Professional and Career Topics

• Bidding with insufficient data or overestimating the value of your data. Using GIS data as if it was a survey is a great example. You may not have the time or money to spend on a survey just to bid a job, but at least do a site visit to verify the accuracy and look for potential challenges.
• Bidding jobs based on the supposed efficiency of technology that the company hasn't used before. We have run into this where we get the job and fine out we need training or licenses or something that was not accounted for in the bid in terms of cost or time.
• People who understand technology more than they understand engineering. Some people are a wiz at computer programs and trust them blindly. They don't have as good of a grasp on what the computer is actually designing...what the inputs mean in real life and what outputs are reasonable.

• Bidding with insufficient data or overestimating the value of your data. Using GIS data as if it was a survey is a great example. You may not have the time or money to spend on a survey just to bid a job, but at least do a site visit to verify the accuracy and look for potential challenges.
• Bidding jobs based on the supposed efficiency of technology that the company hasn't used before. We have run into this where we get the job and fine out we need training or licenses or something that was not accounted for in the bid in terms of cost or time.
• People who understand technology more than they understand engineering. Some people are a wiz at computer programs and trust them blindly. They don't have as good of a grasp on what the computer is actually designing...what the inputs mean in real life and what outputs are reasonable.

I've recently emerged from another work-all-night deadline. Yet again, I've been asking myself why did it happen and how to avoid it in the future. Job discussion boards, such as Glassdoor, are full of people complaining about working overtime, and other people commenting that 'this is the nature of consulting work'. Working through the night may be a personal decision. However, it's just very likely that the quality of work will suffer. 

Please feel free to share how do you approach tight deadlines. Do you just deal with it by working a lot, or have you found ways to prevent the situation?

Here are some of my thoughts on the issue:

1. Sometimes you are just presented with an unrealistic deadline. Someone had a good discussion earlier on how to say 'no' if you are routinely presented with unrealistic deadlines.

2.Personal time management is a big part of it. I am telling myself to start working two extra hours per day a month before the deadline, instead of eight extra hours per day a week before the deadline. This is straightforward  but not always easy to do.

3. Project management.
- 3a. Estimating how long the work will take. I find it challenging to predict how long something will take me, especially for a new type of project. Forget it, if other people are involved. I've heard of a rule of thumb: to estimate the time you think it will take, and multiply it by two
- 3b. Presenting realistic timelines during the bidding and negotiation process while staying competitive. I am curious about this one, as I wasn't on this side of things much. Do you often feel pressured to present tight deadlines to have a chance at the job?
- 3c. Unexpected delays, especially delays on the client's side.
     - Several tight deadlines in my experience resulted from waiting for data or other input  from the client, while the final due date hasn't changed.  Formulating deadlines in terms of client milestones may be appropriate (e.g. the final document is due X days after client's review of the draft document). I've seen it done on large multi-player projects but not on smaller projects.

• Bidding with insufficient data or overestimating the value of your data. Using GIS data as if it was a survey is a great example. You may not have the time or money to spend on a survey just to bid a job, but at least do a site visit to verify the accuracy and look for potential challenges.
• Bidding jobs based on the supposed efficiency of technology that the company hasn't used before. We have run into this where we get the job and fine out we need training or licenses or something that was not accounted for in the bid in terms of cost or time.
• People who understand technology more than they understand engineering. Some people are a wiz at computer programs and trust them blindly. They don't have as good of a grasp on what the computer is actually designing...what the inputs mean in real life and what outputs are reasonable.

I've recently emerged from another work-all-night deadline. Yet again, I've been asking myself why did it happen and how to avoid it in the future. Job discussion boards, such as Glassdoor, are full of people complaining about working overtime, and other people commenting that 'this is the nature of consulting work'. Working through the night may be a personal decision. However, it's just very likely that the quality of work will suffer. 

Please feel free to share how do you approach tight deadlines. Do you just deal with it by working a lot, or have you found ways to prevent the situation?

Here are some of my thoughts on the issue:

1. Sometimes you are just presented with an unrealistic deadline. Someone had a good discussion earlier on how to say 'no' if you are routinely presented with unrealistic deadlines.

2.Personal time management is a big part of it. I am telling myself to start working two extra hours per day a month before the deadline, instead of eight extra hours per day a week before the deadline. This is straightforward  but not always easy to do.

3. Project management.
- 3a. Estimating how long the work will take. I find it challenging to predict how long something will take me, especially for a new type of project. Forget it, if other people are involved. I've heard of a rule of thumb: to estimate the time you think it will take, and multiply it by two
- 3b. Presenting realistic timelines during the bidding and negotiation process while staying competitive. I am curious about this one, as I wasn't on this side of things much. Do you often feel pressured to present tight deadlines to have a chance at the job?
- 3c. Unexpected delays, especially delays on the client's side.
     - Several tight deadlines in my experience resulted from waiting for data or other input  from the client, while the final due date hasn't changed.  Formulating deadlines in terms of client milestones may be appropriate (e.g. the final document is due X days after client's review of the draft document). I've seen it done on large multi-player projects but not on smaller projects.