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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: When one can call oneself expert
Good point.
Personally, I wish those with some legitimate expertise would warm up to the business side of IT, in particular the marketing. MANY on this list would not offend me, whatsoever, if they called themselves experts so we could abuse coffee together in the office. Unfortunately, I end up contracting with retired vacuum cleaner salesman, former stand-up comedians who decided there was more money in Oracle than juggling cats, and a host of veteran IT old schoolers love to retell then, of course, retell, again, the legendary feats of King Arthur and the Knights of the COBOL Roundtable as he espouses the glory days of MVS JCL genius but can't type more than 10 words a minute and shakes uncontrollably in trying to use a mouse.
God bless a guy like Cary who can actually speak publicly and doesn't view it as "selling out" because he can tell a good anecdote because for every one guy like him there is a multitude of mass marketing infomercial rejects awaiting me and others on this list at that next 80-hour-a-week gig so I can pay my mortgage. And once they are in the loop, gangsters, just try pointing out their lack of expertise and watch the office politics grind you up and spit you out...as soon as you are finished with their work, of course.
Call yourself the Christ child and if you are competent please, I am begging you as a Christian and a follower of good hygiene do some self-promotion, slam-dunk the phone screen, and for the love of baby Jesus meet me on my next contract...I will forward the company name and address.
Because, personally, I am exhausted from working with the 30-year-old guy with the Oracle polo shirt, pen, and coffee cup who used to sell me car wax and some sort of butt firming machine at 4am on cable as well as his grandfather who once slayed a dragon with just a box of punch cards and some "pretty slick" COBOL but now mostly watches as my eyes bleed from another 90-work-week of "being nice" a.k.a. subsidizing his portion of the corporate welfare fund.
It does no good for us to "talk amongst ourselves" or crack jokes about the IT department from the land that time forgot where T-Rex just isn't the name of the next IT project. And businesspeople, in particular, needs flashy flash cards and cool logos as well as golf outings to then truly grasp the meaning of the word "expert" themselves.
Business people are all about flash, public speaking, and understanding how IT makes them money and how Father Time the dragon slayer and his grandson Aussie Super Wax costs them millions in doughnuts and purchased yet still shelved and shrink-wrapped software packages. We are the core business and an IT Republic of benevolent, intelligent philosophers beats the guy that used to be on "M.A.S.H." selling the next ERP solution via an in-depth interview conducted by Dionne Warwick and the Psychic IT Friends Hotline.
Ellis
-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]
On Behalf Of David Kurtz
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:22 PM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: RE: When one can call oneself expert
The trick is to become an expert without being a guru!
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Received on Wed Dec 22 2004 - 17:54:51 CST
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