Real Stories – The Funny Side of AWKWARD moments in the BI world

The start of a new financial year can always be a bit chaotic in the corporate world. I like to remind myself that we’re all human beings who can always see the lighter side of an awkward situation. I’ve asked some of my BI candidates to reflect on their career and those situations where they burst out in laughter then and there. Or where they’ve looked back at the moment only to realise how funny the situation was.

“I saw a few of my colleagues walk into a meeting. I didn’t remember having anything booked in, but I went in anyway as my boss had told me there was something important today and I figured this was it. Halfway through I realised this meeting had nothing to do with me and I had to ride it out. Safe to say I wasted a few hours of my life and my boss was not happy with my sudden disappearance. The lesson I learnt – don’t always follow the crowd and don’t disappear on your boss!”

“My manager organised a Skype call with the developer team and another call with the support team. He didn’t realise he’d organised them at the same time! During the conversation there was a lot of confusion and we had no idea what he was talking about and he couldn’t understand why! After 45 minutes it clicked that he had mixed up the teams and that two of his teams had spent the better part of an hour wasting time. It also dawned on him that he had to have the conversation again with the other team. And the worst part was it was right before lunch – he was a very hungry man by the time he was done!”

“We had an important project meeting last year and someone walked in from another team that we didn’t think was working on the project. Towards the end of the meeting, we saw his eyes go wide as he had received an email from his manager asking why he’d missed the meeting! The sudden blush in his faced was a tell tale sign of his embarrassment and that he knew he was about to go and have an awkward conversation with him! He learnt his lesson about time management, and we had an inside joke of pulling a ‘Jackson’ whenever someone missed a meeting.”

“I’ve worked in both the technical and business teams as a BI consultant, and they each both have a common problem. The business team always think the technology team are building things and don’t know what they’re doing, and the technological team think the business team has no idea what they want and don’t understand the technical challenged involved. I used to try and play peacekeeper by starting my speech on ‘how and why there’s a disconnect’ but I came to the realisation that majority of the time I’m just wasting my breath. Nowadays a nod seems to suffice, it’s a good way to work out my neck too!”

“I was in the process for a role I was really interested in and I headed to the scheduled interview, getting there 15 minutes early to make sure I was prepared and ready. As I saw the interviewer come down to meet me in the lobby (as I had researched him on Linkedin) I stood up and got ready to say hello. He did not realise I was the one he was meeting as he walked up to another person, introducing himself and then realising his mistake. He had a look of shock on his face when that person cut him off and informed him he was not there for an interview. I quickly corrected him by going up and introducing myself. I later found out that those two people actually work in the same company! I always have a laugh about it when I look back as it shows how important preparation is (or at least knowing your colleagues!)”