Happy Friday everyone - that does not work for Eskom!

Just as i’ve been bragging to clients that SA hasn’t had load shedding for ages and that the infrastructure is secure - Eskom comes in clutch…

But at least the meme’s were strong - this was my favorite - reply with yours.

Honestly, South African people are the best! The way we use humor to handle difficult news - no one responds to kak news the way we do and I love it!

Anyway, back to this week’s issue Techies

JOBS

Welcome to the jungle my friends

This is a dumb name for a job board - it used to be called Otta - almost as dumb, but name aside, its a great job board!

Here’s what I like about it

1. You can create a profile and companies can reach out to you if they think you’re a good fit

2. There aren’t a lot of companies - this might sound like a negative, but having less companies on means it’s very unlikely there will be “ghost jobs”

3. Ghost Jobs are a discussion for another day

4. You can filter for locations, industries, company size, job titles etc

I’ve recorded a video on exactly how I’d use this Job Board to find jobs and how i’d reach out to the companies to apply for them

Side note - Make sure you subscribe to my Youtube

CAREER ADVICE

Do you also suck at managing workplace conflict?

This section is long, fair warning, but I was enjoying writing it, and I didn’t want to cut it down, so feel free to read and enjoy, or skip to the conclusion part of the story…

My Story

I was never good at managing workplace conflict

at 18

I worked at a pharmacy selling supplements (shout out Pharma Valu in Irene, I just googled them and they went bankrupt last year lol)

Back to the story, my boss told me to sweep the floor. Definitely not a responsibility of mine, but I wouldn’t have minded - she did it as a power move though, and she lost that move.

I did sweep the floor, but, when she was in front of all the staff, I took a bucket and mop and told her that the floor’s been swept, she can now mop it clean. Everyone had a good giggle and she lost her standing with them quick fast

at 26

My boss increased my rate to my client without me knowing about it - or the client… It was for “inflation” a sort of valid reason, but to not tell me and to not explain why to the client - only to leave me to handle the mess that was my client and accounting on my ass for something I knew nothing about.

That lazy bastard didn’t even want to write me a message or give me the responsibility of explaining the rate increase - I couldn’t handle such laziness (in freaken management consulting of all industries, a place where client relationships are a key priority) - and I let my boss know it

Suffice it to say, he was no longer my boss, and they put me with someone new - still I acted like an immature little shit (this is year 2 into my professional employment)

at 30

I was working with the two most useless developers i’ve had the pleasure of managing - this is also the first time I directly managed developers, usually I had a Team Lead i’d work with and give them the specs for the project and i’d cry (metaphorically) to the CTO when work was not delivered on time.

Now, im going to be fair and not give their full names, but also give some credit. J, he was good at SQL and really enjoyed anything to do with data structures. S he liked to take responsibility and tried hard to deliver on his work, often working OT.

But these two guys, I just kept having to push out timelines, to retest the same features and rebuild them, time and time again - they were basically backend developers, pretending to be full stack.

Eventually, I had had enough of looking bad in front of stakeholders, called in my bosses boss, told him to fire these guys or to fire me, cause I was not going to work with them anymore. He did have a meeting with them and myself, we did “talk” about trying to improve. And 4 weeks later, they were gone.

The Conclusion

Nowadays, I am very much the chill guy meme, with fits of outburst/rage/immaturity charmingly scattered in between.

But how did I get here?

First 5 years

I think in your career, your first 5 years, you should have carte blanch or a loose leash on immaturity, conflict management, and just general stupidity - i.e. we should be allowed to make mistakes and be forgiven (by ourselves too, not just the company)

After 5 years though…

You got to get your act together, within the space of 3 years max, you have to learn how to manage and deal with conflict - you are a professional now, grow up and take responsibility.

1. Deal with conflict earlier - feel it building with a colleague, and ask them to have a coffee with you, mention that you can sense the conflict building, and why - ask them if they feel the same, ask them how they like dealing with difficulties, speak with them on how to resolve or reduce the conflicts

2. Speak up - this goes to the previous point, but especially in technology, it’s easier to raise these kinds of points, because we have “sprint retrospectives” these are great places to raise concerns about conflicts - I used them when I thought the team wasn’t performing well (at 32 I had a great tech team, but the past 2 sprints, I didn’t feel they were doing well at all, so I raised it with them, they thought I wasn’t doing great either btw)

3. Listen and take a step back - I find having a note book to physically write down some of the points of conflict you’ve felt previously but also the points raised in the current discussion helps, it creates space to not immediately react/defend/attack. But if this doesn’t work for you, then taking a 5 minute breather is also good.

