You Can’t Fake Passion

Recently a friend of mine completed his MBA and his project management certification course. All excellent pieces in the puzzle of what his next career move should be. In a discussion, he listed out the top four options:

• project manager
• technical sales
• some sort of marketing
• general management / business development

All worthy options. The problem is the list consists of HOWs, not WHATs. Before you get to the HOW, you need to figure out the WHAT.

WHAT?

In order for the activity you professionally do, not to be just another job you complain at home about, it has to be something you actually get excited about. As Sy Sperling said, “I’m not only the Hair Club president, I’m also a client.” Sperling was damn passionate about regrowing hair.  Figure out what problems you would like to solve, before narrowing down the role you’ll play solving those problems.

HOW?

Once you figure out what you’ll eagerly miss sleep over, the role you play becomes a trivial problem to solve.  Looking at your personal strengths and weaknesses is a great place to start.  If you’re an organized person, who’s proactive about keeping schedules and following up with others to get achieve results, then a project management role is a good fit.  If you enjoy dealing with customers, can easily figure out people’s needs, and don’t stress over working on commission, sales is a good fit.  If you enjoy strategic thinking at a high level, leadership, and coaching, then management and business development is a good fit.

I currently have an engineering role. However, when describing what I do, my genuine response is that I help brands discover and amplify what experts are saying about them.

WVC is the new MVC

The MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern is well established for web development by now. Popular frameworks such as Ruby on Rail (Ruby), CodeIgniter (PHP), and Spring (Java) are just some of the examples. These frameworks provide a great way to organize code and create a familiar architectures for engineers to work with.  In addition, one of the great advantages is the direct connection between the model and the database, which can be set up.  Deep knowledge of SQL is no longer needed by most of the engineers utilizing an MVC framework.

How I got an email from Costco’s CEO on a Sunday

I live in a city in the San Francisco Bay Area with a population of about 30,567 people (per 2010 census). We have a Safeway, Lucky’s, 99 Ranch, and most importantly a Costco. I like Costco. I only need to buy paper towels and toiler paper twice a year, get good prices of bourbon, and a 2-pack of Cheerios. Most frequently though, I shop at Costco for groceries – fruits and vegetables in particular.

Cloud services saved me days of restoring my computer

Ever since I’ve had my first computer I’ve been at war. There’s times of ceasefire, but there’s never a peace treaty. I’m talking about the battles I’ve fought over the years with computer viruses. The typical battle is won by the virus and I’m forced to format my harddrive.

Concentrate on your strengths, not your weaknesses

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been told that if I’m not good at something I should practice, practice, and practice until I get better. I should improve on my weaknesses until they become strengths. I’ve been able to improve many, but there are still weaknesses that linger. One of my favorite leadership consultants, Peter Bregman, talks about how you’re better off actually concentrating on your strengths.  Trying to improve lingering weaknesses is an uphill battle. You may not even want to improve – just told you should. Pushing your strengths to the next level may take a lot less effort and be a lot more fun. Strengths typically come naturally to people and they enjoy exercising them.

The Power of the Introvert in Your Office

Interesting interview on extraverts and introverts. Click here to listen. There’s also a great TED Talk by the same expert, Susan cain.

 

Don’t burn bridges

Michael Waxman wrote a great post about how Silicon Valley is a small place and in a career you may come across the same people. I couldn’t agree more.  Companies appear and disappear, but people stick around. Not only do they stick around, but they go on to other companies and get promoted. Your peer today may be your boss tomorrow. More ironic, your direct report may become your boss.  You may apply for a job where a former colleague is a decision maker in the hiring process.  What will they say about you?

Always ask questions at a job interview

I’ve been on both sides of the job interview table. Initially I was mostly on the interviewee side of things. Typically I would be asked if I had any questions. Most common questions I would come up with were regarding when the final decision of the candidate selection be made, what hours the office typically works, and to describe a typical day in the role.  As I began to conduct more interviews, I started realizing what questions impressed me from other candidates. These questions were along the lines of the engineering approaches and methodologies the company uses; the reasons for these methodologies, etc. Eventually, I shifted my state of mind to always being an interviewer – whether I was looking for a candidate or I was the candidate.

Standing Out for a Job is Tough

At anyone point, people always say things were simpler and easier back in the day. Gas was cheaper, fruit tasted better, there was less traffic, and so on.  Same comes to getting a job. Before, you graduated from high school, went to college, then got a job with a company for the next 40 years. Not so anymore. Standing out above all the degrees and great GPAs takes extra effort.

Dan Schawbel suggests for students to be their own bosses as an edge to getting a job.

If You Don’t Prioritize Your Life, Someone Else Will

The title speaks for itself.  As always, the Harvard Business Review delivers.