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I'm going to pile on to everything else you're receiving here: > I'd love to learn more about the kinds of problems you are trying to solve. This doesn't soun

by dsacco 9y ago

I'm going to pile on to everything else you're receiving here: > I'd love to learn more about the kinds of problems you are trying to solve. This doesn't sound genuine. This type of delivery almost never sounds genuine. You wouldn't "love" to learn about those problems, and even if you would, virtually no one will believe you because the same corporate speak delivery is used by people who have no commitment to action. I know you probably just said this unconsciously, but when you use phrases like "I'd love to learn more about the kinds of problems you are trying to solve", it reeks of a comment written and vetted by a team, including brand/social/marketing/PR/whatever the team is in your org that controls employee disclosures. I've been on the inside of orgs and watched this PR spin sausage cooked up. Someone wants to respond to a controversy brewing on reddit, oh wait, better run it by the the #social channel and make sure everyone agrees this is our best foot forward...wonderful, now we've essentially guaranteed that people don't feel empathized with whatsoever. Just solicit feedback like a human being. It's okay to "disclose" that you work at IBM (although: jeez, what a corporate-y way to go about it), but speak to people in a conversational tone that doesn't sound like a customer support Twitter account.

abtinf 9y ago
The reason I joined IBM in this role is that I do love hearing about customer problems. I was hired because I started programming when I was 8, spent 15 years in engineering and engineering management roles mostly at startups, and because I really like to talk to people about the problems they face. I'm sure there are companies, and probably parts of IBM, that have to run their communication by legal, but I'm not part of that. It's just how I talk. I can't guarantee change on any particular issue, and it would ludicrous for me to act as if I speak for the nearly 400,000 IBM employees, so I temper what I say out of a desire to be honest. My purpose in this thread is to find people who want to share their experience and I assume, perhaps naively, that is part of the purpose of commenting online. No matter, the discussion in this thread has already been very valuable and I do appreciate everyone's comments, even throwaways.

by dsacco 9y ago

abtinf 9y ago

The reason I joined IBM in this role is that I do love hearing about customer problems. I was hired because I started programming when I was 8, spent 15 years in engineering and engineering management roles mostly at startups, and because I really like to talk to people about the problems they face. I'm sure there are companies, and probably parts of IBM, that have to run their communication by legal, but I'm not part of that. It's just how I talk. I can't guarantee change on any particular issue, and it would ludicrous for me to act as if I speak for the nearly 400,000 IBM employees, so I temper what I say out of a desire to be honest. My purpose in this thread is to find people who want to share their experience and I assume, perhaps naively, that is part of the purpose of commenting online. No matter, the discussion in this thread has already been very valuable and I do appreciate everyone's comments, even throwaways.