Index

Self-Appraisal

1. Attach a current position description; if applicable, make note of any significant changes since last year’s performance review. Network Engineer

2. Which position responsibilities do you view as most important? Why? Taking care of my customers in a manner that is profitable to CEC. While taking care of your customer base doesn’t guarantee that they will remain your customers, NOT taking care of them is a sure way to loose them as customers.

3. Have there been any special circumstances that have helped or hindered you in doing your position this year? If yes, what were the circumstances and how did they affect your work? Brad Bowser’s managerial style presented regular circumstances that would usually hinder (he would occasionally help, but it depended on which of his personality-of-the-day was manifesting) the support of customers in a manner that both kept customers happy with high quality solutions, and was profitable to CEC.

1. List your most significant accomplishments or contributions during the past year. How do these achievements align with the goals/objectives outlined in your last review? Supported our JDDW contract after Matt Schnell left. Achieved both engineering and sales certification requirements on short notice for our Meru partnership.

2. Since the last review conversation, have you performed any new tasks or additional duties outside the scope of your regular responsibilities? If so, please specify. The definition of my “regular responsibilities” is fairly vague. Not much falls outside it’s scope. So, no.

3. Describe professional development activities that have been helpful since last year (e.g., offsite seminars/classes, onsite training, peer training, on-the-job experience, better exposure to challenging projects). There has been little-none in the way of professional development and training. CEC’s 2-year training agreement, combined with my previous boss’s (Brad) “we can’t afford training this year” mantra have led to less official training and professional enrichment over the past year.

1. What are your goals for the coming year and what actions will you take to accomplish these goals? Continue to support my customers in a manner that is profitable for CEC. Hopefully with the support of a (good) new manager, but in the event of a Jamie/Tim/Blake/Brad, I’ll still support my customers in a profitable manner for CEC in spite of them.

2. What could your supervisor/manager do to support you in doing your job and accomplishing these goals? Bridge the gap between the IT division and the AV&E side of the company. Facilitate the inevitable IT takeover of the world! (Ok, barring the world, let’s settle for a manager that understands that both IT and AV&E are valuable divisions, and that AV&E technologies are riding more and more on IT networks and relying more and more on IT technologies.) Be a leader, not a manager. IT doesn’t take leadership skills to sign a timesheet. Be consistent. Inconsistency in IT managerial direction, decisions, and policies has been a very demoralizing factor over the past several years. Be honest. As with the consistency, the lack of honesty in the IT managers that we have had has also been very demoralizing and has unnecessarily complicated the jobs of the field personnel. Ask the entire department, the above question, at LEAST once a month, if not once a week. Seriously. A manager that communicates with his people and takes the time to ask them “how can CEC support you?” goes a long ways.

3. What else would help you to do your job better and provide greater job satisfaction? Proper tools. Departmental focus. Company vision. A BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal), a sales force that is either held accountable for sales quotas based on divisions (fire alarm, nurse call, IT, structured cabling) or open told “No, you don’t have to sell IT products.”

1. What kinds of professional development activities would you like to do during the coming year? IT engineers don’t generally get to pick how they would like to develop their skill sets, our vendor partners pick the development track for us. (ie: Cisco says “you need to have X number of CCIE certified engineers employed to maintain a _ level partnership.”)