Career 2.0 Take Control of Your Life

1
Career 2.0Take Control of Your Life

• Has your career been a random product of your
  manager's whims or company's needs? Never rely on
  your company to keep your skills current and
  marketable. Take control of your own career with
  a proven strategy.
• These are solid, repeatable steps to get your
  career in the trajectory you want. The first step
  is deciding where you want to go. We'll walk
  through creating a long-term plan, then break it
  down into manageable steps. Learn to lead within
  your own company, then stretch out to your local,
  regional and national community, building your
  reputation as you go. From coding to writing to
  speaking, each step will move you closer to where
  you want to be in a position of having options
  and in control of your career.

2
Career 2.0Take Control of Your Life

• By Jared Richardson

3
Your Career

• It's most of your life
• How will you spend it?

4
Who Picks Your Skill Set?

• Work assignments
• You choose

5
Move Beyond Random

• Choose the technology
• Be visible

6
The Cynical Employer

• Good enough to work
• Not good enough to leave

7
Knowledge Portfolio

• Investment
• Not free
• Regular deposits

8
Who Invests in You?

• Employer
• You

9
You Keep the '401K'

• Your brain goes with you
• You get the biggest benefit
• Employer might have a 'match'
• Your investment is the largest factor

10
Like the Stock Market

• Some homeruns
• Some strike outs
• Over time, you win

11
Your Life

• No one will invest in you as much as you
• Be prepared to sacrifice
• Don't expect others to sacrifice

12
Your Responsibility

• Long term goals
• Short term deliverables

13
Focus Your Efforts

• Technical
• Visible

14
Flashlight

• Energy gt Light
• Covered light gt No benefit
• Invest gt Improve
• Hidden work gt Little benefit

15
Goals

• Long term goals
• Break them down
• One year
• Quarterly
• Monthly
• Weekly
• Daily

16
Long Goals

• Specific work
• Work with the best
• More opportunity
• Book author
• Recognized expert
• Start a company

17
Lose Weight

• 12 pounds this year
• 3 pounds a quarter
• 1 pound a month
• Today gt no 2nd slice of pizza at Jug

18
Technical Track

• Sanity hacking
• Open source
• School or church projects
• LOTY

19
Visible

• Write
• Speak
• Teach

20
Write

• Blog
• Tutorials
• Open source project
• Articles
• Books

21
Blog

• Too easy not too
• You're not special
• Problems are universal
• Share your research
• Share your solutions
• http//www.blogger.com

22
Documentation

• How To's for your favorite project
• Mailing lists or forums
• Learn the project much better
• Become known in that ecosystem
• Easy to do

23
Tutorials

• Anything you had to show someone
• Anything you had to look up
• Junit tutorial
• "hello world" in the LOTY

24
Articles

• Tech sites need content
• Exposure not money

25
Topics

• Day-to-day work
• Looked up
• Figured out
• Basic tutorials
• The need is amazing

26
Track Stats

• Find out what works
• What resonates
• Watch traffic and links
• Always a surprise

27
Aggregators

• Community visibility
• http//www.artima.com/buzz/index.jsp
• http//javablogs.com

28
Practical Writing Tips

• Mind maps
• Wiki
• Hipster PDA
• Daily pages
• Get feedback
• Review books for authors

29
Speak

• Great way to learn
• Deadlines motivate
• User's groups always need speakers
• Start a lunch-n-learn group

30
Fear of Speaking

• Toastmasters
• Practice
• Never turn down an invite
• Practice
• Video tape yourself
• Practice

31
LIP

• Lock eyes
• Intonation
• Pause

32
Teach

• Best way to learn
• Forces more detail
• Teach more than once
• User's groups
• Local conferences (Bar Camp)
• Graduate to regional and national

33
Goal Tips

• Write them down
• Keep them visible
• Share carefully
• Find a mentor
• Review your goals
• Revise them

34
Visible

• Write
• Speak
• Teach

35
Visibility is Credibility

• Beyond resumes
• Name recognition
• Open source code samples
• Reputation precedes you

36
Example Goals

• With breakdowns

37
Published Author

• Write a book
• Need chapters
• Contains sections
• Articles
• Blog entries
• Today you blog

38
Work with the Best

• Must be known
• Join open source projects
• Blog about your work
• Must speak
• Today you outline an article
• Today you fix an open source bug
• Today answer a mailing list question

39
Recognized Expert

• Must be known for something
• Pick a technology or area
• Track the existing blogs
• Read existing books
• Blog on lessons learned
• Present at your local user's group

40
Learn a New Technology

• Read the blogs
• Pick a project (home, school, church)
• Implement a sanity project
• Work on your own time
• Today find a tutorial. Do it.

41
The Goal?

• Not to quit
• Having options
• Inside or outside your company
• Consulting or full-time
• Your choice

42
It's Your Life

• Take control
• Don't drift
• Choose your goals
• Break them down
• Tackle one next week

43
(No Transcript)