> 5. Benefits of taking down the barriers Eg: INDIA maturing and growing steadily
> 6. Example Trends in the trade in services (US): Comparitive advantages at work

I had to make sure this was good, so had the professor review my slides and Ideas, she wants specific practical barrier analaysis.

Been thinking all weekend for something, I can use " FOOD" thats what i am gonna do. Here are some of the raw references

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Ecomm/foodbiz.html
http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/ngo_e/posp47_nftc_looking_behind_e.pdf
http://www.gmabrands.com/publicpolicy/index.cfm
http://www.affi.com
http://www.usitc.gov/ext_relations/news_release/2000/ER1121X1.HTM

Here is my down and dirty plan

1. Trade barriers are of 2 types, tarrifs and non tariffs. In the food industry, the Non tarif barriers seem to be more significant than tariffs
2. Non tariff measures
a. Export certification and registration
b. Labeling
c. Food standards
d. Intellectual property rights
e. Customs procedures
f. Sanitary and phytosanitory restrictions(SPS)
g. Export subsidies
h. Domestic assistance
i. State trading enterprises.

3. Trends and events Beef industry, Chocolate industry esatblishment
4. Opportunities and threats

Now, that seemed difficult as there are too many things in there and a close friend suggested Textiles. Now that rings a bell, and i got started on it and finally presented it to the class. Expect more details on the paper on here soon after the professor evaluation and comments.

BASIC APPROACH:
1 Frame the context and brief the industry
2. Price trends since the dismantling of MFA
3. Barriers in existence today, Quotas, Self imposed tarrifs, infrastructure and other obstacles
4. Expectations of GATT (ATC)

The presentation was short, didnt go into too many details but wanted to make sure, i covered ground and in depth. I need to do more of them to get comfortable and perform with ease.

Ok! now its time to really study the "Memos to the president" the first read did open my iltellect but i need to get finer and sequence my knowledge. I cant be getting the subject backwards.

Backwards seems to be the way to work towards an innovation but not for understanding.

So long for now.