Introductions

You know as I get older I'm sure I am getting more impatient with certain human behaviors, perhaps I just needed more coffee this morning or maybe its the lack of a bourbon biscuit. Don't get me wrong, I love my work and have spent years of my life as a contractor in London (a true Londoner, quelle horreur!) doing both front & back-end coding - it's at the stage where I am comfortable with what I do and work with some very solid companies - I've almost forgotten what its like to deal with office politics, and that to me is a blessing that allows me to concentrate on my work. However on occasion something happens that tickles me in an ethical manner, and questions the lengths some individuals go through to sell a product or service. Its one of the many reasons that I hope to teach others that a product should not be sold through smoke and mirrors but to gain traction through its own merits and reputation.

But who am I to write this? I'm simply a number, with an average background in the field of computers and have used many different frameworks over the years. As I write this I'm working with the BBC as a senior full-stack developer for a short-term contract. The corporation is fantastic and one of its great strengths is that everyone is genuine and down-to-earth - Its simply one of those positions that I love and I'll come to miss once the contract is over and move on to the next company.

But I digress

So what does MongoDB have to do with this? Well, on LinkedIn my position is publicly visible and after a few weeks in the position I received an email from a senior sales executive working at MongoDB - At first I thought nothing of it, but after reading the email I've chosen to write my own thoughts based on it (and it must be noted these are my own personal thoughts and opinions on the matter in general, not a statement). For privacy I've opted to blur out the staff members name and contact details but have highlighted the issue in red outline.

Where's the trust?

So there we go - someone from MongoDB says they're the Account Manager for BBC and wants more information to procure a service and help out on any projects I'm working on. By its definition "An account manager is a person who works for a company and is responsible for the management of sales, and relationships with particular customers" so whilst I can't cast doubt that this is the case or not, its a little strange to ask a random person like me when they should really have their own existing contact within the BBC as his claimed role. Where for instance can I seek provenance based on someones own words? So nothing overly dramatic, but whats really happening here? You see, my frustration doesn't lie in the fact that the guy was simply trying to reach out and sell a service, but the manner to which companies attempt to garner further internal information from other companies for a sales relationship. The person in question is a 3rd-line connection on my LinkedIn - In this case, he most likely saw my name, my position and effectively cold-called my email by guessing it.

Common sense prevails in most cases but anyone whose in doubt of someones credentials should always check they are known within the company. This is what I ended up doing and it was confirmed that he wasn't known to the IT department and/or seniors and I was urged to be polite whilst maintaining privacy. This is standard practice.

Ultimately my suggestion is to let your product do the work for you - Its not a dig at sales executives as they play a very valid role for products, and mongoDB is a great document-oriented database but sometimes I get a sense that in general within the industry there's a lot of smoke and mirrors involved based not on what you do for the company, but which company you work for.

Lawrence Eldridge

Senior Developer