In the UK, most professional jobs pay monthly. In the USA, it seems most professional jobs get paid every two weeks. This usually comes as a great shock when someone from one side of the pond finds out how poorly employment conditions are on the other side. Naturally, everyone believes their own way of doing it is superior. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentI find it strange that Americans are generally paid fortnightly / biweekly. In the UK salaries and bills are usually monthly.So, my…
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If you'd like to set up a meeting or call with me, chances are, I've sent you a link to my calendar. It's a public website where you can see when I'm available. One important note, before we go any further, this public calendar only shows my free/busy status. It doesn't show the names of the appointments, details of people I'm meeting with, locations, or any other data. It's literally just "this is when Terence is busy". There are two primary reasons why I do this. Make it easy for people …
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A year ago, I swapped my comfy job at GDS for a new role at the Department of Health and Social Care. So, this is a sort of informal end-of-year review. It has been a fun and challenging year. Some of the things I've tried have worked, others less so. The Good Helped kickstart NHSX. I think that counts for something! A bit of that was procedural stuff like obtaining the domain name and convincing Twitter to give us the @NHSX name. Some of it was sitting in rooms while senior people turned to …
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It's really easy to think "I haven't achieved anything this week!" and fall into self-pity. So, at the start of 2019, I decided to give future-me a present. I started a Trello board called "Done!". Each week, I created a new column - "Done 2019-01-04", "Done 2019-01-11", and so on for the rest of the year. Every day, when I'd completed a task, I'd add a new card to the list. Mostly simple things: Emailed Jo about Project X's Q1 results. Meeting with Y Corp Got new badge from security …
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These are the lyrics to my constant earworm: Sometimes my life it feels like fiction Some of the days it's really quite surreal George Harrison - Pisces Fish I occasionally find myself having meetings in the Palace of Westminster with People From The News. I want to talk about what that's like. I'm waiting to go in to an office, quietly rehearsing what answers I'm going to give. Sat over there is a senior politician chatting with their junior (but still recognisable) colleague. The…
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I do lots of public speaking as part of my job. I'd like to share one of my tips for giving engaging and impactful talks. Two caveats: This is a sort-of work post. In that, I'll be discussing something I did for my employer - but they haven't asked me to write this, nor have they reviewed it. Just because this works for me, doesn't mean it is right for you. Sometimes you have to find your own path. Here it is... Tell the audience what you want them to do. It's that simple. I quite often …
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I promise you this story is true. Many years ago, when I was very young and you were even younger... Work was not going well. Our recently launched product was a flop. Rumours of job cuts were swirling. Things were tense. I was sat in work, headphones on, trying to drown out the sound of the open-plan office. Grinding through emails. When suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Excuse me," the vaguely familiar woman said, "do you work for Vodafone?" I was wearing a Voda lanyard,…
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I'm going to let you in to three TOP SECRET rules for getting hired. These are the hidden techniques used by TOP interviewers… Never Tell The Candidates The Rules Of Success I read an infuriating blog post recently: "If someone doesn't send a thank you email, don't hire them". This is a great way to limit your talent pool. Personally, I've been hiring for a dozen years, and I've never received a thank-you email. So we can already show there is a cultural disparity here. Did you tell the c…
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I loathe performance reviews. OKRs, KPIs, EYRs? Bleugh! There's a level of introspection which always makes me intrinsicly uncomfortable. Besides, I always feel like I've done nothing worthwhile other than arse about on a computer. In my new job, I decided to keep an achievement journal. Well, a Trello list of tasks I've done well. This has been most useful. I looked though my record of achievement and picked out the highlights. This isn't a new tip - but one I'm glad to have rediscovered. …
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When I was at school, we had to wear a uniform. Black trousers, white shirt, brown blazer, brown tie. Coincidentally, it was more-or-less the same uniform as the local supermarket. On the last day of school, I ripped off my tie and vowed never to wear one again. And, aside from the occasional wedding and funeral, I've kept my promise. Which leads me to this 100% true story. Jessica Rose@jesslynnroseTech Twitter: Tell me about a time someone underestimated or dismissed you and what amazing…
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This is what I've been working on in my new job: Matt Hancock@MattHancockBig welcome to @NHSX - harnessing technology to deliver for patientsTransforming health and care@NHSXHello, World!gov.uk/government/new…❤️ 513💬 0🔁 24012:24 - Tue 19 February 2019❤️ 41💬 4🔁 014:50 - Tue 19 February 2019 BOOM! With a fancy announcement in the House of Commons and everything! It has been a lot of work - and I'm obviously not the only person involved - so I wanted to explain some of the lessons I learned alo…
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Previously on "The Terence Eden Adventures!" I have a new job. I am a bit scared by my new job. This week - WTF? OMG? BBQ??? I've been working for DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) for two weeks. I've made a list of every single new acronym that I've heard. Here it is: AAC - Accelerated Access Collaborative AHP - Allied Health Professional BMA - British Medical Association CAMHS - children's and adolescent mental health CSU - Commissioning Support Unit DDC - Digital…
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