alt Hacker NewsIs there anything that you learned through the FF/PM job that you find applying in your SE job? If I would have to guess, it's estimating outcomes quickly, people and expectation management?
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Jumping on this as one who was a ff/pm and officer and is a product manager: break things down into smaller and smaller problems, prioritize and resource manage. Show up at an MVA, it's a series of questions: how many patients do I have? how acute are they? what resources do I have coming or need? traffic control? tow? more patient transport? what do we need to make each hit a success point - do I need to take the door or roof off of this car to get the patient out? stabilize that vehicle to make it safe for us?
As you slice and dice, the problems become simpler, the answers easier, and the insurmountable chaos you showed up to becomes progressively more manageable.
The one thing I feel I can point is being able to talk to people either one on one or giving a presentation. Part of it could be getting older but I do feel like the FF/PM experience played a significant part in it.
What it did not translate to, for me, was working under pressure in IT. As a paramedic I had standard operating procedures / guidelines to guide me AND once we departed the scene I was usually no more than 30 minutes away from a doctor AND I didn't cause the problem to begin with AND once I gained confidence in my abilities I didn't get nervous as much or questioning myself. For the most part there is only so much you can do in an emergency situation in the field.
However, if something breaks in the IT world and I have management breathing down my neck (doesn't happen often) I worry that it was something I did, I don't know how to fix it, I'm not fixing it fast enough, blah, blah, blah. You would think non-life threatening IT-issues would not bother me but they do. Day to day office politics and team interaction doesn't bother me much though.
Another thing I feel like I got out of the FF/PM career is a get-it-done-figure-it-out-as-you-go. From the proverbial cat in the tree (never had that call) to a person having a heart attack, to person needs to be extricated from a vehicle, you can't just say "nope can't be done" or "I'm not doing it". I now see coworkers pushing back on stuff without even making an attempt. Try something, anything, but just don't say "nope can't do it". That is frustrating to me.