Softwire Blog
What I did on my second volunteering day – Zoe
25 November 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
Inspired by my first day volunteering with Barnardo’s in Marylebone, I decided to use my second volunteering day to pursue something else that I have been keen to do for a while – spending more time with older people. Now that I’m in my thirties I’m starting to realise what a different perspective can be gained with age and so I’m very keen to hear from people who have maybe four times as much experience as I do!
Once again I used the fabulous employee volunteering platform Benefacto. It was easy to find something that matched my desired area, and one click and I was booked to help run The Lunch Club with Finsbury & Clerkenwell Volunteers. FCV have been organising volunteers to help others in need since 1971 and one of their current responsibilities is to run a lunch club for local elderly residents every Monday and Thursday.
Like at Barnardo’s, a lot of the jobs that need doing are quite simple and just need manpower. So my first job was to lay the tables ready for people to arrive.
Second, myself and a fellow volunteer from Accenture were given the task of peeling a mountain of potatoes for the Shepherd’s Pie, followed by a large basket of cooking apples brought in by a volunteer. Luckily two regular volunteers were able to chef these into the main course and an apple strudel for dessert.
At about 12pm guests started to arrive for lunch. Some are able to make their own way in, but most are brought in a minibus driven by another volunteer. We helped them in and to their seats, gave them a cup of tea or coffee and then served lunch.
The number of volunteers helping out through FCV is absolutely incredible. There is Andy, who seems to be the main person behind the day to day running of the lunch club. There are two chefs (there used to be three) and a driver. There is Jan, who helps with everything and Irenie, who runs the raffle. Then there is the board. This includes Felicity who started lunch club tens of years ago, Andrew the chair and Leslie the treasurer; all three dropped in to see how lunch was going on the day I was there. Judy, an ex-employee of the charity, dropped in (she brought the apples we peeled). While we were peeling, she explained how well the charity worked, not just for the clients, but also for the volunteers.
After lunch, Andy ran several games of bingo and I learnt some new bingo calls. Then the guests were driven home and we cleared up and washed up. There was a lot of washing up! Overall it was a great day and a fantastic experience to be part of this community of people doing good, even just for a day.
Tips for managing technical people – Blog Post wrap up
14 October 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
Over the past few months, we’ve been posting excerpts from my new book, “Galvanizing the Geeks – Tips for Managing Technical People”. You can buy the full book on my website, here.
This post serves as a reference to all the snippets that are freely available here.
Tips for managing technical people – Recommended reading
7 October 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Galvanizing the Geeks – Tips for Managing Technical People”. You can buy the full book on my website, here.
These are some of the books – not all of them aimed specifically at the technology sector – that I’ve found useful throughout my career.
Tips for managing technical people – Train technical leadership
21 September 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Galvanizing the Geeks – Tips for Managing Technical People”. You can buy the full book on my website, here.
You need to ensure that there’s a technical career path as well as a management one open to your managees. Many companies nowadays ensure that there’s a path by which their technical people can reach the very top of the company, whether this is via a Technical Advisory Board (favoured by companies such as Thoughtworks and UBS) or by other means.
Creating the technical path and putting people on it isn’t enough. You also need to train people to fill the relevant roles. A common misunderstanding of the technical lead role is to see it as a sort of glorified developer, who gets to tell the other developers what to do. While a progression to project manager is seen as a move to a different role, the role of the technical lead can be seen as ‘more of the same’.
How to get the career you want – What do you want?
15 September 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
This is the second in my series of posts about how to get the career you want. Step 1 in my infallible all-purpose career plan is to work out what you want to do.
How many of us really know what we want to do? And does anyone have a good way to find out if you don’t?
How to get the career you want – Do it
13 September 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
This is the fourth in my series of posts about how to get the career you want. Step 3 in my infallible all-purpose career plan is to execute the plan that you came up with in Step 2.
This is the step that really sounds the simplest. You’ve made a plan, so now you just need to follow it. Don’t be fooled though; this is the step where it’s easiest for us to trip ourselves up.
How often have you decided that you will do something, and then found that you didn’t actually do it? I will tidy the kitchen. Doh! If you’re anything like me – all the frigging time!
There are two things that work against us here FEAR and DOUBT.
How to get the career you want – Make a plan
12 September 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
This is the third in my series of posts about how to get the career you want. Step 2 in my infallible all-purpose career plan is to make a plan that will get you to where you want to be.
Now I bet that almost all of you make plans to execute tasks and projects all the time. But somehow when you come to make a plan to achieve a big scary career goal, it doesn’t seem so easy. Sure, you say, I’d love to be Managing Director, but how on earth would I ever get there?
How to get the career you want – Intro
5 September 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
I recently gave a lunch and learn on how to get the career that you want.
I find this a fascinating subject, as all of us have so much more potential than we realise and could achieve all of our dreams with sustained application.
Of course I can only speak from my own experience. My thoughts come from my own journey to become Managing Director (you can hear more about that here – https://youtu.be/DqRPymBHAPM), my career chats I have with other members of Softwire and my experience outside of my job trying to make a second career in acting.
The basic way to get anything you want is really simple.
- Work out what you want to do
- Make a plan
- Do it
The challenge is that each of those steps is harder than you think. I’ll write about each in a separate blog post.
In the meantime, I made a list of my top career tips.
- Work hard; find what helps you to work hard
- Discover self-efficacy – what have you done that made a difference?
- What do you want to do? I recommend the Artist’s Way
- Leap into a big goal (5+ years)
- Find a way to be buoyed up by your successes (use http://achievements.io)
- Don’t stop; don’t go too fast (I use this tip for jogging!) i.e. KEEP GOING
What I did on my volunteering day – Zoe
29 August 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
For my volunteering day I worked at Barnardo’s in Marylebone, organised through Benefacto. Barnardo’s is a major UK children’s charity and does a great job with lots of different aspects of supporting children: fostering and adoption, work skills, domestic child abuse, nurseries and supporting families.
Working in the shop was awesome on many levels. They have great donations because it’s such a wealthy area, so it’s quite fun seeing what stock they have. It was also really awesome for reminding me what a great job I have at Softwire… When I arrived I was told that my first job was hoovering and dusting (I HATE hoovering) and – even worse – I was told that mobile phones were not allowed on the shop floor and Eduardo the manager made me check my phone in a locker!
Another awesome thing about the job was the clientele. The first customer I served came in in a shell suit top and paint spattered jeans. He tried on a few shirts and bought one “oh and wait” he said, and returned with 8 pairs of socks.
Tips for managing technical people – Talk to the Duck
10 August 2016, by Zoe Cunningham
The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Galvanizing the Geeks – Tips for Managing Technical People”. You can buy the full book on my website, here.
‘Rubber duck’ technique is one of the innovations that I have seen introduced by a project manager who was willing to try something new. He didn’t invent the practice, but no-one works in a vacuum; the best project managers build up their skillsets through others’ experiences as well as their own.