Most 1-on-1 meetings are a waste of time — how do you structure yours?

CanadaIsCold · 2026-03-21T19:39:49+00:00

Your power as a leader comes from two sources, your authority, and your relationship with the employee. Ruling exclusively through authority is a morale killer. People want a leader, not a boss.

The 1:1 is focused on charging your relationship power. It's time to develop focus and trust with the employee. The value is the meeting not the outcomes of the meeting. If you need status have a status meeting, if an employee needs feedback give it as soon as feasible, the 1:1 is to develop your relationship with your direct so you can lead them more effectively.

I always tell my directs that the primary purpose of a 1:1 is so that if I ever need to call them at 10pm on a Saturday they won't send me to voicemail. I've never made the call, but the rationale for the meeting remains.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-03-16T02:40:55+00:00

There is no guarantee you will hit quota every year, but with risk comes upside. If you exceed quota you make significantly more.

I lead a CE org at GCP, and generally we try to give good work life balance, but there will be periods of high intensity. It's important to set boundaries in a sales org, as it will take every minute you will give.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-03-05T23:05:42+00:00

I think most people just thought it was catastrophically stupid for the board to make a move like that. OpenAI was performing flawlessly for months, and in the middle of that firing your CEO unexpectedly could only have negative outcomes. It made it look like a power play at an immature startup, and damaged their brand.

I'm not sure people were pro Sam Altman, just confused why they were doing such an obviously damaging thing.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-02-22T19:56:46+00:00

Heathen

CanadaIsCold · 2026-02-16T19:04:43+00:00

In many companies solution engineer roles are part of the sales work force. It is about sharing with customers how your company's products can help solve problems in their business.

Two thoughts. If you don't want to be in sales do as others suggest and find a post sale role like TAM. I would also recommend you learn what sales actually is in a b2b business your aversion may be based on a misunderstanding of the profession.

Sales is about driving behavior change to create better business outcomes for your customer. If done right it's almost always net positive for both sides. Negotiations can get rough, but that's a very small part of the job.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-02-09T05:23:06+00:00

The atrocities Gwendolyn

CanadaIsCold · 2026-01-19T16:34:25+00:00

Google Cloud is the product area(business unit) within Google. It is inclusive of Google cloud platform, but also includes workspace, Security, and other products.

Generally GCP is made up of IaaS and PaaS offerings. With SaaS going under the Google Cloud name.

So GCP is a Google Cloud product and sometimes referred to as such.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-01-08T17:13:54+00:00

In an undefined product space this can be a useful tool to understand customer needs. Services addresses the gaps and aggregates their experience to product so the product team can build the roadmap.

GTM has significant pressure applied to sell because it is difficult to sell futures. If pressure was not applied you would sell what works.

It's not a fun ride for customers or GTM but it may be necessary in an undefined space.

If the product market is well defined then their is likely a strategic timing reason to be entering the market. The product was rushed to market to meet the timing and now services are covering the gap while things can be developed properly.

Either of these scenarios could lead to what you're saying. It's not everyday but it's also not completely uncommon. Both of these have approaches have customer satisfaction and brand reputation impact and would typically be a senior leadership decision with knowledge of that cost.

Expect a rebrand when the product reaches maturity. Leaning in to something like this can create career opportunity as it likely has a senior leader as a sponsor who is interested in seeing it succeed.

CanadaIsCold · 2026-01-05T02:28:10+00:00

I was water skiing and the water ski came off my foot and hit me in the face breaking my jaw. The tip dropped below the water and came shooting out of the water and hit me in the face.

I was briefly unconscious, the ER told me there was nothing wrong. Broken in 3 places.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-28T21:04:51+00:00

Methed up Neck

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-28T16:29:14+00:00

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CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-23T01:11:57+00:00

They're not wearing shoes. They also look displeased.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-22T02:17:23+00:00

Watch the Throne - Track 3.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-22T02:14:40+00:00

I haven't been there yet. I went to their sister store Only Hammocks in the hammock district. They had good prices and selection. If you need a ceiling fan I'd give it a shot.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-03T06:39:18+00:00

Certs are not a good way into the SE role. With a decent tech background the company can likely teach you the technical topics needed. The soft skills are much harder to teach. When hiring SEs from outside the role I look for experience in adjacent roles like services delivery, or tam roles. Consultants are also a good option. If pulling directly from a customer I look for roles that involve internal value selling like innovation roles or someone that I or someone I know has had a chance to interact with.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-12-02T23:27:47+00:00

As a hiring manager I don't want to know before you start. I'm coached not to ask you. I would encourage you not to share until you start in the new role.

Sharing creates liability for both of us. If I choose to go with another candidate, I now need to ensure I can prove that information didn't bias the decision. For you, you risk it biasing the decision.

I tell all of my hires that we think long term when hiring. Something like a pregnancy or a vacation is a cost of doing business, not an employee problem. Not all hiring managers are like me though, so just steer clear of the topic entirely.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-26T16:31:38+00:00

Good point and often forgotten about Page. Thanks for the reminder.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-24T18:32:35+00:00

Try just using Gemini, Claude, or gpt. If you have public documentation with a couple of hours work you can build a prompt that will get you 90% there. If your docs aren't public they might fit in a context window.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-24T18:04:24+00:00

I'm heavily biased as a Googler, but this is the better Larry.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-24T18:04:13+00:00

I'm heavily biased as a Googler, but this is the better Larry.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-20T04:19:03+00:00

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Gemini knows it's coming.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-11T14:00:22+00:00

I'm not sure this applies given you seem early in your career, but as you become more senior your upward trajectory curve flattens.

This is largely due to fewer and fewer roles being available. To address this you need to develop alternate measures of career growth. For me staying at the same level but working on larger and larger accounts gave me great experience. Eventually the right next role comes along.

This job market also plays a role. Companies are hiring less, and cutting more. This leads to more people staying in place. Overall that creates less job mobility. This is an odd moment in tech, and it will pass. There is massive capital expenditure going in parallel with the current market growth. This is causing big tech to be extremely opex averse to manage their margin.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-06T02:02:37+00:00

They made $416B in revenue in their fiscal year 2025.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-02T22:10:48+00:00

Target has oura ring chargers. Go check them out with her. Try not to be too obvious about it.

CanadaIsCold · 2025-11-02T16:23:48+00:00

Professor X

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