technical experts

[Pondlife]

Dodgy, just admit you didn't understand what they were talking about and move on.

[Mich the Tester]

Dodgy, just admit you didn't understand what they were talking about and move on.

WHS

[doodab]

These people are a rare commodity in all walks of life from fixing dishwashers, to talking about climate change to politics.

So basically your dishwasher is broken, the bloke who came to fix it told you that you're a moron for putting certain non dishwasher safe items in there and the wife isn't impressed because the washing up is piling up in the sink.

In the end they both agreed that the best solution was to start again - something she had assumed anyway.

So you're buying her a new dishwasher.

[Mich the Tester]

If any of you regard yourselves as technical experts I strongly suggest you focus on solutions rather than criticising what has gone on before. These people are a rare commodity in all walks of life from fixing dishwashers, to talking about climate change to politics.

Understandable, but 'solutions' are generally not very simple in a complex environment; the best you can hope for sometimes is a gradual improvement in matters until eventually a problem has either become less pressing or has more or less been 'solved'. Somebody with technical expertise AND integrity knows his limits and knows not to promise a 'solution' without first seriously studying the problem. You, with your commercial skills, perhaps need to help your candidate sell that difficult message in a way that appeals to the client, and your candidate needs to be open to hearing your advice, but that doesn't mean promising to undo a complex tangled mess that may have been years in the making.

[EternalOptimist]

Dodgy, the guy was saying
'Youse are in the clag because you keep sticking your beak into things you dont understand. And now you are doing it again. Either let me do my job, or get ready for more clag'

[wonderboy]

Yep, never insult a system in front of a developer, always the users /process.

Never insult the process in front of anyone else, you just need to change the system to ensure it fully reflects it.

OK how about 4 weeks back when as part of an interview I was sat down in the development area, surrounded by the developers working on the system and asked to review and critique the codebase?!

It was the very definition of a catch-22!

[BillHicksRIP]

I always err on the side of not knowing your audience in situations like that. Find out what the problem is, think on your feet and suggest a way to fix it without slagging off the previous techie or manager who signed it off, but make it patently clear you know your onions.

[DodgyAgent]

Possibly your fault. I noticed the royal 'we' which means that you already knew about this and should have discussed this previously with your techincal expert...

I sat with him for nearly an hour discussing the problem with him prior to the meeting

[DodgyAgent]

Dodgy, just admit you didn't understand what they were talking about and move on.

I didn't understand much but I do know when someone is irritating a client

[Pondlife]

I didn't understand much but enough to sit there looking nearly stupid

Don't sell yourself short Dodgy. I'm sure they gave you the benefit of the doubt.