Entries Tagged 'career' ↓

[Originally posted on what used to be a separate blog 'On jobs, work and careers' and later was merged into this blog.]

Often people that are fresh out of college complain that they don’t have enough “work experience” for many of the job openings on the market. But what is this work experience thing, anyway? And why is it necessary in order to get some kinds of jobs?

In his essay A Student’s Guide to Startups, Paul Graham writes the following on the subject of work experience:

Now I know what it is, and part of the confusion is grammatical. Describing it as “work experience” implies it’s like experience operating a certain kind of machine, or using a certain programming language. But really what work experience refers to is not some specific expertise, but the elimination of certain habits left over from childhood.

One of the defining qualities of kids is that they flake. When you’re a kid and you face some hard test, you can cry and say “I can’t” and they won’t make you do it. Of course, no one can make you do anything in the grownup world either. What they do instead is fire you. And when motivated by that you find you can do a lot more than you realized. So one of the things employers expect from someone with “work experience” is the elimination of the flake reflex—the ability to get things done, with no excuses.

Now, if work experience is mostly “elimination of certain habits left over from childhood”, surely you can gain this experience in ways other than having a job at some company.

For example, you could participate in an open-source project and learn how to add value to the project and its users. Or you could commit to working with some sort of non-profit for a while. You could do these things while you are still studying.

You could (should?) list this kind of activity under “work experience” in your resume. After all, what a potential employer wants to know is that you are able to follow through on a project, no matter the difficulties you face. The number of years in industry is just a convenient proxy for this skill.

[Originally posted on what used to be a separate blog 'On jobs, work and careers' and later was merged into this blog.]

Via a post on Zen Habits I find 10 Essential Steps To Get To The Top Of Your Field. The article recommends the obvious: learn, learn, learn, practice, practice, practice.

But the essential step to “getting to the top of your field” is none of the things that the article lists in boldface. The essential step to “getting to the top of your field” is a much more difficult one: choosing a line of work that you genuinely enjoy, something that you are truly passionate about.

If you really enjoy what you do, you will naturally tend to practice more (because you will enjoy the process of practicing), you will naturally tend to seek more learning opportunities (because you will enjoy understanding every day a bit more about the field) and you will naturally seek contact with like-minded people that you can exchange ideas with (and get feedback from).

If you feel like you have to talk yourself into practicing and improving in your field, then consider that maybe this is not the right field for you. Maybe you’ve lost interest and now you should redirect your career elsewhere. Maybe you are simply a happy person satisfied with their career.

Remember that, after all, what will make you happy at your job is not “being at the top of your field”, but truly enjoying what you do. Everything else will follow.

[Originally posted on what used to be a separate blog 'On jobs, work and careers' and later was merged into this blog.]

A site for a book called “Career distinction” has something they call an online identity calculator. The ‘calculator’ is actually a rough guide to assessing how does your personal brand look on the internet.

I had never heard about the book or the site before, but the online identity calculator seems like an interesting tool for those that want to build out a reputation online.

[Originally posted on what used to be a separate blog 'On jobs, work and careers' and later was merged into this blog.]

Interesting links on the topic of jobs, work and careers:

• Enrique Dans: ¿Alguien ha visto un programador? (Has somebody seen a programmer?):
  

  En España, a este lado del túnel, se necesitan programadores. Y los programadores necesitan una reivindicación urgente de su profesión, que recupere el legítimo orgullo de quien crea, de quien desarrolla, de quien se responsabiliza de un todo, de quien se enamora de un proyecto y no se limita a ser un obrero en el mismo, sino un verdadero arquitecto. Se buscan programadores con orgullo y capacidad para serlo. Pero por lo que se ve, habrá que mirar debajo de las piedras.

  Rough translation:

  In Spain, on this side of the tunnel, we need programmers. And programmers urgently need to claim back their profession, they need to recover the legitimate pride of someone who creates, develops and is responsible for a whole, of someone who falls in love with a project and doesn’t limit himself to being a mere labourer on it, but is a real architect. We need proud programmers and programmers with the skills to be one. It seems they will be hard to find.

• The Business of Software Wiki (from Joel on Software):
  

  Our goal is to gather and present unbiased, useful and up-to-date information about the business of software, whether it’s microISVs selling desktop software, Web 2.0 sites, or even the big enterprise kind of outfits.

• Brazen Careerist: How to be a star performer: 4 things to get good at (yes, this one’s a year old, but it’s still a good read):
  

  To become your best self – a star, a great leader, a fulfilled worker – you need to know yourself and your goals very well. Start now. It’s a lifelong process, and done honestly, it’s the process that makes almost any job intrinsically challenging and interesting.

[Originally posted on what used to be a separate blog 'On jobs, work and careers' and later was merged into this blog.]

Everybody is reading today Turning Blogging From Hobby to Career. What seems most interesting to me is not so much the advice about updating your blog often and so on, but this bit:

So what does it take to turn blogging into a full-time living? Basically it takes a whole lot of hard work, knowledge and passion about the topic you’re blogging about, patience, and some ‘being in the right place at the right time’ luck.

If you are trying to build a career in any area, this is all you need: hard work, knowledge, passion, some patience and a bit of luck. This will get you there, eventually. And no, there are no shortcuts (see the patience bit).