How to survive and thrive in a BigCo
Submitted to devopsdays Amsterdam 2019 on . Accepted. Given .
- Length
- Ignite
Abstract, as submitted
This talk will go over what I’ve learned working in large companies from my strange adventure working with a bunch of MBAs in corporate strategy at Dell, to working with large companies as an industry analyst, to working with marketing and product people at large companies.
If you work at a small, cool company, you can skip this talk. The rest of us in large, slow moving companies that rely on meetings, email, and inbox 2,000 to get the daily work done need some therapy and advice for thriving in big, “dumb” companies. I’ve worked in such companies and figured out how to thrive in the “back to back meetings” world we’re taught to avoid. They’re big, slow moving, and seem to use Microsoft Office as their core innovation engine. I’ll tell you my tactics.
If people at your work always talk about “aircraft carriers” this is the talk for you.
For whatever reasons you’re there, why not make the best of it and learn how to get along and even thrive instead of letting your head explode in rage? This talk will go over what I’ve learned working in large companies from my strange adventure working with a bunch of MBAs in corporate strategy at Dell, to working with large companies as an industry analyst, to working with marketing and product people at large companies.
This is the text that went into the CFP form, kept as submitted - not a later rewrite of it. Talks get retitled and reworked between submission and stage, so what was actually delivered may differ.
Notes to the CFP reviewers
Not part of the public abstract - this is what the program committee saw and the audience never does.
Based on a series of posts and my experience in large organizations.
https://cote.io/2016/04/11/7-bigco-anti-patterns%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8awhite-collars-doing-it-wrong/