4. Bring in the boss - jk, but not really, you might need to bring in a 3rd party, can be the boss, but can be someone else, just to help mediate and facilitate the discussions

5. Rage Quit - this is the last resort kinda thing and also a joke, sorta. But being in toxic work environments, unsupportive teams, or incompetent ones will cost you more than a few months’ salary while looking for other jobs. Either start looking for work so you can quit, or if after trying to manage conflicts you see no resolution, just leave… your mental and physical well-being thank you

Lastly, if you still suck at conflict because of ego, immaturity, impulse control (where my ADHD gang at), bipolar disorder or just having a short fuse I think there is still hope for you, but its not easy;

• Therapy is probably best but can be expensive

• Job hopping every 18 months or so, when things start to boil over

• Choose a career where conflict is more accepted - Banking, Law, etc

• Start your own company, people are less likely to bite the hand that feeds ‘em

• Hope for the best, I find that this is more often than not, most people's strategy

INTERVIEW ADVICE

These are the worst questions to get honest answers for

Here’s a list of questions you’re probably going to get during interviews, so you should have good answers to;

• What are your strengths?

• What are your weaknesses?

• Why do you want to work here?

• How do you handle stress/pressure?

• How do you handle workplace conflict?

I hired a crazy person once - this was my first hire as well btw, to add insult to injury

• he said he handled pressure very well,

• he worked longer hours to help ease the pressure he’d feel on himself

• he used to work at a place with lots of conflict and learned to be “diplomatic”

My man couldn’t handle pressure at all, he did work longer hours, but it only made situations worse, as he felt more anxious and exhausted.

Donald Trump, is more “diplomatic” than this guy - i’ve seen bullies treat threats better than this guy.

Yet I asked him all those questions - Yes I googled “what to ask candidates during an interview”

Everyone said I should ask these questions, so I did - But not everyone said most people will just make stuff up or tell me what I want to hear

Where does that leave us?

1. If you are a good to great candidate, you should have honest answers for the above and you should have good stories to back up each answer

2. If you are a bad to average candidate, you should probably lie, although, the last guy that lied to me got fired, so you should not be surprised when you are unemployed either

3. These are great questions to ask the recruiter, hiring manager and company, so you can take these exact questions, and flip it back on them, when they say: “do you have any questions for us?”

4. Similarly, if they are a great company, they will have good answers, and if they are a kak company, they will lie, in which case, you should find a new job after joining them :))

Lastly

Reply to this email with your answers to the above questions, if you want me to give you my thoughts on your answers and to give you tips on how to improve them

P.S - I rock at interviews, its probably my best or one of my top 3 skills. I’ve never gone to an interview and not got the job. I am the one doing the rejecting

P.P.S I was rejected from JP Morgan though… Dam you JP! Dam you to hell!

LEGAL ADVICE

We’re going to America baby!

My usual piece of advice to South Africans who want to work for international companies is: “Open a Business in SA”

B2B contracts are the most common form of international employment and make it super easy to create a contract of engagement (employment) between you and the company you want to work for

I can’t help you avoid death…

…taxes on the other hand…

I have to confirm with a few accountants about this - because I am actually in the process of opening up my US LLC

1. Open a US business

2. Invoice from US company to International Startup

3. Manage all expenses through US company

4. Use US banking system for debit and credit cards

5. Not pay any taxes in SA or USA

Seems too good to be true?

Well the only catch is, you won’t be able to take out debt for a home loan… But i’ll take tax savings and investing in US equities over a mortgage any day

It’s probably more profitable to buy Stocks and Bonds, and RENT for the rest of your life, than it is, to buy a home

and if you do want a home so badly, after a few years of doing this (more like 7), the money you saved from Taxes alone, will buy you the home

As I said, I am in the process of actually doing this, the paperwork will take a few weeks, but when it’s done and dusted, I’ll share the results, the costs, benefits and EXACTLY how you could do it too

You’re welcome

THAT’S A WRAP

Before you go: Here’s 3 ways I can help you

1. LinkedIn - I’m always hiring - but only 2 to 4 people a month - connect with me on and send me your CV - currently, I only hire people with 7 or more years of experience - if you have less, but are EXCEPTIONAL, i’ll make exceptions

2. Youtube - i’m always making content to help you out, subscribe and binge

3. Free Career Advice - i’m going to be giving away CV feedback for early subscribers for free, I usually charge $100 for a resume roast - i’ll make a recording and send you feedback - just reply back to this email with your CV - its totally free for first 15 people