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That's important for a business lead of an engineering company, but huge swatches of engineering don't even work on revenue-driving projects at all.
by alisonkisk 5y ago
That's important for a business lead of an engineering company, but huge swatches of engineering don't even work on revenue-driving projects at all.
- WalterBright 5y agoEven if it's not revenue-driving, somebody is budgeting and looking at the costs, and wondering if it is justified. To sell your project idea to management, it's far more effective to speak their language. It's career-limiting otherwise.
- dwq65 5y agoWe call those cost centers, which is another useful term to know for when you’re derisively called one. Also COGS/OCOGS and such, which is basically accountingspeak for “annoying overhead we wish we didn’t have to spend but nonetheless must,” and which occasionally shows up in department names to serve as a handy reminder of your corporate value. Without knowing how accounting works you’d sit there wondering “what the hell is that acronym in my department name in Outlook, anyway?” whereas once enlightened you understand how your team is evaluated at a higher level. It’s not just accounting, honestly, knowing how business works is advantageous for anyone. “What do you do here?” “Oh, I’m just a cost center.” is a pretty fun tack to take with leadership, often true, and likely to confuse the hell out of them in its simultaneous honesty and correctness.