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Are You A Top 10 Percent Employee?
By Dan Morrill
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-05-01
A-Talent, we all want it, we know we want it, because we know that when you hire an A-talent person that they do a lot of output, some of it bad, most of it phenomenally good and worth your time. But what does that mean to the other 90% of the organizations members, and how does this influence moral amongst them?
Based on a Gallup research exercise in 2005, here is exactly why people are going for the top 10%, they will outproduce and outperform the other 90% of the company if managed right, meaning that they have a relationship with the company, feel important, and have a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish.
While the other 90% is there, and they are adding to the company, when 90% of the company is only adding 50% of value to the company based on projected percentage of workforce. That other 10%, adds the other 50% of value, what manager would not love that.
This is why education, desire, passion, and knowledge are so important. Plowing through resumes is one thing, but we are also all looking for the top 10%, which is a finite market, the payoffs are there if you really love your job, what you are doing, and believe that it is meaningful.
Some of this is the employers fault, it is very hard to be meaningful in information security, we have spent so much of our time not working with our peers, and saying no, that we end up on the short side of this equation. What makes a top 10% producer in information security? Is it the guy who is always available? Or is it the calm information security person when managers all around them are freaking out over some new worm, or hack.
Part of being always relevant, and in that top 10% is to keep on top of skills. How many of us know people who got their bachelors in 1984, and never learned another thing since then, but want to tell you how to do your job? When you decide to go back to school, or get a certificate, or write, blog, interact with the community you are making a better value proposition for your employer.
When as a security engineer you are paying attention to the hacker boards, or some new technique like Google hacking five years ago, you can bring a meaningful value to your company. This is where the security engineer can shine, and show that they are in the top 10% of the company. Go out and talk to people, work with the business, learn to say "yes but" and have a creative solution to address the risk of what the business wants to do, you immediately become the most valuable person in the room.
With a slow down in the economy, employers and managers are going to be looking to cut back on employees. The first ones to go will be the marginal performers in the 90% group, the top 10% will hang out unless the entire company closes down and out of business.
It is your career, but here is what I would highly recommend you do.- Go to college, get a real degree from a real accredited institution
- Adopt life long learning - if you stop learning, the bad guys will steam roll your skills no matter how 'leet, keep your relevancy
- Get a certificate in your industry that at least is a way to make it through HR screen
- Learn to interact with people, get to know business, your degree might want to be in business, a security engineer with an MBA will be listened to
- Save money, hiring is already slowing down, have a pool of reserves that you can use
- Keep in touch with the community, go places, see people, ISSA and other groups are important face time for you (don't immediately ask for a job)
- Get on line, use Linked In, and Facebook, get recommendations from your previous employers
All of this helps, and in the coming next two years, being in the top 10% is going to help you out in the longer run.
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About the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both
civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management.
Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through
his blog, Managing
Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the
ITtoolbox blogging community.
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