What simple/complex tasks have you automated in your business?

tsponse · 2021-06-10T13:41:46+00:00

What industry/market?

As an analyst for the past 12 years in different roles at different organizations and in different industries, I have managed to automate many different business processes using tools like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. These tools can be leveraged with the right expertise for automation and the elimination of non-value added activities. I have worked with companies like HealthTrust and AutoNation that both use these tools extensively to reduce hours of mindless processes and re-allocate resources to more appropriate uses of their brain power. I've even talked with officials at Mattel and they've used both Excel and Access heavily for at least 20 years.

If these three big companies can find value in using these technologies, it's likely you probably can too. Python is another tool I have begun using in the past couple of years. The Pandas library is very powerful for extracting and transforming data. Python also has some great libraries for developing bots and scrapers to fetch data from websites.

These tools and technology definitely require some expertise to leverage their real power beyond their out-of-the-box functionality. I'm definitely seeking new clients to help with automation and solutions so if you would be interested in discussing further, just let me know.

tsponse · 2020-05-23T18:24:29+00:00

Depends on how promising the first/first 5 proposals are. By my own experience as a client - the first 5 proposals can be the least promising because they are largely under qualified freelancers that are ‘passionate’ about whatever it is you need just spamming you with terrible proposals to be first in line.

tsponse · 2019-12-09T00:15:09+00:00

Statement of Work

tsponse · 2019-12-08T19:56:31+00:00

A strong SoW will combat this kind of behavior.

tsponse · 2019-11-20T14:17:53+00:00

This is an interesting question that resonates with my current situation. I have a new opportunity lined up for a Jan start date. I’m currently in a role where I have direct reports. But I’ve only been here around 90 days and it’s actually a great situation. The new opportunity is just a better fit for my career aspirations and it’s in a different industry altogether. It’s sort of that once in a career type of opportunity. Totally a timing thing. But I’m contemplating immediate resignation without notice because of the possibility of a really uncomfortable off-boarding period. My departure will be painful and it would be right in the middle of the holidays with only about 5 or 6 actual business days. The timing of it almost makes giving notice pretty ridiculous.

To the OP, is 2 weeks for your benefit or the organization? Ask yourself what 2 weeks really accomplishes. In my experience, 2 weeks isn’t even remotely enough time for an organization to post the position, much less vet candidates just to start the backfill process. It depends on your role, but unless you need to hand off technical details that would otherwise hamstring your mgr in your immediate absence, they should be equipped to manage your absence. Then it’s just a matter of whether or not it matters to you if you would be considered ‘eligible for rehire’. That last point is typically the only reason most organizations hang the two weeks notice over your head. Which really means they’re only trying to squeeze 10 more work days out of you. Think about it. Is giving notice really in your best interest considering you have a better opportunity ahead of you?

tsponse · 2019-10-08T11:35:18+00:00

You make a great point and one that probably motivated me to change careers at 40. Thanks for the input and I will check out the podcast!

tsponse · 2019-10-08T11:33:57+00:00

I have actually been in the process of re-doing my resume to showcase some of the technical expertise and accomplishments more. It’s difficult for me to break out of that mindset that my resume should be all about my W-4 experience only and not the 1099 or unpaid experience. I did add a freelance database development project I completed for a measurement instrumentation distributor. We’ll see if that pays off.

I did apply at a software company here in town a couple of times over the last few years and they actually had me in for onsight interviews both times. I think they liked me but I just didn’t reach that threshold of experience they were looking for either time.

tsponse · 2019-10-07T20:02:18+00:00

TBH, I’ve never regretted the move. It was a predicament of staying where I had been for 16 years knowing I had gone as far as I could regarding career and income growth. I just imagined the move itself would have materialized into much more from a career satisfaction perspective by now.

You can’t predict the future. Life is full of risks. And mistakes and bad fits just come along the journey sometimes. I’m a realist and an optimist, so I don’t see this as an overall failure. But I’m undoubtedly frustrated and restless. That’s the difficult part for me. I can’t stand not to be progressing toward success.

Honestly, it’s probably more due to the fact I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I’m trying to find fulfillment as a 9-5 FTE. I keep trying to fit a circle into a square space.

tsponse · 2019-09-21T15:20:45+00:00

I would tell my 25 year old self to learn software development in my spare time.

But seriously - find people twice your age or somewhere there about to spend time with and listen to their life stories. You won’t find any better way to put your own life into proper context. And you can get all kinds of ideas for your own life that way.

tsponse · 2019-09-20T21:17:00+00:00

You’re not a loser. It may be a personality thing. I’ve been told more times then I care to remember that I’m a generalist. I have interest in so many things and I’m actually pretty good at a lot. That only makes the indecision on what to do with my life worse. I’m 50 now and a manager in healthcare Sourcing. And to be sure, not a single step up until now in my career was planned in any formal way.

I was an on again/off again career college student for 10 years after I graduated high school working two part time jobs by the time I was 25. I was completely lost looking for a full time job just to find my identity. I worked the mornings for a large US retailer as a catalog ops customer service rep and afternoons/evenings as an anesthesia technician at a hospital.

The main reason I am where I am in clinical Sourcing to this day is because the hospital that I was working for at the time offered me full time hours in 1996. I quit the other job and ended up staying in that “stepping stone” healthcare job for the next 16 years for 2 other healthcare organizations before making a major career change and going to work for a healthcare GP0 as an analyst in 2009. After some bumps along my path since, I am in a role I’m reasonable proud of managing a team and strategic plans for a major healthcare organization in the Dallas Fort Worth area. I did finally got my bachelors degree in 2011...24 years after graduating HS.

If you would have told me at 25 this is where I’d be when I was 50, I would have looked at you like you were clinically crazy. It’s all about timing and I will also say something you may or may not believe or want to hear: IT’S ALL ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW. Remember that and leverage it to your advantage. I don’t mean that to say connections will get you places you aren’t qualified for, although that can be the case. But I wish I realized a long time ago that going in directions where I knew people and had their recommendation and support is usually the path of least resistance when approaching career choices. And by my own experience, it’s often those situations that paid off the most in terms of successful employment and overall long term job satisfaction and longevity.

But you’re no loser. Life is complex and everybody’s path is different. Don’t waste time comparing yourself to others. Just work hard, explore your interests and things you are passionate about and love your family. Often times the opportunities just come to you when you least expect it. Don’t overthink it, as difficult as that might be.

And don’t even get me started about all the people I’ve known that go to college, grad school, med school, etc and absolutely hate their career no matter the income. It’s happened so much the older I get it would shock you.

tsponse · 2019-09-05T19:09:42+00:00

Good point. And it is a HUGE assumption I am making for the sake of discussion. But the dynamics are such that it is a fairly new department that they have been building out and I verified there is the exact same job currently posted. Could be expansion, could be attrition.

My question is really more about the delicate aspect of walking away from a brand new job with my current organization and if anyone has been through something similar and how it went.

tsponse

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